We've been working under the assumption that the reason Niko has struggled at small forward has to do with his skill set, match ups or Thib's schemes. I don't think that tells the full story. The reason Niko is better at power forward than he is at small forward is primarily because the entire offense is better when you have shooting at the power forward position. Niko is getting a ton of open looks when he plays power forward because it's near impossible to stop a team with four shooters on the court (or five when he plays alongside Pau). Niko would be almost as effective at small forward as he is at power forward if you could clone him and play him alongside himself. The end.
Fwiw, I like offensive rebounds, post play, scoring, and defense out of the PF position. Offensive boards are good when Kirk misses his shots.
If the Bulls had 5 copies of Mirotic out there, at least one of them would be an absolute offensive rebounding machine.
Can't Offensive Rebound Can't Offensive Rebound Can't Offensive Rebound Absolute Offensive Rebounding Machine Can't Offensive Rebound
No. I'm in the keep Mirotic camp. If we have Taj, play Mirotic at SF so our best players are on the court. Or trade Taj for a starting SG or SF who would move DunVP to the bench. The time to trade Taj to benefit us this season obviously passed. He is Taj F'n Angry Man Dunking Gibson!
But if you trade Gibson for a first-rate SG or SF, that'll push Mirotic to PF where he'll disappoint you in all the ways you mentioned. Far more important, you can get a better SG or SF for Mirotic than you can for Gibson and then you'd still have Gibson who you like better than Mirotic at PF. Up to you, but I think you may want to rethink your position.
Mirotic is fine as 6th man if Taj is gone. There is a case to be made to trade whichever one nets you the best return. Mirotic is the future of the team, Taj is the present. You seem to have missed my point. I prefer Taj AND Mirotic on the court at the same time vs. Mirotic and DunVP. Two guys with 16+ PER vs one of those and an 11 PER. I'd prefer Mirotic and quite a few SG/SF guys that Taj might fetch in trade. That hopefully will happen in the offseason.
As Rick Nelson wrote, "ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself." I read your posts fairly closely and I'll admit that you're not the most consistent fan I've run into, but my main takeaway regarding your opinion of Mirotic is that you've taken something more than small enjoyment in pissing on the Cheerios (no Bulls fan does it better) of those who are high on Mirotic. Would you trade Mirotic for Lance Stephenson? Ilyasova? Millsap? Faried?
Unfortunately, Thibs also prefers Taj AND Mirotic over Mirotic and Dunleavy. Fuck the team's success, Tajy Woo needs to play? Taj/Mirotic pairing: 666 minutes, 103.7 Off Rtg, 98.9 Def Rtg, Net +4.8 per 48 minutes Niko/MDJ pairing: 473 minutes, 111.4 Off Rtg, 94.5 Def Rtg, Net +16.9 per 48 minutes Niko isn't a 16+ PER player at SF, he's a 10.6 PER player. He's a 17.9 PER player at PF Taj isn't a 16+ PER player at PF, he's a 14.9 PER player at PF. He's a 21.3 PER player at C (i.e. on the floor with Niko at PF) So would that make the point that you'd rather stick guys on the court based on who has higher PER, rather than which lineup actually plays better? Over the course of an 82 game season, where Niko, Taj and MDJ all played between 1,654 - 1,838 minutes, Niko and MDJ are #1 and #2 on the team in Net Rating. Followed by Brooks, Rose, Butler, Gasol, Snell, Noah, Hinrich and Gibson. These simple facts are well-known and well-documented, it seems to me like a Bulls fan would want the Bulls to play the best lineups the most minutes. So maybe.....?????? As long as games are decided by which team scores more points, and not which team grabs the most offensive rebounds or has the highest combined PER of the players on the floor, I'm going to continue to hope Thibs pulls his head out of his ass and plays MDJ at 3 and Niko at 4 as much as possible (since it's the best pairing of any on the Bulls' playoff rotation players). I can't see why any Bulls fan would want anything else? When you continue to insist that you want to see a SF/PF combo of Niko/Taj instead of MDJ/Taj, even though it has been consistently proven over the course of an entire season that the latter is by far the better choice when it comes to the Bulls scoring more points than the team they are playing against that night...
