If the Bulls had Nikola Mirotic, would they be rightful title favorites?

Crystallas

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Something about strategy has been forgotten in this last generation of NBA team building, along with the fans who rile the world.

Building under the radar. Hype builds crowds, and only one team with big names can pull it off. Hype is not what we want. We don't want to over-rate Mirotic, we [should] just want to entertain and win as much as possible. Good teams that are disrespected, play better. Good teams that are hyped, choke.
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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Indiana >>>>> Chicago rather easily. You're assuming Rose comes back like he was too. NY finished with the 2 seed. The Bulls were the 5. Seems people were right.

All the Bulls best players have major question marks and/or injury issues

I love Bulls fans assuming health constantly, when their team hasn't been healthy in 4 years

I was referring to the season prior to last season in regards to New York. They finished close to where I expected last season. Fields wasn't there last season.

Danny Granger has "injury issues" as well. Luol Deng's wrist and Joakim Noah always playing with some lingering foot/ankle injury are going to still be a problem but they are simple enough role players that the team won't suffer as much because of it. David West has had a lot of knee problems as well. I have confidence in Rose's health next season seeing as he has had well over a year of rest. That is not much of an issue for me.
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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Something about strategy has been forgotten in this last generation of NBA team building, along with the fans who rile the world.

Building under the radar. Hype builds crowds, and only one team with big names can pull it off. Hype is not what we want. We don't want to over-rate Mirotic, we [should] just want to entertain and win as much as possible. Good teams that are disrespected, play better. Good teams that are hyped, choke.

I'm all for flying under the radar with low expectations. It always bothers me seeing guys on ESPN like Jon Barry and Stephen A. Smith picking the Bulls as title favorites over Miami. I figure me talking about some what-if's about Mirotic on an internet forum doesn't quite classify on that level which is why I do here on a Bulls forum.
 

Crystallas

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Mirotic is somewhat clunky in part of his game. The only real silky part of his game, is his shot. Usually, eurobreds stars are silky at most attributes, but soft and/or slower. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast type of movement.

Bulls fans getting excited that the Bulls drafted Mirotic with the 22nd pick. Good reaction.

Bulls fans turning Mirotic into Dirk Nowitzki in their own minds before he has yet to get situated in the league. Delusional.
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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Mirotic is somewhat clunky in part of his game. The only real silky part of his game, is his shot. Usually, eurobreds stars are silky at most attributes, but soft and/or slower. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast type of movement.

Bulls fans getting excited that the Bulls drafted Mirotic with the 22nd pick. Good reaction.

Bulls fans turning Mirotic into Dirk Nowitzki in their own minds before he has yet to get situated in the league. Delusional.

I doubt Mirotic will be in the hemisphere of Hall-of-Famer/unstoppable fading away 7-footer, Dirk Nowitzki. I'm hoping/wanting to expect more along the lines of perennial starter in the league. I've heard a lot of talk that Mirotic is too much of a 3-4 tweener (i.e. Radmanovic) and really doesn't have the rebounding prowess that one would want out of a starting PF but with much more of the ball-handling and offensive skill variety that you would ever ask for. And that might be an important piece of the puzzle for the Bulls who have all of the rebounding and defense you could want out of bigs with Noah and Taj but very little offense with Boozer giving you most of it.

I believe what much of this hinges on is the question of can Mirotic be a playing you can throw the ball to and have him create something for himself(?). The Bulls severely lack a secondary player who can draw secondary defenders from the opposing defense but are full of role players who can make you pay when you leave them unattended to.
 

Crystallas

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:shrug:

None of it matters until Boozer is off the books anyways. We can't bring him over and develop him now without a miracle of a trade occurring. The best we can do is worry about our real project, in Tony Snell, who is going to either become something special to this team or "that guy" with potential that makes boneheaded decisions at NBA speed(James Johnson/Tyrus Thomas).
 

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this season?

C- Joakim Noah. Taj Gibson.
PF- Nikola Mirotic. Carlos Boozer.
SF- Luol Deng. Tony Snell.
SG- Jimmy Butler. Kirk Hinrich.
PG- Derrick Rose. Marquis Teague.

Follow-up question: If you think they would be favorites, do you also think the Bulls should go ahead and re-sign Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler and keep this core group going forward into the foreseeable future?
wut?
 

CODE_BLUE56

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Indiana >>>>> Chicago rather easily. You're assuming Rose comes back like he was too. NY finished with the 2 seed. The Bulls were the 5. Seems people were right.

All the Bulls best players have major question marks and/or injury issues

I love Bulls fans assuming health constantly, when their team hasn't been healthy in 4 years
Should be interesting to see how Granger fits back in, if he stays healthy...
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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:shrug:

None of it matters until Boozer is off the books anyways. We can't bring him over and develop him now without a miracle of a trade occurring. The best we can do is worry about our real project, in Tony Snell, who is going to either become something special to this team or "that guy" with potential that makes boneheaded decisions at NBA speed(James Johnson/Tyrus Thomas).


One thing I am confused about is the Bulls' inability to bring him over. Wouldn't it be better called unwillingness more than inability (Jerry not wanting to go any deeper into the penalty). You'd think that if the Bulls were committed to trying to win a title with solely guys who they draft that they would at least be willing to pay the piper. Mirotic obviously would need to get bought out of a couple/few years of his contract but then he just comes over on a low rookie scale. It does bother me.

One thing I do trust the Bulls' FO in is drafting players. I was happy when they picked Taj and they knew what they were getting with him. Noah turned out great when everyone and their cousin was crying about it. And now Jimmy Butler at #30. I don't know a lot about Snell but I am optimistic because of their track record. I was kind of hoping they would look to pick a back-up center to add depth with their big's but we'll see if it pays off.
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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Should be interesting to see how Granger fits back in, if he stays healthy...

I wouldn't be shocked to see him traded. I think the perfect trade for Indiana would be to send Granger out and keep George at the 3 where he belongs and get back Eric Gordon. New Orleans gets a SF that they desperately need. It is an injury-prone player dealt for another injury-prone player. The Pacers have an Indianapolis-based starting back-court of George Hill and Gordon. Win-win.
 

Bear Pride

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Don't care. An unproven euro would not make the Bulls title contenders.

Mirotic, 22, is now the youngest MVP in ACB history.

The 6-foot-10 power forward earned MVP honors after averaging 12.6 points and 5.5 rebounds this season as Real Madrid earned a 30-4 record to win the league by four games. Mirotic shot 50.5 percent overall and 43.5 percent from three-point land, while shooting 80.7 percent from the free-throw line.
---
 

Crystallas

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One thing I am confused about is the Bulls' inability to bring him over. Wouldn't it be better called unwillingness more than inability (Jerry not wanting to go any deeper into the penalty). You'd think that if the Bulls were committed to trying to win a title with solely guys who they draft that they would at least be willing to pay the piper. Mirotic obviously would need to get bought out of a couple/few years of his contract but then he just comes over on a low rookie scale. It does bother me.

One thing I do trust the Bulls' FO in is drafting players. I was happy when they picked Taj and they knew what they were getting with him. Noah turned out great when everyone and their cousin was crying about it. And now Jimmy Butler at #30. I don't know a lot about Snell but I am optimistic because of their track record. I was kind of hoping they would look to pick a back-up center to add depth with their big's but we'll see if it pays off.

It has to be mutual. Mirotic signed his Liga contract AFTER he finalized his NBA draft eligibility. So he had little intentions of coming over soon. At this point, the Bulls are doing what they can to not get burned by the long string of Euroleague hold-outs to never come to the NBA(or they do come, but only after a career changing injury).

Plus his buyout option is something like $1.5million, which may seem cheap to some, but $1.5m isn't something to sneeze at.
 
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Bear Pride

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It has to be mutual. Mirotic signed his Liga contract a year AFTER the Bulls drafted him. At this point, the Bulls are doing what they can to not get burned by the long string of Euroleague hold-outs to never come to the NBA(or they do come, but only after a career changing injury).

Plus his buyout option is something like $1.5million, which may seem cheap to some, but $1.5m isn't something to sneeze at.

And this should be an example of how hard it is to manage the cap, imo, as well as compete every year. How do you spend your money and save your money at the same time?
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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It has to be mutual. Mirotic signed his Liga contract a year AFTER the Bulls drafted him. At this point, the Bulls are doing what they can to not get burned by the long string of Euroleague hold-outs to never come to the NBA(or they do come, but only after a career changing injury).

Plus his buyout option is something like $1.5million, which may seem cheap to some, but $1.5m isn't something to sneeze at.

1.5mill. To be brash here, if I was the owner of the Chicago freaking Bulls, and my net worth was something along the lines of 350mill, I don't think I would lose much sleep after buying him out. Maybe Jerry has that Scrooge McDuck mentality when it comes to getting rich.
 

Crystallas

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Corrected my last statement. For some reason I thought he signed his extension after the Bulls drafted him. Anyways, he's likely coming for the next season(which begs the question), who gets traded?
 

Crystallas

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1.5mill. To be brash here, if I was the owner of the Chicago freaking Bulls, and my net worth was something along the lines of 350mill, I don't think I would lose much sleep after buying him out. Maybe Jerry has that Scrooge McDuck mentality when it comes to getting rich.

$350m net worth doesn't mean he has a money vault with $350m, or $350 in the bank. Plus, $350m for someone that owns two pro-teams is not exactly a lot of money for someone in his position.

Net Worth =/= Liquidity
 

RamiTheBullsFan

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$350m net worth doesn't mean he has a money vault with $350m, or $350 in the bank. Plus, $350m for someone that owns two pro-teams is not exactly a lot of money for someone in his position.

Net Worth =/= Liquidity

Fair enough. I do kind of cringe every time I look at the White Sox pay-roll though. I'd like to believe that he isn't as frugal in winning times as he is in losing times when it comes to the Bulls.
 

Crystallas

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Fair enough. I do kind of cringe every time I look at the White Sox pay-roll though. I'd like to believe that he isn't as frugal in winning times as he is in losing times when it comes to the Bulls.

The Sox are a different problem entirely, and their problems should highlight exactly why it's better to become a developmental and strategic front office. Jerry got caught up with bandaid fixes to jump start a post-WS team(something fans encouraged!, well, not so much now in hindsight). The last thing we should want Jerry to do with the Bulls, is to pull a James Dolan on us. We're in the tax. This is going to suck until we get more breaks, like Jimmy Butler coming back even better, guys staying healthy, Snell panning out, a favorable trade, and quality FA's giving us discounts to ring chase. Winning isn't easy.

Having Mirotic as an option in 2014 is truly awesome IMO. This is the kind of developmental culture we need. Keep drafting quality players, make cap flexibility, become an opportunist for when the time arrives where a game changer is on the market. All of which would be the opposite of complacency(which would mean that the Bulls are doing nothing.)
 

Crystallas

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Something that made me excited last off-season, was the Bulls bringing on Brian Hagen. This move should have alerted most Bulls fans, that the direction the Bulls are going in. That we will be a huge scouting team. The Bulls are going to find more gems in drafts that fit with the system because of it. Now we just need a move on the medical staff, and a Thib friendly coach that is focused on development. The whole Adams mini-drama NEEDS to have a happy ending. All of these things are more important to the long-term of the system and culture the Bulls are building on, than finding that one borderline star-player that could possibly push us over the top for one season.
 

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