How valuable is Chicago Bulls’ Nikola Mirotić?
The Chicago Bulls are clearly going to do whatever they can to improve their roster this offseason, likely chasing Minnesota Timberwolves’ power forward Kevin and New York Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony.
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However, if the Bulls can’t land a player of that caliber, help could be on the way in Real Madrid power forward Nikola Mirotić, who the Bulls own the rights to.
Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders assesses Mirotić’s value.
"Now, the questions of “where would Mirotic be selected if he were in this draft” and “how valuable is he as an asset compared to the picks in this draft is” are two different ones. I think Mirotic would easily be a top-10 pick in this draft if he were in it. When you consider he is 23 and could contribute immediately, and you’d get his prime years locked down for a rookie scale contract for 4 years, that would be fantastic.However, that is not quite the case at the moment. Since it has been 3 years, he is now no longer subject to the rookie scale, and has a $3.4 million buyout. He could credibly demand a lot more than the rookie scale now, and probably will only want a 3 year deal rather than 4 so he can get to a second contract faster. He also might not be interested in playing for a bad team since he’s on a great team with Real Madrid in Europe, so that might also demand more of a contract premium than playing with the Bulls.So, those factors lower his value relative to a pick in this draft."
Mirotić averaged 13.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season.