Nikola Mirotic — When Healthy — Needs a Bigger Role in Hoiball
The Bulls know that Nikola Mirotic can become a secret weapon who can deliver more than expected.
Many armchair-GM Bulls fans might see players like Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic as those designated corner, three-point shooting forwards the Bulls seem to have too many of. But either player wasn’t drafted as a two-way savant. Their skill set as Bulls players is to be multi-role offensive linchpins in Fred Hoiberg‘s free-flowing offense.
A big mistake from last year’s misfired season was setting both players as just corner three options at the start of the season, when the Bulls could have played stronger with both players being part of a motion offense, cutting to the hoop or playing pick-and-roll.
Towards the end of the season, both players showed glimpses of how good both actually were and it took injuries and bad games for Hoiberg to shuffle lineups until these two shone.
Doug McDermott is hands down the better shooting forward over the now beleaguered Jimmy Butler and even though Butler might look stronger when scoring in the paint or finishing lob dunks, McDermott actually is the more skilled post player, as well as the better player diving off the pick-and-roll. McDermott can even play power forward and create mismatches with a sweet fadeaway or his underrated athleticism using his quick first step and handles to weave inside the lane for surprise dunks.
Mirotic is more the underrated prize. He’s already a proven winner (Spanish League MVP) and can deliver bursts of offense in the same package as McDermott’s. He even has a fan-favorite nickname: “Threekola”.
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Mirotic creates headaches via mismatches when playing slower-footed bigs or fast-twitch wings trying to guard him. He can use his handles and athleticism to outmaneuver opposing bigs guarding him and take them to the rim.
Mirotic is also a keen passer and he can really assume Pau Gasol‘s role as point center in a small-ball offense backing up Joakim Noah. He’s tall enough to look over the defense and find cutters or open players at the top or corner.
(Some of Butler’s highlight lob dunks came from Nikola Mirotic’s sharp passing.)
One peeve going against Mirotic is when he makes head-and-shoulder/pump fakes when matched with fast-twitch wing defenders and duping them into committing useless fouls on him in the act of shooting.
Mirotic is the NBA king of getting that extra free throw by fake baiting someone from beyond the three-point line. The habit might look silly, but it gets the opposing team into foul trouble quickly and adds more fouls to their top defenders.
The sad part about both McDermott and Mirotic is that their stat-sheet numbers for last season might look weaker and skewed by the fact that the Bulls didn’t run their offense thru these two as the main scoring options until Butler got injured and they finally had the chance to be the point center or point guard’s first pass option.
Towards the end of the season with Mirotic gunning like a Euroleague MVP, the Bulls offense got legs and roared like a hot rod. The only “my turn, your turn” offense that really worked for the Bulls last year was having Mirotic and McDermott play tight and score in bunches in the second half of the season.
The key for making Mirotic shine brighter next season on offense is to keep both him and Doug McDermott the main focus on offense rather than pick up some on-ball, veteran scorer to hog minutes and pad stats like Gasol essentially performed for the Bulls last year. If the offense was oriented around Mirotic, McDermott and Derrick Rose, Hoiball could really start showing through.
Hoiberg trusts that the players could run his offensive system instinctively once they got a taste of it.
A special core of the Bulls could and it turned out to be the bench of all places and Hoibeg should make special note of this group, as the ones he should keep and help understand his offense so he can save his job next year and beyond. No more having gassed teams finishing the fourth quarter.
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Mirotic (and McDermott) gunning plenty of threes a night is something the Bulls can’t have enough of next year.