Replacing Tom Thibodeau with Fred Hoiberg was a move the Chicago Bulls definitely did not need to make, and now it’s come back to bite them badly. Hoiberg has certainly become the Bulls version of what Marc Trestman was to the Chicago Bears.
In both cases, the team brought in a guy who never really accomplished enough to merit being given the gig in the first place.
Both coaches were hailed as offensive geniuses, but we haven’t really seen a truly elite offense take hold. As for defense, well that’s was like UFOs, poltergeists, the Loch Ness monster etc.- we can’t confirm actual existence of that.
Both Trestman and Hoiberg are way too lax with their players, and they lost control right from the start.
Under weak leadership, decline has set in and now the Chicago Bulls are out of the playoffs for the first time since 2008; the year they won the Derrick Rose lottery in the NBA Draft. Rose will sit for the two final meaningless games, and then, a very long offseason sets in. (Of course, that’s only metaphorically speaking, in the NBA, the off-season is actually pretty short)
We’ve been saying for months that the Chicago Bulls need to blow this thing up and totally start over. Former Bull/ESPN Pundit Jay Williams agrees.
You can read his rationale as to why in this exclusive interview we had with him.
We also had an exclusive with Dominique Wilkins, one of the league’s most prominent players during the Michael Jordan dynasty years. In fact, ‘Nique was the last guy to lead the NBA in points per game before Jordan began his run of consecutive scoring titles.
Part one of our exclusive with the “Human highlight reel” was posted yesterday. Here’s what he had to say about the Chicago Bulls, their disappointing season and a potential new direction when we brought it up.
“You got to be careful what you wish for. They had a tough coach in Tom Thibodeau from a defensive stand point but they’re not the same defensive team.”
“They need to find out who they are, they have some identity issues,” the Basketball Hall of Famer said.
“But you got to give the new coach respect and you got to buy into his system, and they haven’t been able to make that adjustment so far.”
“The biggest thing for them is they need to decide who they are. You got to create an identity for yourself, and right now it doesn’t seem like they have one.”
“They need to define who’s the leader on that team, and they need to define what role everybody is going to play. I thought this year no one really had a clear idea of what their role was and that’s why you so saw so much inconsistency, with the team this year.”
Follow Dominique Wilkins on Twitter @DWilkins21
Audio of the Wilkins interview is below. Chicago Bulls talk begins around the 5:00 mark:
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/dominique-wilkins-exclusive
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram