Nikola Mirotic Wins Copa Del Rey MVP

Nikola Mirotic is no stranger to receiving accolades. The 22 year old has won the Euroleague Rising Star award in two consecutive years (2011, 2012), the FIBA under-20 MVP in 2011, and the ACB MVP in 2013 all while being named to the All-Euroleague Second Team in 2013 and the All-ACB team in 2013. Time to add another one to the list. At the conclusion of the Copa Del Rey, Mirotic was named the 2014 Copa Del Rey de Baloncesto MVP

Note- For those of you unfamiliar, the ACB is the league Spanish league Real Madrid plays in.

The Copa Del Rey de Baloncesto is the Spanish League’s end of the year tournament/playoffs for the top 8 teams from the regular season. Real Madrid entered the tournament as the top seed and cruised through victories over Herbalife Gran Canaria, Cal Zaragosa, and FC Barcelona Regal. Mirotic dominated in each these games with 17 points, 15 points, and 17 points (and 11 rebounds), respectively. For the entire tournament, Mirotic averaged 16.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.

The award shouldn’t do much to change how much it will cost the Bulls to bring the Montenegrin over to the NBA this summer. However with Mirotic winning the award and just being dominant overall (see our Nikola Mirotic scouting reports), Real Madrid may feel more pressure to keep him via an extension. It was reported back in late December Real Madrid planned to offer him an extension, though nothing else has been reported on that front from what we can find. That may partially be because Real Madrid and Mirotic still are in the middle of their season in the Euroleague.

If you’d like to see the initial press release from Real Madrid, click here. (the page is in Spanish).