Derrick Rose Running Hoiball 2.0 Should Be Main Focus
If GarPax and Fred Hoiberg reviewed all Bulls games this past season, it might help them recognize Derrick Rose fits Hoiball.
Fred Hoiberg tweaking the Bulls offense to incorporate sets from Tom Thibodeau era to allow Jimmy Butler (along with Pau Gasol) to put up numbers.
In Thibodeau’s last year with the Bulls, most half-court plays had majority of the offense run thru Butler in ISO situations at the expense of scorers languishing on the bench like Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic, Tony Snell and even E’Twaun Moore.
On the other hand, Derrick Rose ran the system that Hoiberg was setting into place. There were times when Hoiberg had to constantly reminded Rose about the importance of crossing the ball past half-court quickly to allow the team to attack with more time on the shot clock.
Rose had some defensive lapses keeping track of his mark and some of this may be attributed to a player not wanting to aggravate injuries that may cost him another season. The interesting part about Rose’s game is that it got better each month until the team got Butler back full-time and the offense ran through him again full-time.
At the beginning of the season, you can see how Hoiball really works. The Bulls won easily on the road against the woeful Philadelphia 76ers and the shooters on the team, including the much-maligned Tony Snell, looked like attacking cheetahs.
If you check the box score in that win, you will see why the Bulls were smoking: Doug McDermott (18 points, 3/6 from long range), Nikola Mirotic (20 points, 3/7 from long range), Tony Snell (10 points, 2/3 from long range), E’Twaun Moore (9 points), and Derrick Rose (12 points, eight assists).
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Pau Gasol (16 points, nine rebounds) and Jimmy Butler (7 points, 1/3 from long range) may not have been happy to only score like so, but the Bulls still found success.
Fast forward to the quadruple-OT loss to the Detroit Pistons in December, followed by another loss to New York — two games where Jimmy Butler hogged the ball.
In the Detroit loss, the three top players scored 30 points: Butler with 44, Rose with 34, and Gasol with 30, but the rest of the team languished with empty minutes (up to 20 minutes each of watching Butler shoot poorly) for the shooters because Butler was forcing the issue, bricking shots in the final overtime when he could have allowed teammates to help out.
As expected, he got tired and the Pistons won a game the Bulls would have gladly taken for their playoff hopes.
Do GarPax want Jimmy Butler to play hero-ball and lose games to teams they can beat given the talent level on the squad? The start of the season showed us that Hoiball is better with distributed scoring and sharing the ball. Whenever the Bulls played the same game and shared the ball, they won easily. Hoiball is all about winning easy with easy offense.
Most of the supposed big games won on Butler’s shoulders were lucky wins. Even his 53-point performance was a game closed out by Moore and McDermott shooting well, not just by Butler.
When Butler gets touches, he uses the shot clock poorly. Butler’s need to play on-ball limits opportunities for his teammates to have chances to contribute to scoring.
Rose on the other hand, is an unselfish passer who would kick the ball out or pass ahead to open teammates.
The philosophy behind Hoiball is to score within the first 15 seconds of the shot clock via three-point shooting if opportunities are there, as well as allowing the team to attack via movement traps and side-to-side passing that create mismatches for open shots everywhere.
Rose is the player on which to anchor such an offense. He can take advantage of lanes opening up from teammates creating space with their three-point shooting, while still sharing the ball.
The fact that his game progressed steadily after healing from his eye injury showed that he can still play at a level that is equal to or above that of the best current All-star guards. He syncs with his teammates better, too. Joakim Noah has his respect after being with him when he won MVP and fighting hard even when the Bulls were a mish-mash of aging vets and an upcoming young core.
Now that the Bulls are stocked with players who can gun it running, will they regress by holding them back to keep Butler happy?
We don’t know if Butler is willing to take a backseat to the young shooting team on the Bulls waiting for their breakout turn next year and work his offense off-ball.
Minnesota hiring Thibodeau may be Butler’s only golden parachute.
If Jimmy is traded to any other NBA team (like Orlando or Boston), he may not be putting up the same numbers with them that he put up for the Bulls this season.
Watch the videos and tell me if the Bulls are better winning easy with Derrick Rose as the main man or having Jimmy Butler grabbing another All-Star invite with scoring highlights worth setting back his talented teammates and losing another season.
Next: Finding a role for Bobby Portis in Hoiball
I think GarPax are just waiting for the best offer and looking to make a blockbuster trade soon.