Nikola Mirotic Has Finally Returned From Never Never Land

Lately, Nikola Mirotic sightings have been in a similar vein as old stories of Bigfoot or my personal favorite, the Chupacabra... A hell of a lot of rumors and conjecture and not a ton of factual evidence. Well that changed yesterday, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reported that Mirotic (who may or may not still have a Quasimodoesque lump on his face) returned to workout at the Bulls' Advocate Center-- but only after the team departed for Miami. Johnson goes on to explain more here-

Nikola Mirotic visited the Advocate Center on Wednesday for his first supervised, light workout since Bobby Portis punched him in the face on Oct. 17, breaking two facial bones and causing a concussion. That Mirotic worked out after the Bulls departed for a two-game trip beginning Wednesday in Miami—even factoring in the possibility he had previous morning obligations—only adds to the widespread belief that the two power forwards will have difficulty co-existing moving forward.

What Happens Now?

Its worth noting that If Paxson’s plan is to trade Mirotic, he can’t do so until January 15-- as was reported in a well written piece by my colleague Matt Peck, chronicaling all the need-to-know info pertinent to the Mirotic-Portis feud. So aside from reporting that a sad Niko has been seen riding a bike supervised by Bulls staff members there's really nothing else to say that can't be found there. However, considering for all we know Mirotic might have been healing his face in the sacred waters of Lake Minnetonka, or doing back strokes in the Caspian sea with Cat Stevens; this is most definitely something. Literally no one knew where the guy was or exactly how he was feeling for quite some time. So as far as progress goes, this certainly can be categorized as just that- Progress. The Bulls play the Miami Heat tonight at 6:30 in Miami.