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With Mike Dunleavy’s surgery hitting the Bulls headlines, it’s time for the discussion of who starts in his place. Dunleavy, age 35, was already on the cusp of losing his starting position to one of the younger players; probably Tony Snell or Doug McDermott. However, KC Johnson from the Chicago Tribune mentions that Mirotic’s name has already been internally discussed to start even before the news of Dunleavy’s surgery.
“Starting Mirotic had been discussed internally even before Friday’s news of Dunleavy’s back surgery, and there will be plenty of ‘it’s not who starts, it’s who finishes’ talk to soothe egos.” – KC Johnson
With the front-court already being overloaded with Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic, and now Bobby Portis, Fred Hoiberg has big decisions to make on minutes distribution. Recently, Hoiberg added in McDermott’s name to the power-forward list as a stretch four.
From the five big men named listed above, Nikola Mirotic is projected to find the most success in the new system right out the gate. With his ability to play the stretch four and be a play-maker, it’s almost impossible to sit him behind Gibson and Gasol even if both are experienced big men. It was always unlikely to start Mirotic at the small-forward position, mainly because his strengths would be magnified as a stretch four. However, with the opportunity in hand, this could be Hoiberg’s chance to experiment with no backfire involved.
Starting Mirotic at small-forward could simply be a experimental move, but it’s something that could be quickly fixed if things don’t work out as planned. Both McDermott and Snell would fill in nicely at the small-forward position as well.
Last season, Nikola Mirotic averaged 18.1 points per game with 8.8 rebounds on his PER 36 minute stat-line. Mirotic was named to NBA All-Rookie First Team and came in second in Rookie of the Year voting last season.
