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It's been something that has been discussed in the off season, and it's been part of the discussion in the PG thread.

Due to the emergence of Nikola in Taj's absence, who currently is 2nd in all rookies in PER, with him playing so well, a 'fear' exists of him going back to the bench to resume his previous 5-10 minute role he had whilst Gibson was around.

With McDermott and Snell being terrible so far, and Dunleavy not really playing well of late either, this is obviously something people have on their minds.

I have my views, have shared them publicly and likely will do again in this thread, but i think it's time for a poll.

What is the temperature on this board on this subject?

It's absolutely worth a shot. What's the worst that could happen? If it doesn't work, you simply scrap the idea. It's important to get him minutes. Offensively, I think he can play the three just fine. The bigger question is how he'll do defensively. I think Thibs can come up with a scheme that could protect him on the perimeter.

I'd also rather see Dunleavy come off the bench so that we don't live and die by Aaron Brooks.

HomoSapien wrote:It's absolutely worth a shot. What's the worst that could happen? If it doesn't work, you simply scrap the idea. It's important to get him minutes. Offensively, I think he can play the three just fine. The bigger question is how he'll do defensively. I think Thibs can come up with a scheme that could protect him on the perimeter.

I'd also rather see Dunleavy come off the bench so that we don't live and die by Aaron Brooks.

I don't see any one you could start at SF but Dunleavy. Are you advocating starting Mirotic there?

I vote yes for minutes at SF. He is one of our top 7 players and needs the playing time.

It isn't ideal, but given the roster make-up I have to agree with HS. You've got to give it a try and see how it works out.

Mirotic looks a lot more capable of contributing meaningful minutes at SF now than he did in October.

I see no problem in finding situational minutes for him. like 5-10 minutes. He has perimeter skills and it would be a waste to have him just sit on the bench when he can contribute to this team winning games.

Like Homo said, if it doesn't work you can just scrap it. But it doesn't make sense to at least not give it a shot.

WindyCityBorn wrote:

HomoSapien wrote:It's absolutely worth a shot. What's the worst that could happen? If it doesn't work, you simply scrap the idea. It's important to get him minutes. Offensively, I think he can play the three just fine. The bigger question is how he'll do defensively. I think Thibs can come up with a scheme that could protect him on the perimeter.

I'd also rather see Dunleavy come off the bench so that we don't live and die by Aaron Brooks.

I don't see any one you could start at SF but Dunleavy. Are you advocating starting Mirotic there?

I vote yes for minutes at SF. He is one of our top 7 players and needs the playing time.

I am, but even just giving him most of the backup SF minutes would be a nice start. It's worth a shot.

We should at least try it. It's not like he can be any worse than McDermott or Snell have been so far. If it works out that's great and if it doesn't...well, we better hope one of the other guys steps up.

He would get torched on the perimeter. I am not a fan of playing guys out of position.

Before the season I was against the idea, I thought that being able to shoot the 3 doesn't automatically mean he's going to be able to play the 3, but given he's proven to be more agile, a better ball-handler etc. than initially expected, maybe you can play him at the 3 for a bit and see how it goes.

I'm definitely going to be disappointed if he just ends up sitting when we're healthy though, he's too good for that.

I would argue that we shouldn't play a guy out of position just to get him on the court, but with no viable alternative at SF at this point, it doesn't hurt to give it a go. Hopefully Thibs at least entertains the thought.

Defense is the big question here, but Thibs loves funneling guys into the middle where they have to get shots up over Noah/Gasol/Gibson. The other thing to remember is that it's not like Dunleavy tears it up on defense either, and we know that Mirotic is at least going to give the effort.

C'mon. Do it. Do it now!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NflTOYuVJ0E[/youtube]

i just want to know if mirotic ever played at the wing in his career, at madrid for example. if not, that idk what u guys are expecting. he might have same limitations doug has coming from playing forward where u have completely different responsibilities on defense than playing on the wing. on offense i'm sure mirotic would be fine with his ball-handling and 3 point shooting being advanced already.

Defending as a wing, and defending as a big is very different in the Thibs system.

I don't think it's a good idea teaching a rookie two sets of defensive principles.

Chicago Brawls wrote:Defending as a wing, and defending as a big is very different in the Thibs system.

I don't think it's a good idea teaching a rookie two sets of defensive principles.

It's certainly not ideal, but the alternative is not playing him at all which is even less ideal.

We need to keep this guy on the floor, he's our most efficient big man scorer.

I feel that you must try it at this point in small increments, we have to see if this will actually work in spurts. More importantly, he's playing too damn well to ride the bench and oh yeah Jimmy will play less. I don't want him playing over 10 minutes at the SF spot but 6-10 minutes is worth the shot.

From a strictly athletic standpoint I don't see a difference between MDJ and Niko, in fact Niko looks better on that level. Obviously Mike is a smart crafty veteran that understands positioning and where to be but I think you can side step that by having Taj on the floor guarding some of the SF in the NBA.

Rerisen wrote:C'mon. Do it. Do it now!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NflTOYuVJ0E[/youtube]

Whilst i disagree with your view, this is a quality reference, so much so, i cbf arguing the opposing view. Well played.

HomoSapien wrote:It's certainly not ideal, but the alternative is not playing him at all which is even less ideal.

The alternative is not playing him at all. The alternative is putting him back to 10-12 minutes, as he was previously.

Given the likelihood that one of our bigs will be injured again, he isn't getting buried.

KingCuban wrote:
The alternative is not playing him at all. The alternative is putting him back to 10-12 minutes, as he was previously.

Given the likelihood that one of our bigs will be injured again, he isn't getting buried.

Obviously we were speaking under the assumption of what happens in the even that everyone is healthy. It was a hyperbole, sure he'll get some minutes, but playing him 10 minutes a game is a mistake. He's one of our better players, and we should find ways to get him meaningful minutes on the floor.

Also, before Gibson went down, Mirotic had a stretch of five games where he played less than eight minutes in each game. That's what I was referencing. Mirotic was averaging 10 early on due to injuries, but when the roster is healthy his PT all but disappears.

HomoSapien wrote:Obviously we were speaking under the assumption of what happens in the even that everyone is healthy. It was a hyperbole, sure he'll get some minutes, but playing him 10 minutes a game is a mistake. He's one of our better players, and we should find ways to get him meaningful minutes on the floor.

This was always going to occur, though.

Nikola may be one of our better players, but he is still our 4th best big man.

If Thibodeau only sees him at a 4, which he has basically stated, Nikola will revert back to his previous role unless injuries occur.

We can get him minutes if we start blowing teams out, by reducing Pau's minutes, who is playing too much right now (35 a game).

I am happy for this to be 'tried', but i am very confident it fails.

KingCuban wrote:

HomoSapien wrote:Obviously we were speaking under the assumption of what happens in the even that everyone is healthy. It was a hyperbole, sure he'll get some minutes, but playing him 10 minutes a game is a mistake. He's one of our better players, and we should find ways to get him meaningful minutes on the floor.

This was always going to occur, though.

Nikola may be one of our better players, but he is still our 4th best big man.

If Thibodeau only sees him at a 4, which he has basically stated, Nikola will revert back to his previous role unless injuries occur.

We can get him minutes if we start blowing teams out, by reducing Pau's minutes, who is playing too much right now (35 a game).

I am happy for this to be 'tried', but i am very confident it fails.

It's definitely not a surprise, you're right. There aren't really minutes for him if the front-court is healthy, unless your minimize Noah and Gasol's minutes. Still, I think he's showing his value and you give him a shot at the 3. If it does fail, like you predict, you scrap it.