According to a report from The Vertical, the Chicago Bulls have reached an agreement with free agent power forward Nikola Mirotic for a two-year, $27 million contract.
Restricted free agent Nikola Mirotic has agreed to a two-year, $27M deal to return to Chicago, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 24, 2017
Mirotic averaged 10.6 points per game last season in 24 minutes per game as his inconsistent play caused him to be in and out of the rotation.
Mirotic is a below-average athlete by NBA standards, but an average defender by the numbers and a pretty effective stretch four at times with the ability to get hot for periods and shoot a really high percentage from three.
He only shot 34% from three last season, but shot just under 40% from downtown in the 2015-16 season.
Mirotic is a valuable and useful resource as a rotational front court player in my opinion with his ability to stretch the floor, but paying him $13.5 million to fill that role makes little sense in my opinion, especially for a rebuilding team that should keep it’s books clean and give all of those minutes to players like Lauri Markannen, Bobby Portis and even Cristiano Felicio.
It has been a pretty interesting trend to see players who have been on the market all off-season agree to well above market deals with their current teams, as was the case with Mason Plumlee and the Nuggets last week.
The Bulls are hoping Mirotic can play with more consistency next season and help spread the floor for their new back court of Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine to operate.
