Before making the decision to head back over to Europe to play basketball in Barcelona, big man Nikola Mirotic had drawn interest from the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks in free agency, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times.

Given that Mirotic was set to be a fairly coveted player this offseason, his decision to jump to the EuroLeague certainly came out of left field.

Mirotic split the 2018-19 campaign with the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks, with the Pelicans trading him to the Bucks at the traded deadline. However, he was limited to just 46 games overall due to injury. During that time, he averaged 15.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game while shooting 43.9 percent from the floor, 36.5 percent from three-point range and 84.7 percent from the free-throw line.

The 28-year-old was originally selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round (23rd pick overall) of the 2011 NBA Draft but was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls.

He made his NBA debut during the 2014-15 campaign, appearing in all 82 contests and registering 10.3 points and 4.9 boards across 20.2 minutes a night while making 40.5 percent of his field-goal attempts, 31.6 percent of his long-distance tries and 80.3 percent of his foul shots.

Mirotic went on to spend the first three-and-a-half seasons of his NBA career with the Bulls before being dealt to the Pelicans midway through the 2017-18 campaign.

He owns career averages of 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds through 24.2 minutes per game while connecting on 42.3 percent of his shots, 35.9 percent of his triples and 80.8 percent of his free throws.