What will freedom to play basketball do for the Bulls?

[poido123]

No more hardline practices.

No more knee jerk subs.

No more poor in game adjustments (we hope)

We will probably have a play book outside of top of the key screens for the ball handler. Surely this will help guys like Butler and Mirotic who look to move off the ball?

I think we may even see Doug show that he belongs. An offensive coach will do wonders drawing up plays to get him open.

I can only see positive things for the Bulls this coming season.


My gut feeling is the players will respond well to a less stubborn coach like Hoiberg.

[Akrazotile]

Should really open things up for Rose and enable him to get hurt in new and more creative ways.

[I<3NBA]

nothing. Lebron is still in the East.

[Papaya Petee]

The two responses above me pretty much nailed it.

[BlackWhiteGreen]

Someone elses gut feeling could be that without the structure they will fall apart. Gasol was at his best in the triangle. Noah and Rose both had their best seasons under Thibs. Will Butler be as motivated with a big contract, and no one to push him day after day?

This could go either way and there's absolutely no way to tell, as almost all the Bulls' players are unknown commodities outside of Thibs' system or too old to be certain they can keep producing at a high level.

[KembaWalker]

Tony Snell averaging 20+ PPG whilst stealing yo gurl

http://www.slamonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/TonySnell-634x380.jpg

[Kobe_6/8]

http://blacksportsonline.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/LeBron-Jimmy-Butler-Dunk-Playoffs.png

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/99/92/5a/99925ac7b8d2ab484b7f2a290059f6a6.jpg

[Gileraracer]

above nailed it.

LeBron will still flop his way to the finals just to get destroyed by Western Conference.

[Naero]

I'll be the first to say that it's going downhill for this dysfunctional Bulls organization. Fred Hoiberg is not an effectual upgrade over Tom Thibodeau, and all the Bulls fans that denigrated Thibodeau's workmanship will deserve this reality check over the course of the upcoming season.

While I'm not a self-proclaimed Bulls fan, I've known more than a few Chicago natives who have moved up here in Wisconsin who I'd feel good to see their fanhood rewarded with a Bulls championship; therefore, it hurts me to say this, but it is not disacknowledgeable to me either.

Firstly, it is the defensive culture that propelled this team to overachievement, which is mostly attributable to Tom Thibodeau, who co-coached the Boston Celtics to top-five defensive-rankings every season during his assistant-coaching tenure before eventually being given his first head-coaching stint for the Bulls. They lack talent and have only been able to been able to stay relevant by expending maximal effort and grit.

What happens to that defensive culture under a more frenetic-paced offensive, which Hoiberg plans to run? The defensive will likely diminish, as fast-paced teams tend to hold an inverse correlation to defensive effectivity.

That is why Thibodeau employed a slower-paced offense, as it gave players ample time to set up the offense while also needfully conserving energy for the defensive end. It's an inefficient paradigm when you interbalance offensive and defensive effectivity, which is why you've never seen the uptempo offensive teams, such as the Phoenix Suns, never truly whiffing a title.

Thibodeau has been reputedly known as an offensive liability, when most of the Bulls' offensive struggles are not even attributable to him. Anyone who has watched the Bulls would have seen that many clean-look shots have been orchestrated out of it, but they did not materialize because they lack the personnel to convert on the perimeter-oriented shots consistently

[chips93]

What happens to that defensive culture under a more frenetic-paced offensive, which Hoiberg plans to run? The defensive will likely diminish, as fast-paced teams tend to hold an inverse correlation to defensive effectivity.

That is why Thibodeau employed a slower-paced offense, as it gave players ample time to set up the offense while also needfully conserving energy for the defensive end. It's an inefficient paradigm when you interbalance offensive and defensive effectivity, which is why you've never seen the uptempo offensive teams, such as the Phoenix Suns, never truly whiffing a title.

the golden state warriors led the league in both pace and defensive efficiency just last year, the second fastest team, the rockets, ranked 8th defensively. so theres plenty of reasons to believe the bulls could play a faster pace and still be a great defensive team.


Thibodeau has been reputedly known as an offensive liability, when most of the Bulls' offensive struggles are not even attributable to him. Anyone who has watched the Bulls would have seen that many clean-look shots have been orchestrated out of it, but they did not materialize because they lack the personnel to convert on the perimeter-oriented shots consistently—a shortcoming that the front office is blamable for more so than Thibodeau.

they drafted him two sharp shooting bigs in mcdermott and mirotic to help this problem, and neither was utilised correctly.


Lastly, Thibodeau was notorious for "running players into the ground." There is at least a modicum of truth to that, but his hand has also been forced to overplay some players due to how short-handed his roster has been. Plus, the Bulls' eventual eliminators in the playoffs (the Cavaliers) overplayed their top players even more. Plus, do you think the Bulls will expend less energy when they going to play a faster-paced offense while also trying to maintain their grit and full-bore-hustle culture?

the roster would look so thin if thibs were better at developing players. he has too short a leash on young guys. you need to let them play through their mistakes for them to develop, and that strategy would pay dividends in the playoffs when you have more battle tested youngsters that you can trust.



im not sure hoiberg is a better coach than thibs, nobody knows that yet. but i do know that he is a young innovative coach, and that thibs had worn out his welcome, he drove the players too hard, and a change was needed.

hoiberg is a good young coach to take a chance on, considering things with thibs just werent working out.

i'd expect to see more of mirotic at PF where he'll bring shooting, and underrated defense, id expect one of the bigs to be traded to make more room for mirotic at the 4. gibson doesnt look like a hoiberg type player, he could be the odd man out.

even in today's stagnated college game, hoiberg's team always had great ball movement, great tempo, and jacked up tons of threes, so the bulls offense ought to look completely different this year, for the better.

