Nikola Mirotic Thread

[WinCity]

Mirotic has a lot of leverage here. If he is the player the Bulls think he is, he has a tonne of leverage here to hold out for more than the MLE.

Unless he dead set wants to play in the NBA and will come over at any cost, the balance of power is in his favour.

The Bulls also have leverage. If he wants to play in the NBA he has to go through us. We know he wants to play here i.e. CHI, and he defintly wants the NBA as he entered the draft in 2011. As Brooklyn pointed out his earnings here long term are going to be hire than his earnings in Spain.

The Bulls have not been hyping him as the next great thing. Basically, they have said the like him and want to see him here at some point. Its not as if they have made themselves appear desperate. I think the Bulls have just as much leverage as Mirotic here.

Hasn't he been MVP like twice in a row? He's surely at the ceiling of what he can earn in Spain, so I'd imagine he'll pretty much have to take what the Bulls offer him, so long as it's above what he currently earns. And by "have to" I mean it's the only way he'll ever earn more money than he is in Spain, so he'd be stupid to refuse it.

He could always decide that playing for the top team in EL and making a ton (i font as much) over there is just fine. Than again, I dont think he will for the aforementioned reasons i.e. he wants to play for the Bulls and wants to play in the NBA.

[GimmeDat]

I've heard a lot of people say how there's never been a Euro brought over for more than the MLE, and it's true, but has there ever been a guy who appears to be this good coming over?

Sure there were - Luis Scola, Nikola Pekovic and Juan Carlos Navarro were every bit as good as Mirotic if not better when they came to the NBA.

As European players - but as NBA players?

Mirotic is the best of the 3 right now apart from possibly Pekovic in terms of value as an NBA player, and on top of that Nikola is a young guy with a bit of room to grow. Those guys came over as established players in the prime of their careers.

[dumbell78]

Mirotic definitely falls in line with Kukoc and Ginobli, possibly Saric as well considering what I've heard about him. I can't remember vividly to before those guys came over, but when guys like Manu and Toni were brought over, was there nearly the expectations that there are on Mirotic atm?

I can't imagine as a 57th overall Ginobli was expected to become the force he became. Mirotic is as established as he could possibly be coming over.

Manu maybe not as much, but Toni for sure was. Toni was the Euro "Magic" and was touted as the best player outside of the NBA. Krause and company thought he had more value than our own Scottie to an extent. The praises were sky high. So yeah I see those comparisons to Nikola. If you had to twist my arm in a vacum, I think Toni was more ready at that time than Nikola is right now.

The other guys I mentioned have their fair share of press and praise and all of them were MVP's of the leagues they played in. I just dont think Nikola is going to come in guns blazing and wow any of us. He will be a solid contributer and a good 3rd option on offense. Even that will take time under Thibs and adjusting to the NBA. I pay the MLE for that and tell him youre next contract is whats going to make you. This first contract is a dress rehearsal for the next contract. There is plenty of precedent in past that shows this.

[Enjuto]

There is a new article in the Marca, the main sport newspaper in Spain, the title is something like Nikola Mirotic the last hours in Madrid.

http://www.marca.com/blogs/faltaenataque/2014/01/27/nikola-miroti-horas-contadas.html

The journalist basically explain the reasons for why he think that Niko are going to be in Chicago next year.

In summary:
- 3 seasons from draft selection, not contract restrictions
- Money save by Chicago with Deng operation and Boozer amnesty
- He said that the NBA teams can pay all the money that they want to buy a player in europe, but when it is over 600.000$ every dolar pay over this counts for the limit.
- He also said that He talks to Chicago source that said that CHI will do all in his hands to sign Niko and that is very proable that Boozer will be amnesty (85% -15%)

Fianlly he explain with statistics why Niko is the best player in Europe...

[WinCity]

That bicep...yummy...

[IvgenyIAS]

I've heard a lot of people say how there's never been a Euro brought over for more than the MLE, and it's true, but has there ever been a guy who appears to be this good coming over?

Sure there were - Luis Scola, Nikola Pekovic and Juan Carlos Navarro were every bit as good as Mirotic if not better when they came to the NBA.

As European players - but as NBA players?

Mirotic is the best of the 3 right now apart from possibly Pekovic in terms of value as an NBA player, and on top of that Nikola is a young guy with a bit of room to grow. Those guys came over as established players in the prime of their careers.

Well, that depends on how you define palyer's NBA value. My reply considers the player's skill-set and playing ability before he comes to the NBA and using that criterion the guys I've mentioned were just as good as Mirotic is (and maybe even better).

I agree that Mirotic's age would probably drives his price upwards but how much? Two weeks from now he'll be 23 so by the time next season start he's an old 23 year old player. An MLE type deal is the equivalent of a top-3 pick in the draft. How many 23+ year old players get selected in the top-3? How many of them improve considerably throughout their careers?

[BullsFTW]

He will sign for the MLE, do really good, and then re-up to a larger deal on his next contract. Hopefully $18M annually is enough for Melo to sign with the Bulls.

[kingkirk]

Time for part two, guys.