Barring a setback, Bulls power forward Lauri Markkanen is close to making his season debut.
Coach Fred Hoiberg said Markkanen exited a two-on-two contact session with teammates Sunday in great shape and is scheduled for full participation in practice Tuesday after also taking part in Monday's non-contact morning shootaround.
How Markkanen responds to Tuesday's practice will determine when he'll return from the right elbow injury he suffered the first week of training camp. Internally, conversations have centered on Markkanen playing Dec. 4 at the Pacers.
"Lauri had a great workout (Sunday)," Hoiberg said. "He did play two-on-two and he responded well this morning. He went through shootaround, got into our script offense segment. He was on the scout team again today. And the plan is to have him a full participant in practice (Tuesday). Obviously, depending on how he does with that will determine how quickly we can get him back out on the floor.
"If he has soreness, we'll slow it down a little bit. But he has passed every hurdle to this point. He has been medically cleared. He has done a lot of one-on-zero workouts, strength workouts, non-contact portions of practice, a controlled two-on-two and a full two-on-two with teammates. The next step is to get him unlimited with full contact in practice. Hopefully he responds to that well."
Hoiberg also had encouraging news regarding Chandler Hutchison, who is scheduled to return Monday night against the Spurs after missing the last three games with back spasms.
And Hoiberg said the plan is for Kris Dunn and Bobby Portis, who sprained MCLs two days apart in late October, to start participating in non-contact portions of practices. They have upped their individual workouts of late.
