Fred Hoiberg is a brilliant offensive mind, but his offense will always sputter if he and his staff cannot manage and creatively coach team defense and find players that work defensively as well his offense can.
Fred Hoiberg’s philosophy of running the opposing team to the ground tends to backfire once shooting percentages catch up and his team waste possessions off quick shots that the other team uses to set up easier opportunities on the fast break.
The key for this season to a running a more successful version of attack basketball using Hoiberg’s flow offense and more of a 15-second shot clock to pour it on and finding the right time to slow the game down.
It’s basic knowledge to most coaching experts and savvy hoop fans that you call timeouts or play slower to stop an opposing team’s momentum. If you don’t, you help them get into rhythm and the most difficult offense to stop is one that finds rhythm and flow off your own mistakes; something Fred Hoiberg experienced throughout his entire first season.
Subpar NBA teams would score at will at times and all Hoiberg could do was make excuses about playing tougher and doing things or letting things happen such as:
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- Playing Aaron Brooks half of a fourth quarter as the backup point guard almost always guaranteed an eight-point swing in favor of the opposing team.
- Playing a winded Pau Gasol in close games and suffer with his horrendous pick-and-roll defense.
- Having Jimmy Butler isolate offensively too much and take bad shots.
- Not playing Cristiano Felicio more to see what he can really do.
- Playing Taj Gibson heavy minutes as the sole post defender until he broke apart at the end of the season.
- Starting Cameron Bairstow, which confused everybody.
Next season, Hoiball must have consistent defensive stops flowing that lead into the Bulls’ own opportunities on the fast break, led by Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic. If Derrick Rose stays healthy, the Bulls can get a couple easy points due to Rose’s blazing coast-to-coast speed. If Jimmy Butler is a part of the roster, his offense can come off the ball in backdoor switchbacks or dives to the hoop for easy putbacks and lobs.
Look at the video below and see how Hoiball works like a song when the Bulls flow into McDermott and Nikola Mirotic as the first options on offense, while using movement traps to free up the shooters for good looks.
Also, Jimmy Butler passes off to the shooters when they are in position to gun a three-point shot, which makes for a smoother version of the offense. Butler himself can be involved in the flow of the Hoiball offense without hogging the ball. In that game above, Butler scored 23, while McDermott and Mirotic combined for eight threes and 30 points.
The only way that Fred Hoiberg can generate the same Bulls performance from above next year is if he manages balance on both ends of the floor. If Hoiberg and the staff can design defenses that keep the paint safe from attacking guards, his team can even out on offense and get the better of opponents given the elite shooting of the Bulls shooters, which can include Bobby Portis and Justin Holiday.
CBS Sports ran a recent look at players who could go undrafted this year and may turn out to be a vital piece of any NBA team looking to fill out their roster. Three of them are defensive wings-slash-guard players who are either too raw and inconsistent on offense to get a spot in the draft, but play explosively as defensive athletes and can grow with time.
Mentioned were: 6’7″ Danuel House from co-SEC regular season champion Texas A&M, 6’6″ Julian Jacobs from USC and 6’7″ Elgin Cook from Pac-12 champion Oregon.
Cook went head-to-head against NBA draft prospects Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss from Washington, California’s Jaylen Brown and Utah’s Jakob Poeltl in that conference and helped his team to a 14-4 conference record, a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed and a 31-7 overall mark.
GarPax can risk signing someone like Cook as a wing defender who can potentially raise his game to the NBA level given playing time and player development coaching with the new D-League affiliate. Cook can stay in front of opposing guards, block shots and keep the ball alive for second-chance possessions.
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The Bulls can turn defense into offense with the right personnel, good scouting and time.