Although the Bulls will struggle, this is a huge year for Fred Hoiberg
The excuses are done for Fred Hoiberg. No more “he doesn’t have his own type of personnel to succeed” talks. (Although, to be fair, the roster the last couple of years for the Bulls hasn’t been Hoiberg’s style.)
Sure, the Bulls are going to be bad. That’s not all on Hoiberg. But, what will fall back on Hoiberg and what could make his seat a bit hotter than many would think with the Bulls’ current front office is a lack of player development seen this season. John Paxson said Hoiberg has had “a phenomenal summer” working with the younger players on the Bulls roster and that needs to carry over into actual games.
A typical Hoiberg team will want to run, move the back quickly in the half-court sets they run and shoot a lot of 3-pointers. This team can do that with their youth-filled “assets” as the Bulls front office likes to call them, especially when Zach LaVine works his way back onto the hardwood.
Mirotic has his days. Markkanen was one of the best 3-point shooters in college hoops last season, especially for a guy that’s a 7-footer. LaVine was shooting a shade under 40 percent from 3 before his injury last season on almost seven attempts a game. The Bulls have some shooting. It’s on Hoiberg to unlock some of that potential these young Bulls have.
This isn’t a great roster by any means. Hell, it’s easily one of the worst in the league. But, there’s been something lacking from Hoiberg in what’s going to be his third season at the helm. Although the young guys are going to get a rise in playing time compared to the last two seasons, we really haven’t seen anything from the younger guys that were already on the Bulls roster before the rebuild began in June.
Nobody is or should be expecting more than 30 wins this season from this team, but fans should want more out of their younger players and that comes back to Hoiberg and his coaching staff. Everyone needs to show something this season and that includes the coaches.