Niko Still Rising Star

In his second NBA season, Nikola Mirotic has gone through a typical sophomore slump.  Follow that link and you'll see his shooting percentages from the field and free throw line are down from last year.  He's been an easy target for many Bulls fans when talking about their struggles.  Still, he's productive enough that he made the Rising Star Challenge's World roster for the second straight year.

By coincidence, this is also the second consecutive year this All-Star Weekend event has split the teams between American and international players.  Mirotic started last year and scored 16 points in 20 minutes of the World's 121-112 victory.  His plus/minus rating of +19 was the highest of any player.  True, that doesn't mean much in the big picture, but it shows how for one night, he could compete with the best young stars in the game.

With everything the Bulls have had to deal with this year, many have been calling for the roster to be broken up so they can star fresh with a good young nucleus.  More often than not, Mirotic is not included among the players people want to keep around.  They particularly don't care for his defense or aforementioned shooting troubles.  I don't put much stock into Facebook comments, but it's gotten so bad that these two issues were highlighted in the most liked comment of the Bulls' official post about this news:

Nikola can't play defense and jacks up threes.  He is a falling star this year.  Ship him back to Europe.

I don't care for Mirotic's recent play as much as the next guy, but he's earned the right to be here.  There have been games this year when he's contributed on the levels of the Butlers, Gasols and Roses.  Although they haven't come very much, he has the stuff to keep putting those up both now and in the future.  It's why people responded to the above comment in a more levelheaded fashion, including one user who wrote this:


Never heard of a sophomore slump huh? Even Jimmy had one....#patience



Just remember that Mirotic is far from the primary problem.  The Bulls' role players as a whole have not been very good in general.  If you throw Mirotic under the bus, you have to do it to Doug McDermott, Tony Snell, Aaron Brooks and Taj Gibson too.  The stars can do their thing every night, but it means nothing without help from their "supporting cast", as Michael Jordan used to say.

Still, whatever problems your team is facing are meant to be forgotten for one weekend out of the year.  It's easier when you get to be part of the festivities, so Mirotic can use this as a chance to clear his head.  The Rising Stars Challenge will have as much defense as the All-Star Game itself, meaning Mirotic can just relax and do whatever he can to entertain to Toronto crowd.  If nothing else, he's earned the right to represent the Bulls and his country, which is something anyone like him can take pride in.