I think the earliest is likely 2014, assuming details with the buyout can work. NBA teams can only pay up to 500K of a buyout and his first contract will be tied to the rookie scale still for a while. I want to say his current contract ends after 2016 at which point you wouldn't need a buyout, but its unlikely he'd get to that point without extending the years, so at some point a buyout is likely going to have to occur. The key is when his salary isn't tied by the rookie scale. I think its either two years or four years. Once we can pay him more, it will be easier to entice him, regardless of the large buyout number. Edit-Research: He'll be tied to the rookie scale amount for his first three years, which at the 120% max is as follows: 1,242,240.00 | 1,335,360.00 | 1,428,600.00 His buyout is said to be 2Mil EUR, which is about $2.6M in today's dollars. Bulls could pay $500K this year and increase by increments of 25K each year. So in 2013, with the Bulls kicking in the full amount allowed, he's losing about $620K that first season. Now its possible for him to work out a payment plan with his club or negotiate a lower buyout, but he's still being hit pretty hard funding a buyout on the scale of a 23rd pick. Starting in year 4 from the draft (2014 off season), we could sign him like any other free agent, the catch of course you need cap space or cap exceptions (like the MLE) to do it. The MLE is now a lot less effective, especially if you are over the luxury tax. Hard to say for sure, but we will likely be over the tax at that point, so our MLE won't be the full-sized one. So Mirotic, would still be taking a huge cut his first year. In 2015 Boozer expires, so we'd probably have the full MLE to use, but you have to keep in mind, that we wouldn't have any room for FA additions, as he'd be it. He'd be 24 at that point. The next season he'd be free of his Real Madrid commitment, but I doubt he takes that risk. At some point he'll extend. All that being said, I think it will work out. People were worried Asik wasn't coming over for a long time, especially because I believe he signed an extension after his first year, but it all worked out and he came over in a reasonable schedule.