Nikola Mirotic consistently displayed a short memory as he led the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring last March and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. Make a mistake. Move on. If that no longer seems to be the case, well, Mirotic didn't exactly argue. "I'm struggling a little bit now and not shooting well," he said. "I'm not feeling the same confidence I was before." Mirotic, who has lost a starting role at both forward positions, has lacked court awareness but showed strong awareness of his issues. He said he needs to stop taking long 3-pointers for his first shot and perhaps get some easy points closer to the basket first. He said he needs to contribute in other areas when he's not scoring. "The only way to get it back is to work hard and stay positive," said Mirotic, who worked extra with coach Fred Hoiberg after Thursday's practice. "I need to forget what happened yesterday. "I'm not scoring easy baskets. I'm not running like before. I'm not making those open 3s. I'm not doing things in the low post. But if I can do it last year in March, I can do it this year, too. I think it will come soon." - See more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...dence-bits-bulls-spt-0122-20160121-story.html
He played much better last season under Thibs and is playing poorly under Hoiball. Maybe a coaching change would help?
He's been the most disappointing player this year by far IMO. Jimmy and Doug have also underperformed relative to what I was hoping, but they've never displayed the ability to be impact players in the first place and clearly don't have the tools that Nikola has. If Jimmy and Derrick are going to be our highest usage players then we'll need to get our shooting from the frontcourt. I'm guessing this is why Fred went with the Mirotic/Gasol combo at the beginning of the season. Together they provide the best spacing to allow everyone to do their thing. Mirotic just hasn't played well enough to make it work. I don't really fault him for not holding down the SF spot since he's not really a SF to begin with, at least on defense. It's really his game inside the 3 pt. line that's fallen apart. His FT rate is well below last year's and he doesn't get any easy baskets anymore, something he was subtly good at last year.
