Nikola Mirotic can’t find his place
The bearded forward is back with Bulls for two more seasons, but does that benefit either side?
In the ramp up to the 2014–2015 regular season, the Chicago Bulls excitedly announced the arrival of two big men to the roster. One was multiple time All-Star and NBA champion Pau Gasol, just four years removed from being a crucial piece on a championship roster. The other player, however, had Bulls fans a lot more excited.
Nikola Mirotic was fresh off his second trip to the Euroleague Finals and was widely considered to be the best player in the continent. Oh, and he had shot 46.1 percent from 3-point range in the tournament. Mirotic was coming to Chicago after three years of rumors and maybes, ready to slot right into a stretch-four role that was rapidly being popularized across the association. A scintillating rookie year kicked the hype machine into another gear, thanks in large part to the magical March that secured second place Rookie of the Year honors for him. Mirotic had his obstacles like any first-year player, but there was little doubt: he was the future.
Then things got weird.
Two seasons of maddening inconsistency later, Mirotic and the Bulls have agreed to a two-year, $27 million deal, first reported by Shams Charania of The Vertical. The deal comes after almost three whole months of waiting, with Mirotic wanting a long-term, “starter money” deal and the Bulls being the organization that they are. It was never really a question of whether Niko would be back with the Bulls or not this year, especially since there aren’t and haven’t been teams with the space to throw him an offer sheet for months. Still, he’s under contract now, and barring even more ridiculous circumstances, he projects to be the starting power forward in Chicago this season.
To say Mirotic is merely polarizing isn’t telling the whole story. Polarizing players typically have set strengths and weaknesses, leading us to argue over the value of that skillset. With Mirotic, do we even know what he’s good at after three years? I mean really know. Throughout his tenure in Chicago, he’s been a stretch four who can’t stretch, an iso scorer type that pulls up without conscience, an offensive jack-of-all-trades and a borderline unplayable big man whose pulse is his best qualification. I’m being dramatic, but Niko is really that up and down, especially when the month of March rolls around.
Last season, Mirotic averaged 33.5 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s, a rough number for a shooter with his reputation. To confound things further, he shot better on his pull-up 3s than his catch-and-shoot opportunities, a phenomenon that led Mirotic apologists to argue he simply needed the ball in his hands more to thrive. It’s not like they didn’t have a leg to stand on. Mirotic had shown more than once that he could thrive on offense with more scoring opportunity given to him. He can get to the line pretty well, and we know his pump fake game is strong. Here’s the problem: an NBA offense with Nikola Mirotic as its primary scoring option is going to be a really bad NBA offense. It’s alright to be a rhythm player and ball-dominant when you’re Kobe Bryant or even DeMar DeRozan, but Mirotic lacks the ball-handling and the passing to have the ball any more than he already does. He’s a role player, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Maybe he’ll prove me wrong. This Bulls team is going to need scoring and playmaking in the worst way, especially if Dwyane Wade is excused early and Zach LaVine continues to be plagued by injury. The Bulls might not have any other choice but to give the ball to Niko and see what he can do with it. Maybe he’ll rise to the challenge, move past the inconsistency that’s dogged him and truly take the next step as an NBA player. If not, well, Luka Doncic is really freaking good.
