Is Fred Hoiberg an NBA Level Coach?

[HomoSapien]

Fred's a rookie coach and deserves to have enough time to learn the game. I think that time is starting to run out, and if the team were to continue underachieving by the All-Star break next season, you'd look to make a change.

So far this season, there's a few big takeaways:

1.) This team no longer plays with urgency or passion.

2.) They no longer play defense, despite recently being a strong defensive team with the same personnel. In fact, they've gotten worse each month at defense, and on a microlevel, I've personally noticed Portis taking steps backwards defensively as well.

There's been lot's of troubling sound bytes throughout the season. Here are a few:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/712832080854589440[/tweet]

Butler: "My teammates won’t say it. My coaches won’t say it. But if I continue to play like this, I’m hurting this team."

I believe in the guys in this locker room, yeah. But I also believe in … we probably have to be coached a lot harder at times. I’m sorry. I know Fred’s a laid-back guy, and I respect him for that. But when guys aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, you’ve got to get on guys. Myself included. You’ve gotta do what you’re supposed to do when you’re out there playing basketball.”

[tweet]https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/711377557531262976[/tweet]

Time in and time out, Fred Hoiberg seems like a guy who is overwhelmed with his job. Nearly every game, I see him call an angry time out after consecutive missed defensive assignments ... but he just stands there, frozen, as if he's unsure of what to do. We rarely come out of a time out with a successful adjustments, worse teams regularly beat us, and we're currently out of the playoffs. So, the basic question is this: Is Fred Hoiberg an NBA coach?

[Red Larrivee]

Fred's a rookie coach and deserves to have enough time to learn the game. I think that time is starting to run out, and if the team were to continue underachieving by the All-Star break next season, you'd look to make a change.

So far this season, there's a few big takeaways:

1.) This team no longer plays with urgency or passion.

2.) They no longer play defense, despite recently being a strong defensive team with the same personnel. In fact, they've gotten worse each month at defense, and on a microlevel, I've personally noticed Portis taking steps backwards defensively as well.

Let's stop here.

1. The team didn't play with urgency or passion at all last season under the coachiest of coaches in Thibodeau, but on most nights they were still talented enough to win. This is basically the same team, but when you consider the amount of individual regression combined with the injuries and improved Eastern Conference, it makes sense why they're worse.

2. The defense was 11th last year, which isn't awful, but last year was a good indication that the scrappy band of try-hards was no more. Still, I didn't expect the defense to fall as much as it has this year, though a big factor is Joakim Noah missing 53 games. It's magnified by having to play Pau Gasol at center.

Hoiberg has issues obviously. It's a big step going from 19-20 something year old kids to 28-35 year old NBA veterans. For me at least, if Hoiberg doesn't pan out, I won't look back at his rookie season and say "this is why we knew he wouldn't work."

[Chi]

He does appear overwhelmed at times, and I think it's pretty safe to say he'll never be a "Great" coach. But an NBA level coach, he still can possibly be that.

It's clearly something wrong in the locker room with the roster or organization or both because Tibs had a lot of these same problems in his last yr and we all know he was an elite level coach without a doubt.

They just stopped having consistent effort last year and they still haven't gotten back to it. Some people blamed Tibs, it's clear that wasn't the case. But the fact that this problem is still here even though Hoiberg is the exact opposite of Tibs in every way leads me to believe it's not all his fault either.

It's something wrong with our roster.

Call me crazy, but I blame Pau for that more than anyone else...

[HomoSapien]

1. The team didn't play with urgency or passion at all last season under the coachiest of coaches in Thibodeau, but on most nights they were still talented enough to win. This is basically the same team, but when you consider the amount of individual regression combined with the injuries and improved Eastern Conference, it makes sense why they're worse.

I would argue that it's on an entirely different level this season. Injuries are certainly a big part of it, but it feels bigger than that.

2. The defense was 11th last year, which isn't awful, but last year was a good indication that the scrappy band of try-hards was no more. Still, I didn't expect the defense to fall as much as it has this year, though a big factor is Joakim Noah missing 53 games. It's magnified by having to play Pau Gasol at center.