[smoovegittar]

I'm not a Bull's fan and this is a great post. I think they could get off to a great start... might catch a few teams off-guard. We'll see how the new coach handles it. I hope they can help keep the East competitive.

[97 bulls]

I kinda agree with Naero. A more freeflowing offensive tempo tends to hurt the defense. The Bulls problem has always been two things. Health and they just need mire talent.

[poido123]

Someone elses gut feeling could be that without the structure they will fall apart. Gasol was at his best in the triangle. Noah and Rose both had their best seasons under Thibs. Will Butler be as motivated with a big contract, and no one to push him day after day?

This could go either way and there's absolutely no way to tell, as almost all the Bulls' players are unknown commodities outside of Thibs' system or too old to be certain they can keep producing at a high level.


Butler pushed himself. A guy who spent a summer locked away from television and other things, only eating good food and training. That doesn't sound like a guy who simply slacks off.

I think you and I can agree that Thibs had little to no offensive creativity. We will improve in that area.

Thibs could not make in game adjustements. Hoiberg can surely do at least one.

Defense will be the big question mark and I think that is based on the health of our defensive anchor Noah.

We will only go as far as the health of Noah and Rose.

[poido123]

the golden state warriors led the league in both pace and defensive efficiency just last year, the second fastest team, the rockets, ranked 8th defensively. so theres plenty of reasons to believe the bulls could play a faster pace and still be a great defensive team.



they drafted him two sharp shooting bigs in mcdermott and mirotic to help this problem, and neither was utilised correctly.



the roster would look so thin if thibs were better at developing players. he has too short a leash on young guys. you need to let them play through their mistakes for them to develop, and that strategy would pay dividends in the playoffs when you have more battle tested youngsters that you can trust.



im not sure hoiberg is a better coach than thibs, nobody knows that yet. but i do know that he is a young innovative coach, and that thibs had worn out his welcome, he drove the players too hard, and a change was needed.

hoiberg is a good young coach to take a chance on, considering things with thibs just werent working out.

i'd expect to see more of mirotic at PF where he'll bring shooting, and underrated defense, id expect one of the bigs to be traded to make more room for mirotic at the 4. gibson doesnt look like a hoiberg type player, he could be the odd man out.

even in today's stagnated college game, hoiberg's team always had great ball movement, great tempo, and jacked up tons of threes, so the bulls offense ought to look completely different this year, for the better.



Good post.

[SwishSquared]

Didn't Butler regress defensively with the uptick in offensive burden? Don't get me wrong- the guy is a workhorse of a player and I love watching him. But they needed to address getting another wing defender or developing Snell to be a real 3&D guy capable of playing 20mpg. If the offense is improved, perhaps other guys can carry more of the scoring burden and he can re-focus on playing otherworldly defense.

Regarding the FO- I honestly think they blew that 2014 draft. McDermott can still be a real player, but I'd rather have Nurkic & Rodney Hood (whom I had rated higher than Gary Harris fwiw) than roll the dice on McDermott.

I think in retrospect that Nate Duncan was right last summer- getting Pau on that cheap of a contract was a major coup- but perhaps signing IT would have been the right call. Pau propped up the offense (and will do that again this season I bet). But he's also a pretty lazy defender and doesn't provide enough floor spacing and defense when he plays alongside Noah (I hope they stop doing that finally). Rose needs more rest in order to stay effective and Chicago honestly needs another perimeter creator.

I'm interested to see how Taj recovers from his ankle injury- it was reported recently he played with torn ligaments last year. Also, Noah needs to really bounce back in a contract year if Chicago wants to make some noise this season.

If you reverse that draft-day trade and they sign IT over Pau, this is their rotation:

Rose-Butler-MDJ-Mirotic-Noah
IT2-Harris-Snell-Taj-Nurkic/Portis

Is that better than what they have now? Maybe so, too early to tell, but they'd still have a ton of young big man talent that they could package in a trade for a clear upgrade.

[HylianNightmare]

they couldn't win last year. don't see them getting any closer this year, though I hope I'm wrong

[DoctorP]

No more hardline practices.

No more knee jerk subs.

No more poor in game adjustments (we hope)

We will probably have a play book outside of top of the key screens for the ball handler. Surely this will help guys like Butler and Mirotic who look to move off the ball?

I think we may even see Doug show that he belongs. An offensive coach will do wonders drawing up plays to get him open.

I can only see positive things for the Bulls this coming season.


My gut feeling is the players will respond well to a less stubborn coach like Hoiberg.

1st round exit.

[Thorpesaurous]

I really liked the roster last year, not in terms of it being elite talent, but as far as depth and versatility, and even then openly wondered if Thibs could play with the roster enough to get the most out of it. And although it may have taken some injuries to get it done, he did eventually do it. Mirotic played plenty, and the team did do some interesting things. Probably not as much as I'd hoped to see, but more than I expected.

I think they've got a one year window here where the structure of Thibs' principals will hold up and Hoiberg's free flowing offense can co-exist. But the age and injury risks are probably still to much to really contend.

This year's Heat are sort of like last year's Bulls, in that the roster is deep and flexible, but with a few key unknowns, but I trust Spoelstra to get more out of that than what Thibs did.