Jimmy Butler Stopped Playing Hoiball

The learning curve for learning Fred Hoiberg‘s new offense could have been easier if Jimmy Butler worked his game within the system.

After signing his new $90 million contract, Jimmy Butler was so eager to start the new season and enjoy the new freedom under a new coach to run a faster and a more efficient offense. He made a silly bet with his trainer that he could play all 82 games being in top physical conditioning.

In fact, Butler himself volunteered to play point guard during the summer and prove that he could sync with Fred Hoiberg’s new running game.

When the Bulls were having a heyday at the beginning of the season, Butler was playing his A-game — team defense and not minding his box score — claiming it would come as the season wore on. Hoiberg did run sets for him that allowed quick scores.

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The Bulls playing a quicker-set offense were a joy to watch.

The problem with Butler was his ego. After back-to-back losses in December, he called out his coach and even asked Hoiberg to run some of Tom Thibodeau’s old sets, which involved more isolation plays for him on offense, essentially slowing down the Bulls game.

The team would have lethargic starts by not running quick sets to the exasperation of Hoiberg and most of the deadly shooters on the team played empty minutes on the court.

Because the team lacked capable athletes, opponents found out they could find their second wind and outscore the Bulls in the fourth quarter.

It was a pain to watch Butler bleeding for his points when the team could have built a good spread then contain opponents by trading baskets to close out the fourth.

If you look at the Bulls sets in the video, you will understand that Hoiball is meant to run fast and quick sets all game long. The team took to the new system rather well at the beginning of the season and even held their own on defense. Even the bench got in on the scoring and the younger group contributed in a big way.

With the weakest link in the team for chemistry and adjusting to a fast paced game being still Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol, one could expect the front office to make the necessary adjustments.

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Butler was never a knockdown shooter or a clutch scorer out of college. He had teammates like Derrick Rose, Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic who could convert on 3-for-2 exchanges on offense, whether it be a quick three-point shot for opponents’ two point scores, or a quick Rose drive for a score in 10 seconds of each possession.

But, Butler chose to slow down the Bulls and even be irascible telling his teammates to “Give-him-the-ball-and-get-the-hell-out-of-the-way!” He did not allow the team to win the easiest way: by playing his game on defense, accepting that quick scoring was the new system requiring passing to the open shooter. Butler hogging the ball set back the team shooters one full season from growing into their role as the Bulls main scorers.

In the third part of the video, you see how Butler slows down the game and even though he scores in the featured sets, the Bulls lost many games when Butler consistently bricked shots in the clutch. When Butler isolated himself, the Bulls lost the advantage from the quick scores they converted in the early part of the video.

At the start of the season, the Bulls were built to trade three points for each score an opponent makes until the lead becomes comfortable enough to protect.

It took a bad injury to Butler for the Bulls shooters to find playing time and come into their own proving that the pace-and-space system works even without Butler.

Next: Re-signing Joakim Noah could open things up for the Bulls on offense

Butler wasn’t able to carry the team with his preferred game in tandem with Gasol into the playoffs (even admitting to the lost season as his fault) because he was a bad fit until the end is the reason making aggressive changes is necessary going into the summer.