With a hapless situation surrounding the Chicago Bulls, things continue to take a turn for the worse for the franchise. Already a team with minimal talent, the Bulls now find themselves in a tough situation with two of their players after Bobby Portis fractured the face of teammate Nikola Mirotic by throwing a single punch during a physical altercation at practice.
A lot has been made about the two’s relationship since then as Mirotic is reportedly ignoring Portis’ apology attempts and even admitted that it would be ‘difficult’ to suit up with Portis again. Well, it seems that Mirotic has found his solution according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times as the forward has given the franchise the option to either trade him or Portis:
Multiple sources Thursday confirmed to the Sun-Times that Mirotic’s camp gave the Bulls a ‘‘me or him’’ ultimatum, with Mirotic insisting he or Portis be gone when he is ready to return to action.
It’s worth noting that prior to this point, Mirotic had been adamant about remaining in Chicago so the relationship between him and Portis clearly has some genuine issues that need to be ironed out. While Mirotic does have a no-trade clause in his current deal, waiving it doesn’t seem to be an obstacle for him, especially at this point.
The NBA levied down an 8-game suspension for the third year man Portis which he is still serving. Mirotic still hasn’t determined whether he’ll get his facial fractures fixed surgically or just let the bones heal on their own as he must first wait for the concussion symptoms to alleviate before making the decision about his fractures. Either way, his current timeline has him slated for a return sometime in December.
Neither Mirotic or Portis have sky-high trade value at this juncture. Though Mirotic is a solid veteran forward with a smooth 3-point stroke, he just signed a lucrative contract this past offseason and is fairly one-dimensional. As for Portis, he just landed his own teammate in the hospital and himself hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations he was attached to when selected 22nd overall in 2015.
Expect one of the two to be traded but we would have to wait until January 15th for Mirotic to become trade-eligible. Until a solution, expect the Bulls to continue leaning heavily on rookie Lauri Markannen who has performed admirably while being thrust into a large role early on.
