Nikola Mirotic appears ready to make his Bucks debut when the season resumes tomorrow, writes Matt Valazquez of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Acquired from the Pelicans in a deal at the trade deadline, Mirotic has been sidelined since January 23 by a strain in his right calf.
Mirotic spent the All-Star break in Milwaukee, getting treatments from the Bucks’ training staff and doing strength and conditioning exercises. The coaches were busy in Charlotte, but they left plenty of material for Mirotic to study. He was able to participate in five-on-five activities at today’s practice and will likely be listed as probable for Thursday’s game against the Celtics.
“It was great; I feel way, way better,” Mirotic said. “Today was huge for me to practice with the team. It was great being back with the team and doing some work, some scrimmage.”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- The Bulls will prioritize winning over draft position for the rest of the season, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago entered the All-Star break at 14-44, fourth in our latest Reverse Standings and just two games away from a chance to share the best odds for the No. 1 pick. However, building for the future is more important to the organization than tanking for a shot at Zion Williamson. “I don’t make all those big picture decisions,” coach Jim Boylen said. “Again, I’m doing what I’ve been asked to do, which is coach the team as hard as I can in the best way possible. I’m just trying to do that, and our guys have been great and they’ve improved. We’ve got to get more out of them and they’ve got to improve more, and we’re going to coach them that way.’’
- The Bulls‘ stance seems to include a commitment to center Robin Lopez, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Lopez saw his minutes cut back late last season and previously appeared to be a buyout candidate with a $14.4MM expiring contract. “We have not discussed a diminished role for him at all.” Boylen said.
- With Duke and North Carolina dominating the basketball spotlight tonight, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com talked to Cavaliers officials to get their view of NBA prospects from both schools. One member of the Cavs’ coaching staff compares Williamson to Charles Barkley, while Channing Frye believes Cameron Reddish is the best of the group.
Cam Reddish is going to be a perennial all-star. The kid is a pure shooter.
That pure shooter has a 35% FG % in college… 15 PER… literally the only thing he is doing well this season is stealing the ball.
Cam will be a 3 and D SF who can start games but is never likely to be a star.
Reddish is streaky. 8 game stretch shooting 43% 3s 16ppg, then 10 game stretch 24% 3s 10 pts. Then another 5 game stretch 39% 3s and 18ppg and he’s just off a terrible shooting night vs NC State but currently lighting up UNC.
He is the best shooter of the 3 Duke prospects though.
i actually believe the bulls have a great core. were a point guard away. i dont believe we need zion, id rather have RJ barret or JA murant.. or scary terry lol. either of them and a new coach and i think our future is bright.
Couldn’t agree more…Even drafting JA, and sliding Dunn over as a SG, or as the leader of the bench would be a solid move going forward. They could even use Porter as a small ball 4, alongside JA, Dunn, LaVine, Porter, and Markkanen..
Their biggest need is a leader, and someone the young guys can look up to. I’d actually love Stackhouse as their 2020 coach moving forward…
Bulls have their core. They need to be ahead of Phoenix and get Ja. Zion, RJ, and Cam don’t make sense for them.
Ja – LaVine – Porter Jr – Markannen – Carter Jr.
If you cant workout a reasonably cheap extension this summer… deal Dunn to the Suns for a future protected pick. Bring in a veteran on a 1 or 2 year pact. Beverley, Collison, or Lin.
Just think… if you waited 30 minutes to post this it could have been an article about Zion, sitting out a year instead of attending college, paying players, etc… Knicks futures gone after a shoe blow out.
Yea. Can someone explain how winning as many games as possible over the next 20 somethjng games helps us more than Zion it RJ Barrett. Can someone please explain that to me because there’s no way we make the playoffs. Who cares if Lavine or porter make a couple more shots I want the chance the draft a superstar because that’s the only way you can win a championship nowadays and let me tell u Lavine is not a superstar and as much as I like lauri neither is he