I don't necessarily mean last year. I mean to start the season. We started off really well defensively, but have gotten worse as the season progressed.

[HomoSapien]

Call me crazy, but I blame Pau for that more than anyone else...

I go back and forth on this theory. I think there's truth in the idea that role players follow the lead of their stars. If guys like Pau, Butler, and Rose dog it then it sort of poisons things. Pau has statistically played well, but his lack of mobility (which sometimes just looks lazy) can kill us.

But if Pau's effort has poisoned things, why were we able to withstand Carlos Boozer's effort? Boozer was worse at everything. Is it simply because he seemed more engaged since he was a yeller?

[RememberLu]

Well, I would say that David Blatt looked quite over whelmed this year as well. And he's some kind of star HC over in Europe.

So regardless of what we think about Fred right now, he's in year 1 of his long term contract, and he's not going anywhere. Unless Gar is fired. And Gar isn't going anywhere.

[Overhere]

How many of the other coaches in the league could have taken this team to significantly more wins than Hoiberg's gotten this year given the circumstances? There's no way that number is 29. What you see right now is this roster not under a top-5 coach like Thibs.

Fred's still completely new to the NBA game, so firing him partially through his first season seems unnecessary. If he doesn't show any improvement through next year after a full offseason of preparation, that's when you start considering that option.

[Red Larrivee]

I would argue that it's on an entirely different level this season. Injuries are certainly a big part of it, but it feels bigger than that.

If you follow KC on Twitter, most of the post-game quotes read like they're from last year. The polarizing difference in coaching in the past two seasons is enough to show that the lack of urgency and passion isn't a coaching problem; it's a player problem.

I don't necessarily mean last year. I mean to start the season. We started off really well defensively, but have gotten worse as the season progressed.

Well, Joakim Noah missing 53 games this year versus 15 last year probably has a lot to do with it. Noah's not good offensively anymore but he's still our most important defender and a game-changer on that side.

[TheGOATRises007]

Well, there's plenty of bad coaches in the NBA. Hoiberg is one of them at the moment. He can get better. Will he get better? I don't know.

I don't think he'll be a good coach.

[weneeda2guard]

im starting to doubt it seriously

as i have posted a dozen times, i still see no resemblance of a quality offense. ball movement is preached in just about every locker room on every level in the world. its the movement without the ball and the floor spacing that makes a offense special. imo those 2 elements are just piss poor and that is on the coaching. i refuse to believe hoiberg has such a complicated system that guys who been in coaching systems since grammer school would be this confused by it. eventually the realization settles in that this group of guys tried hoiball, it wasnt effective and they quit doing it. that is also on a coach to help players buy in. and obviously considering how much a lot of these players gave up for thibs, i refuse to believe they have a locker room full of uncoachable guys. hoiberg is just clearly not motivating them.

some of this is still def on no roster moves being made. better players could help a lot. new voices, energy, talent in the locker room can motivate and fire up a team. with all that considered, you dump a coach who got max effort out of poor players and didnt replace that with another coach who could do the same. then you locked this guy up for 5 years knowing the track record of college coaches who have failed on the nba level. and hell hoiberg wasnt even as successful as other failed college coaches in college. yet we drop a deal for him with no real litmus test to see how effective he could be on a nba level.

doesnt take an entire season for a system to be implemented. just recently a new system was implemented in atlanta they learned it and had the best record in the east last season, hell we struggled for about 20 games under thibs year 1 then we were off to the races for best record in the league 2 years in a row.

add in fred piss poor feel for the game and having rotations in the game that work, guy cant draw up effective plays out of bounds, is poor coaching down the stretch of close games, terrible at motivation, this is just not good.

[coldfish]

Right now? Lol, no. He really looks like he is in over his head. I say this ignoring record.

The Bulls aren't going to fire him anytime soon though. Can he learn? Maybe. The biggest thing I would say is that the bench behind him needs to be completely revamped. A coach doesn't have to be a master tactician but someone has to be good at the fundamentals and the coach just has to figure out who to listen to and when. Right now it appears that Hoiberg doesn't have anyone who can help him or that he trusts.

