You mean this? [TWEET]522943297719787520[/TWEET] Yeah, he looked like a budding star out there this afternoon. I feel like one of these games he's going to realize that he has a matchup advantage every time he steps on the court and then just start scoring at will. My big worry with Mirotic is that he's going to start to wear down. I feel like with Real Madrid he went through these long stretches of poor play about this time of the year when he began to suffer minor injuries. We'll see if something similar happens over here.
Well, MIP is probably a lot more likely for Jimmy. I do think Niko has an outside shot at ROY. Rosenthal posted this great link to the advanced stats for rookies in the other thread. Mirotic is going to lead in all of the advanced stats when they're updated with the Nets game. If things stay as they are, there's going to be a push to re-evaluate how the award is decided by sportswriters later in the season. I think many of them will be amenable to the argument that team contribution should be considered and it just shouldn't go to a player getting a ton of minutes on a mediocre team . . . although neither Jabari Parker nor the Bucks fit the description of a rookie jacking up shots on a bad team.
The only knock I see about Mirotic so far is his +/-: He's not lifting all boats on the 2nd unit, if you know what I mean.
Butler, Bulls top Nets 102-84 Jimmy Butler is proving that he is indispensable to the Chicago Bulls. Butler had 26 points and Pau Gasol added 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Bulls to a 102-84 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. Read more http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400578534
I don't think +/- plays a big role in ROY voting. People just look at raw stats. Besides, most rookies are not very good +/- guys their first year, and the best rookies usually end up on the worst teams that lose a lot of games. I think Niko has a punchers chance at ROY, but I'd say Jabari is the frontrunner and I'd give him almost 50% chances of winning it. He has the highest minutes and usage of any rookie and the Bucks are actually pretty good this year to boot. I think Jimmy is the clear frontrunner for MIP player right now. His emergence is a poorly kept secret around the league. I usually watch the away game on League Pass and the announcers almost unanimously heap all sorts of praise on Jimmy. MVP is a long shot though. Not because of his season, but because guys like Lebron, Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, etc. are really, really good.
