I assume Mirotic is now healthy. If anyone has something to the contrary, please advise. Mirotic is a talented scoring big. With Kevin Love out, the Cavs are short-staffed at PF. Tristan Thompson killed the Bulls on the offensive boards in game 2. Can Mirotic provide extra offensive punch yet still be stout enough to keep Thompson off the offensive glass? In the first two games of this series, Mirotic has played less than 10 mins total. Should Mirotic be playing more minutes. What's his ideal minutes/role vs the Cavs?
Don't know if he is healthy. I think that a healthy Mirotic would help. Ideal role is to help win. ;-)
Any discussion of this type should give a full minutes breakdown of the 3 spot, the 4 spot and the 5 spot. Its not as easy as saying he should play more, as an established / usually playing at a high level vet has to go to bench to play Mirotic. Its the organization created logjam at the 4/5. Gasol going down opens up time for Mirotic, but Gasol was the starter for the Eastern Conference all-star team this season.
He was something of a curveball for the Cavs. He scored 11 points in Q2. He scored 1 point the rest of the way, but was a force on the glass. Seems like maybe they figured him out.
He also needs to cut down on the stupid, needless fouls and get used to playing with a playoff game whistle.
Yup, the cavs brought in threes to track him around the perimeter. Now its time to make the counteradjustment and send Mirotic to the post. The problem is that the guards have been consistently not feeding Mirotic in the post since Gibson came back from injury in the final month of the season. It looks to me like Thibs would prefer he create space and stand, covered, at the three, rather than trying to score in the paint.
Right now "3"kola is shooting 29% from the field and 26% from behind the arc in the playoffs. A real shitty showing. Let's hope he'll be better someday down the road (Thursday would be nice). As Thibs said to start the season, you can't really rely on rookies in the playoffs. "win now" vs "win later" Bulls trying to do both at the same time. Bad decision.
With Gasol out, someone has to play when Jo and Taj need to rest. For sure, Niko is getting valuable experience.