[BullsGate]

Hell to **** No

[Mech Engineer]

Call me crazy, but I blame Pau for that more than anyone else...

I go back and forth on this theory. I think there's truth in the idea that role players follow the lead of their stars. If guys like Pau, Butler, and Rose dog it then it sort of poisons things. Pau has statistically played well, but his lack of mobility (which sometimes just looks lazy) can kill us.

But if Pau's effort has poisoned things, why were we able to withstand Carlos Boozer's effort? Boozer was worse at everything. Is it simply because he seemed more engaged since he was a yeller?

Boozer for all his issues never seemed to act as if he is some great player or leader. The vibe when Pau talks is more like how Rip supposedly talked. There is that sense of being a champion which can lead to dictate things/process compared to Boozer who just wanted to fit in.

I also feel Pau for all his stats and seemingly a nice person has been a complete negative culture-changing addition for this team.

[Red Larrivee]

But if Pau's effort has poisoned things, why were we able to withstand Carlos Boozer's effort? Boozer was worse at everything. Is it simply because he seemed more engaged since he was a yeller?

A minority of posters said this repeatedly, but Boozer was excellent for team chemistry. Sure, he sucks at defense and was awful in his last season with us, but he was never thrown under the bus with or without a Bulls jersey on. This board tried their hardest to act like Gibson hated Boozer or something, but Gibson actually credited Boozer for improvement along the way. There was definitely a brotherhood with the Rose/Deng/Boozer/Noah/Gibson group.

That same bond doesn't exist right now, but I don't Gasol is poisoning the locker room.

[TheGOATRises007]

To be fair to Fred, some of our defensive decline can be attributed to Boylen and his switching method.

The Bulls don't have the players to switch constantly and we constantly do it. Insanity.

[TheGOATRises007]

And to be fair to Fred again, the players do have terrible chemistry. I mean they barely communicate on the floor. They don't have fun when they play.

[HomoSapien]

Well, Joakim Noah missing 53 games this year versus 15 last year probably has a lot to do with it. Noah's not good offensively anymore but he's still our most important defender and a game-changer on that side.

We've also gotten worse as the season progresses since Noah's injury. In fact, I believe ESPN posted a stat about how we've gotten worse by the month.

There's other little things worth noting. Aaron Brooks enters every game and goes berserk. He just destroys the offense with his bad shots. A good coach would have said something to Brooks... and maybe Hoiberg has, but the fact that Brooks hasn't changed the way he's playing makes you wonder if anything has been said to him. Brooks is a shoot first guard, but he's been an asset for most of his career. It's a coaches job to get the best out of his players. We've only got a few players that are giving their best effort.

[fleet]

It is disturbing how many times we have heard players and coach say that the team isn't doing what the pregame plan was.

Lack of control in some aspects

[Mech Engineer]

To be fair to Fred, some of our defensive decline can be attributed to Boylen and his switching method.

The Bulls don't have the players to switch constantly and we constantly do it. Insanity.

That's a good point. In all honesty, Fred is probably not coaching any part of the defense. He is obviously responsible for it because he is the head coach. We all think anyone from San Antonio should be a great coach but every organization has crappy coaches/people who ride the coattails of success of the organization. Boylen might be one of those who might have gotten good praise but not good enough to scheme an NBA defense all on his own.

[Mr Funk]

I don't think Pau is poisoning the locker room as well, but as our starting centre he has set a horrendous example with his body language: the sulking, flailing around and half-ass efforts on the defensive end (which is a generous way of putting it). In previous seasons, at least in the Thibs era, we would never see someone acting like Pau does on the court. Plus, throw in Niko, Snell, Brooks, Portis and Doug, and that's a lot of one dimensional, soft players.

If Pau walks this summer (should've moved him at the deadline), I'd like to see Fred given a chance with an improved roster and not one bogged down like it has been the past two seasons.