Trib: Cavaliers coach sings praises of Bulls' Nikola Mirotic

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Blatt knows his stuff. Good to hear him say this.

 

Interesting thought and I hope we see that lineup in preseason. In fact, preseason ought to be all kinds of fun this year...so damn many story lines.

 

Did you happen to catch the open Team USA practice? They asked Blatt about how he'll adjust to the longer season and he basically said the same thing you mentioned about Mirotic earlier: Maccabi Tel Aviv plays 80 games, they're just spread out more.

I actually view Blatt a lot like Mirotic. I have a hundred times more faith in him than the usual coach coming straight from college, but he doesn't quite have NBA experience either. The first season might be a little bit of a learning curve for him.

 

It seems like a strange idea, starting Mirotic.

Can you think of another title contender that started a raw rookie while established, very productive veterans like Gibson and Gasol are on the roster?

How long under Gibson starts demanding a trade? The guy is good and needs to put up numbers to get a big contract.

What a minutes dilemma the front office has laid at Thibs' doorstep.

Could be a lot of drama this season. I doubt Paxson has the stones to take a poke at Thibs though.

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It would be cool to see a Rose - Dougie - MDJ - Mirotic - Gasol lineup for a spell.

 

I know DaBullz posted a couple articles about Mirotic's bad attitude at times while with Real Madrid. Waring with the coach over playing time.

Are there any legs to that? Something to be concerned about?

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How Thibs distributes the minutes between Mirotic / Gasol / Gibson / Noah will be one of the more intriguing storylines of this season.

Did the Bulls make any playing time promises to Mirotic to get him over here? Will Gibson be comfortable playing behind a rookie?

I would imagine that even the staunchest Mirotic supporter would likely have to admit he's significantly more RAW at this point than Gasol or Gibson.



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Still don't have an answer about a title contender that started a rookie like Mirotic over established guys like Gibson and Gasol. Can anyone think of any?

 

Kukoc's rookie season. He was the best player in the world/not in the NBA. 25 year old rookie with gobs of euroexperience.

 

I think they're legitimate reasons to be concerned about Mirotic playing well in the NBA -- injuries, less than ideal size for a four, less than ideal explosiveness for a three are top of mind. Attitude isn't really one of them.

Mirotic has never really fought with his coaches over minutes. Real Madrid is one of the five to ten European powerhouses that go at least two deep in European-starter caliber players at every position. On those teams, the most a player ever really gets is 22 minutes or so a game, which is where Mirotic is at.

It seems to me like most of the conflict has been about schemes, both offensive and defensive. On offense, I think Mirotic will find a much more comfortable home in the NBA than he had in Europe. Real Madrid has always been a team full of chuckers. There's a reason that Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez don't play in the NBA, and it has nothing to do with talent. Those guys just call their own number way too often.

On defense, RM's coach Pablo Laso tended to come down harder on Mirotic than he did on other players, partially because he was coachable, partially because he struggled at times chasing wing-type power forwards. We'll see how that plays out.

If it doesn't play out well, it's not going to be because Mirotic is a malcontent, it'll be because he's too slow to switch on to guards, as required in Thibodeu's schemes.

 

So we're thinking ....

15 for Mirotic
30 for Gibson
34 for Noah
17 for Gasol

????


96 minutes. 4 guys at the 4/5. All of them make decent $$ and have high expectations for themselves. One is a all-NBA 1st teamer. The other is pretty much exactly the type of player Thibs likes at the 4. Then you have Gasol and rookie, likely slow switching / softer Mirotic.

Gibson is ready to start and thrive in the league. He's going to want his. Deserves it too. And Thibs is going to want to play him.



How do you see it breaking down?

 

nm.

 

I personally think that the Bulls have a decent shot to come out of the East. The Pacers are not in play. The Cavs of course will be dangerous, even more so if they form another Lebron superfriends team. Toronto could take another step forward. If Wade has one more year the Heat could be good. But if the superfriends don't form / gel the Bulls are right there.

Thibs would close with Taj. You typically close out games with the ones you trust / want to go with. The whole idea of starting Mirotic is admitting this is the case, otherwise, why worry about him getting minutes? Force him to get the minutes before Thibs does what he really wants to do. Win with strong defense at the 4 and 5. Now, maybe Mirotic is a beast and takes away minutes from Taj. That remains to be seen and also would mean that Mirotic is really, really good, since Taj is good of course. Who knows what Gasol's expectations were for minutes coming here.

Its going to be an interesting season, that's for sure. Lots of headaches for Thibs, but I guess these are OK problems to have. The biggest headaches will be on who is going to eat those minutes at the 2/3 and be productive enough to be a contender. Hope Jimmy is resting. He's a little banged up already though, right?

Never a dull moment for the boys in red though, that's for sure.

 

Your depth chart may look something like this:

PG: Rose/Hinrich/Brooks
SG: Butler/Snell/Dunleavy/Hinrich/Rose/McDermott
SF: Dunleavy/McDermott/Butler/Snell/Mirotic
PF: Gasol/Gibson/Mirotic/Bairstow
C: Noah/Gibson/Gasol/Bairstow

Don't read too much into the order (except Bairstow being at the end), but that's some pretty crazy flexibility.

 

Transplant how does the rumored Matrix addition change your chart?

 

As I said, the order is up for grabs. Marion still plays both SF and PF. Despite the big minutes Marion played last season, I would expect that the plan would be for him to play far more limited minutes here. I wouldn't see him as a rotation player which is why I'd be surprised if he comes here. This said, Thibodeau will play the guys he thinks will help him win games so you never know.