All NBA fans knew the Bulls were going to struggle this season after the departure of All-Star forward Jimmy Butler, so when they started the season 3-20, no one was surprised. Chicago is lacking talent and are very inexperienced as they begin the rebuilding process, and have a long journey ahead of them, not to mention the altercation between Bulls players Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis early in the season that left Mirotic with a broken nose and Portis suspended. However, Mirotic's return apparently kick-started the Bulls, because since then the Bulls have not lost a game, and are on an unforeseen 6-game win streak.
Mirotic is doing what he does best: Scoring the basketball
Since entering the league in 2013, Mirotic has had his highs and lows. Mirtoic is a sharp-shooting stretch power forward, but has underachieved for the majority of his career. He is an incredibly streaky shooter, and when he is on, he is one of the best shooters in the league. He has never averaged over 12 points a game, but in his 6 games back he is averaging 20 points a game and shooting over 50% from both close range and behind the 3-point line. There is definitely a correlation between the Bulls' current win streak and Mirotic's elevated ability to score.
Mirotic proving to be a dangerous scoring threat is also opening the floor up for other Bulls players
Not only is Mirotic doing himself a favor by playing well, he is helping the rest of the young Bulls figure their own game out. Without Mirotic, Chicago had no true 3-point threat, which was allowing opponents to clog the lane and make it possible for off-ball defenders to give a lot of help defense.
Now with Mirotic being a threat from everywhere on the floor, the Bulls have much better spacing and it is allowing some other guys to play well.
Point guard Kris Dunn has benefited the most from Mirotic's presence, as he has been able to get to the paint, score, and even set up others for easy buckets. In the last 6 games, Dunn is averaging 17 points and over 7 assists a game, and is playing the best basketball of his young NBA career.
Ironically, Bobby Portis has also excelled since Mirotic's return. With teams having to pay more attention to and shade Mirotic, Portis has been able to get open and knock down 3's, as well as score in the paint. He's put up over 20 points twice during the 6-game win streak, and is shooting just under 50% from 3.
No, this does not make the Bulls a good team, or even an okay team, but Mirotic and the win streak is at least something for Chicago fans to be excited about. We will have to see how long the Bulls will be able to keep up the strong play.
