Nikola Mirotic 2014-15: The Rookie Surge
I’m not going to dig deep into the early days. This is just about his streaky hot play. Still, let’s get a little context, remember some of the good old days. Jimmy Butler led the team in win shares for the first time during the 2014-15 season. The team ranked 11th in both offensive rating and defensive rating, finishing the regular season with a record of 50-32. Mirotic and Aaron Brooks were the only Chicago players to feature in all 82 games. The Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs, then were eliminated by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Mirotic’s Season Line: 82 G, 20.2 MIN, 40.5 FG%, 31.6 3PT%, 4.9 REB, 1.2 AST, 10.2 PTS
Not terrible for a first-year player, but not quite Nowitzkian just yet. Still, for Thibs to play a guy 82 games for 20 minutes per contest in his first season in the league said a lot.
Mirotic’s March: 15 G, 30.8 MIN, 44.1 FG%, 26.3 3PT%, 7.6 REB, 1.7 AST, 20.8 PTS
As you can see, Mirotic turned his game way up during March. Looking at his game log is insane. If you saw any rookie play this way for more than just the month of March, you’d have a hands down Rookie of the Year on your hands and probably a generational type guy, you know, like Dirk.
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In those 15 March games, Niko failed to score at least 10 points just one time. He scored more than that often, however, putting up 29, 23, 26. Then he put up a streak of games later at 27, 25, 29. And again, before the month ended, 28, 15, 24. His March was better than any month a Chicago rookie not named Butler or Rose has had in a very long time.
There are a lot of possible factors, including the needed time to acclimate to the NBA game and getting more playing time. He was sandwiched into a rotation that also had Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, and Taj Gibson playing in the frontcourt while Rose and Butler dominated the backcourt. Astonishing that the rookie Mirotic could put up those kind of numbers.
Except, there was one player that I mentioned who wasn’t very active during Niko’s hot streak that lasted an entire month – Gibson.
Taj played 62 games in 2014-15, starting 17, but he only appeared in five games during the month of March. That means he was absent for 66.7 percent of the games during Mirotic’s eruption.