By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Born in 1991, Nicola Mirotic is already a household name in European basketball and that was proven once again in the start of the season. The Real Madrid forward was named October MVP in Euroleague and he is producing unreal numbers so far.
Averaging just 21 minutes of action in the first three games of the season, Mirotic has 16.3 ppg on 71,4% shooting percentage in two pointers, 85,7% on threes and 91.7% from the free throw line. He also has 6.3 rpg, 1.7 spg and 1 bpg. So once again the question is simple: Is this the last season of Mirotic in Europe? He has been asked the same question all summer long and he didn’t give a clear answer, probably because he doesn’t have one at this point. Mirotic has won everything in Spain with Real Madrid, but his final goal in Europe is the Euroleague trophy which his team lost in last year’s final. If he gets it this season, then you could say that he has achieved everything he could have imagined in Europe and the next stop will be the NBA. But, as usual, the devil is in the details.
Monster buy out
Real Madrid has locked the player under contract until the summer of 2016, so if the Bulls who have his draft rights want him, they have to negotiate his buy out. And boy, the Bulls really, really want him. There are already talks in Chicago about him and the way he should be treated when he decides to cross the Atlantic. And here came the bad news for the Bulls, or if you prefer the good news for Real Madrid.
Mirotic’s buy out is no less than 2,5 euros, so he will have to pay more than 2 million euros from his own pocket in order to play in the NBA next season. It’s a lot of money and that means Mirotic should expect some kind of financial security from the Bulls – a fat, long term deal – in order to make the jump. After all he is just 22 years old and as he said in many Spanish media: “I can wait, the NBA will not go anywhere”. With Luol Deng becoming free agent this summer and Carlos Boozer having a contract until 2016, many observers speculated that both players will be sacrificed in order to make room for Mirotic. However it’s not the safe choice to part ways with two proven NBA starters for a young European talent, even if he is last season’s MVP of Liga Endesa.
Bulls can make a run in order to sign the player, unrestrained financially by the rookie salary scale, which does not applies to Mirotic three years after being drafted in the first round back in 2011. Still they would prefer to get him but using their midlevel exception, meaning 3 to 5 million US dollars, depending on the team status on luxury tax under the new CBA. So, essentially in the first year of his new NBA contract, Mirotic will be paying taxes, agents and Real Madrid, while waiting for the second year in order to have a real profit. It’s not like he has a money problem, since Real Madrid pays him near 2 million euros annually. On the other hand, he will have to decide if he wants to leave Spain, where he is treated like a king, and become a rookie, having to prove again his worth in uncharted territory and losing some money while doing it.
Winning comes first
And that brings us back to step one. Mirotic has all the cards in his hands, there is no choice he can make for his future which can be considered bad and, meanwhile, he is playing the best basketball of his career. He has every right to make everyone wait while he is focused on winning the Euroleague and Chicago should be rooting for Real Madrid to win the cup this year, if they want to convince him that the next step for him should be the NBA title.