Trib: Cavaliers coach sings praises of Bulls' Nikola Mirotic

I gave you 2 links in my previous post.

Here's a 3rd.

http://www.tubasket.com/noticia/rea...adrid-ser-sustituto-niko-mirotic/3336381/6304

Mercado: Principio de acuerdo entre el Chapu Nocioni y el Real Madrid para ser el sustituto de Niko Mirotic

(Translate: Preliminary agreement between Nocioni and Real Madrid to replace Mirotic)

Dated 6/29/2014

Mirotic signed with the Bulls on 7/18/2014.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/07/04/report-mirotic-will-leave-real-madrid/

Mirotic reportedly had issues with his coach in Spain recently that has accelerated the process of bringing him stateside.

 

Thanks. As I said, I'll stipulate to that Mirotic and Laso had some problems. It's a pretty big leap IMO from that to RM was going to Tim Thomas him.

 

What were they going to do with him? Have him ride the bench and not play while Nocioni did? That's effectively what the Bulls did with Thomas. (2nd time around)

In post #77, I quoted an article by BullsVille on his blog. He was getting at the same thing I was: "The Mirotic buyout being payable over time may help the Bulls bring him over without paying the Full Mid Level Exception of $5.305 million this summer." So why did they pay him FULL MLE?

 

What Euro team was going to pay him anything close to Bulls' money, or at least enough pay his buyout and keep him whole?

 

I also threw the flag when I read that. $5.3mil (3.95mil Euros) is top of the charts for Euro-League as i recall.

As for what Mirotic might have done if he didn't come to the Bulls, the answer is obvious...he'd have played out his contract, collecting his salary and avoiding the buyout payment. RM's signing of Nocioni to replace Mirotic would be RM's problem, not Mirotic's. Would this be a good situation for either RM or Mirotic? No, but if RM wanted to play fuck-fuck, Mirotic wasn't without arrows in his quiver.

 

My point is that it doesn't do the Bulls any good to have Mirotic waste a season sitting on the bench (or told to sit at home) in RM. It might hurt his "development" or whatever.

 

The Bulls wanted Mirotic here. They paid him what they knew would cause no argument, apparently without hesitation. I'm fine with it.

 

Right up until RM signed Nocioni, the Bulls were saying they weren't sure if Mirotic was coming over this year or next. After getting Gasol to agree to play here, and with Taj, we didn't need yet another PF.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/19890/gm-bulls-offered-top-10-picks-for-mirotic

"We've obviously had his rights for three years," Forman said. "We've got a lot invested in him. We've built a relationship over that time and were trying to get him here ... we were hopeful to get him this year. We thought if the buyout didn't happen this year, we were optimistic it would be a year from now. But the sooner the better that he can get over here and play against NBA-caliber players, and I think that's going to help him to continue to develop and continue to grow."

http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nba/1840/nikola-mirotic

Bulls general manager Gar Forman said he's still not sure if Nikola Mirotic will come over to the NBA this summer.

Things got a little less likely for Mirotic with the Bulls trading for Creighton forward Doug McDermott. While Mirotic is one of the better players overseas, the Bulls may be using him as more of an asset and he may help them clear out some cap space as a trade piece. He didn't have the greatest run in the playoffs at Real Madrid as his team fell short in the final, but it shouldn't hurt his value too much.

Source: Nick Friedell on Twitter Jun 27 - 9:07 AM

 

I'm not following, Denny. What's your point? What should the Bulls have done that (in your mind) they f'ed up?

 

Paid him less and used the rest of the money to sign another player.

I'm guessing that they signed him to exactly (i.e. no more than) the MLE with the expectation/hope they might deal Boozer and remain over the cap.

But like I asked, why did the Bulls bid against themselves?

If they offered him $3.5M I think he'd have taken it rather than play for some team in Siberia that might pay him a little more.

The difference may have signed Kirk and still left us ROOM money.

 

We drafted him. Word is last season wasn't his best, perhaps due to internal conflicts (like Lu allegedly "phoning it in"). Word still is he is the best Europe has to offer so I really don't get the slagging before he has played a game.

 

Who's "slagging" him?

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-bulls-confidential/2014/02/luol-deng-calls-the-cavaliers-a-mess/

 

I dunno. Maybe "might be dimmer than Tyrus?"

Might qualify as slagging.

But we are moving past troll/countertroll right?

 

That's not slagging on him.

All we've seen is this issue between him and his coach. Maybe he is a bit of a head case.

But yeah, I was slagging on Tyrus. Hope you don't mind.

 

Having a problem with a coach.

The key words.