Chicago Bulls Trade Deadline: Nikola Mirotic and the Los Angeles Clippers

During the Chicago Bulls march to inevitable 17th straight win when playing a game televised by TNT, a random little blurb crept through the Twitter timeline, going almost entirely unnoticed: the Los Angeles Clippers are rumored to be interested in acquiring Nikola Mirotic.

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There’s a lot of love and a lot of frustration that probably sounds like hate when the name Nikola Mirotic is uttered around the Bulls fan base.

Mirotic was a highly-regarded prospect who spent many years plying his trade as one of the best players in Europe while his rights were passed from team to team in the NBA, waiting for his arrival. He had the credence of the Spanish ACB League, winning team titles and making All-ACB teams. He was named the FIBA U-20 Championship MVP in 2011.

People went as far as Dirk Nowitzki when reaching for a comparison. To date, those comparisons have been very far off.

Mirotic is no stranger to the trade, though, all of his prior activity was conducted before he signed his first NBA contract with the Chicago Bulls in 2014, finally making it to the United States.

Here’s a quick list of players involved in trades that the pick which became Mirotic was a piece involved:
Vince Carter
Marcin Gortat
Mickael Pietrus
Earl Clark
Jason Richardson
Hedo Turkoglu
Goran Dragic
Aaron Brooks

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Here’s a quick list of players involved in trades after Mirotic was drafted, pre-NBA arrival:
Brad Miller
Chandler Parsons
Jonny Flynn
Donatas Motiejunas
First-round pick (became Andre Roberson)
Second-round pick (became Will Barton)
Norris Cole
Malcolm Lee

That is a lot of players. It isn’t uncommon for a “futures” pick, which is what most European players have been in the past, to get shuffled around. However, it is extremely amusing to see all of the names that have been associated with deals involving Mirotic, a player just over halfway through his third season that was projected to be one of the best European prospects to cross the Atlantic.

After a few rocky years of extremely inconsistent play and occasional health issues, it looks like Mirotic might be on the move again.

At the end of this year, Mirotic will be a restricted free agent. He hasn’t played his way into a big contract, but he will definitely get a bigger deal than what he currently has with Chicago – a three-year deal worth approximately $16.6 million. In the current market, an injured and past-prime Joakim Noah just locked up a four-year deal with an annual salary greater than what Mirotic has amassed throughout his enter NBA career.

The Bulls either need to be prepared to spend big, lose him for nothing when another team makes a large offer, or flip him now for assets. Enter this tweet:

A source has told me that the #Clippers are interested in Nikola Mirotic. @WBEZ
— Cheryl (Raye) Stout (@Crayestout) February 17, 2017

I’m not familiar with Cheryl Rae Stout, who appears to be affiliated with WBEZ, but now we’ve got some smoke. What if there is a fire?

It would be smart for the Bulls to move on if they can get something in return for their streaky-shooting forward. He’s not a bad defender and gets played out of position often, when he’s healthy. There are plenty of reasons to believe that he could still turn into a good NBA forward and he should be better from 3-point range than he has demonstrated to date, so what can Chicago coax out of the Clips?

Bulls Trade Mirotic and MCW for Rivers

The first trade that popped into my mind was Mirotic and Michael Carter-Williams for Austin Rivers. The trade gives the Clips a vaguely similar guard and the forward they want in exchange for Doc’s kid. Chicago is an utter mess and they could be ready to start trying just about anything at the one. As maligned as Rivers can and should be at times, he’s not demonstrably worse than Rajon Rondo, quite possibly better at this point, and he’s definitely better than Jerian Grant. The trade works in the ESPN Trade Machine.

Bulls Trade Mirotic and McDermott for Redick

Another strange trade option – Mirotic and Doug McDermott for J.J. Redick. I’m not sure there is much to it, but you could always give it a go. If Chicago wants to compete in the playoffs, they could certainly use a capable and consistent shooter. Consistent is the key word there. McDermott and Mirotic combined equal out to rough one Redick at this point and it would give LA longer control over the players for less money per player that could turn into trade pieces in the future.

Bulls Trade Mirotic for Pierce and Johnson

What on earth could be more glorious than Gar Forman going as young and athletic as possible by adding Paul Pierce to a roster that also has Rondo and Dwyane Wade on it in 2017? This would be absolutely glorious and would almost immediately result in a Pierce retirement, I’m sure of it. Brice Johnson is young and athletic, but who knows if he’ll actually be good at any point, assuming his herniated disk can be overcome and doesn’t hinder him moving forward.

Bulls Trade Mirotic for (insert salary dump) and a Draft Pick

Ah yes, I saved this for last. If you’ve been paying attention, Chicago wants draft picks. That’s rumor floating about regarding their interest in trading either McDermott or Robin Lopez. Basically, the Clippers do not have any useful draft picks in the near-future. As such, this doesn’t make any sense. It falls apart if the priority is getting picks.

If they can figure out a way to pry Rivers loose, or do something bizarre like the Pierce and Johnson, I suppose they make a deal, but there doesn’t seem to be a major win for either side.