Nikola Mirotic
We run a lot of polls on our Twitter account. If you aren’t following us, you should. It’s a great place to interact and, you know, share memes and GIFs about the team that we love that sends us into fits. If we ran a poll about which player Chicago fans found most frustrating or considered to be a disappointment so far this season, Mirotic would probably be the leading vote-getter. His game does just what this team does, it sends you into a fit.
Niko has been just about anything but consistent in his play for the better part of a calendar year. He was the victim of illness, the maker of his own lack of confidence, the master of pumpfakes.
He stopped pumpfaking on Friday night, and started knocking down shots. His defense still hasn’t shown signs of improvement, but he’s doing a sneaky good job of scoring coming off the bench this season. Taj Gibson is the starter and has been playing up to the title so there is little chance that Mirotic can wrench that position away from Taj. As the first or second man off the bench, a duty shared primarily with Doug McDermott, Mirotic is averaging 14 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.2 blocks per game in just over 27 minutes of playing time.
There isn’t a stat sheet explanation that defines exactly what it is about Mirotic that has been unimpressive, but it likely boils down to his defense. Despite averaging over a block per contest, he’s not a capable interior defender. While his length bothers players on the perimeter, he probably also benefits from mostly guarding power forwards beyond 10 feet. Overall, players he defends are shooting two percent worse than league average when guarded by Niko through the first three games of the season. That’s good, right? But what is bad is that his “good” defense in that limited sample is all coming on shots from beyond 15 feet. In that area, he is allowing well below league averages. When defending closer to the rim, he craters to an opponent field goal percentage of just under 60 percent. This is a very bad thing.
Still, Mirotic offers an offensive spark off the bench that Chicago desperately needs. And the spacing he provides is vital to the success of anything that the Bulls want to do while staggering their two stars – Butler and Wade.
He’s been shaky, but if he can continue to grab rebounds and score the 3-ball, he’s going to be worth more than he costs the Bulls on the defensive end of the floor.