According to reports, Milwaukee Bucks sharpshooting forward Nikola Mirotic has signed a deal to return back overseas to play with Spanish club Barcelona.
This year’s free agency period has yet to open and the Milwaukee Bucks are already down one departure.
First reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania Saturday afternoon, Bucks free agent forward Nikola Mirotic has opted to return overseas to play with Spanish club Barcelona.
NBA free agent Nikola Mirotic has decided to sign with Euroleague club Barcelona, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Mirotic was in the market for $45-50M total in contract in the NBA.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2019
There had been rumblings earlier in the day that the 28-year-old was exploring a return back to Spain where he previously spent six seasons playing with Barcelona rival, Real Madrid, before making the jump to the NBA with the Chicago Bulls for the 2014-15 season.
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The news certainly comes as quite the curveball as Mirotic was standing as one of the more desirable stretch forward options on the open market during this year’s free agency.
More to the point, Mirotic was garnering plenty of interest from teams around the league, with the Utah Jazz being a primary suitor as Marc Stein of the New York Times tweeted following the news:
Utah had major interest in signing Nikola Mirotic to a three-year deal in the $45 million range, league sources say, but Mirotic was apparently determined to make a total change and return to @EuroLeague life
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 29, 2019
Whether the Bucks had interest in extending Mirotic’s stay in Milwaukee is unknown at this time, but their more pressing free agent concerns at the moment certainly hindered any attempt they could have made to do so.
Of course, this caps off Mirotic’s brief tenure with the Bucks, which unceremoniously ended during their flameout in the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the eventual NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors.
Mirotic was the Bucks’ big acquisition on the day of this year’s trade deadline from the New Orleans Pelicans to prepare for their coming playoff push.
While the Montenegrin initially looked to have settled into his new surroundings after the All-Star break, Mirotic suffered a fractured thumb in late March, which limited him to 14 regular season appearances with Milwaukee.
Mirotic wound up returning to action at the start of the Bucks’ first round series with the Detroit Pistons, but never found his footing nor his shooting touch as their run progressed through the postseason, all of which culminated in his bottoming out against the Raptors.
For all the Bucks fans wondering what this means for the team’s financial outlook heading into free agency, it changes very little as they’ll still need to renounce Mirotic’s rights to recover the cap room needed to sign their other significant free agents as salary cap expert Albert Nahmad outlined:
Despite Nikola Mirotic apparently heading overseas to play for Euroleauge club Barcelona, the Bucks would still need to renounce his $18.8M cap hold to recover the cap room (which would cost them his Bird rights if he were to return to the NBA at some point in the future).
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) June 29, 2019
As stunning as the news is to both the Bucks and to teams around the league, it does tie up at least one of the big questions facing Milwaukee going into the start of free agency Sunday evening.
With that, we wish the best of luck to Mirotic going forward as he returns back to Europe.