Who Deserves Blame For Bulls’ Mediocre Season?
The Chicago Bulls have had their fair share of ups and downs, but who is to blame for the mediocre season that has unfolded?
In spite of the fact that the Chicago Bulls did not make any major moves during the offseason, they were expected to be a contender in an improved Eastern Conference. However, after 51 games, the Bulls do not look the part of a playoff-ready team.
In fact, not only have they dropped 12 of their previous 17 contests, they have also plummeted to the seventh spot in the conference playoff standings. Not what you would expect from a team that was billed as a championship-caliber ball club prior to start of the season.
The question is, who is to the blame for the disappointing results we have seen so far?
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When Tom Thibodeau arrived in the Windy City in 2010, he guided the Bulls to a 62-20 mark en route to the team’s first conference finals appearance in 13 seasons. In contrast, Fred Hoiberg has not had the same level of success during his inaugural season.
Heralded as an offensive-minded guru that was going to inject life into the Bulls’ offense, Hoiberg was supposed to be the missing piece that was going to help Chicago get over the hump (more on that later). As of right now, though, the Bulls are ranked 25th in offensive rating. They were ranked 11th in this category a season ago, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Additionally, under the previous coaching regime, the Bulls were a top-five defensive team in four of the past five seasons. These days, however, the only identity that the current roster has carved out for itself is a group that continuously finds different ways to lose games.
Whether it is allowing their opponent to overcome fourth-quarter deficits, or failing to register field goals in overtime periods, this Bulls team has been a major disappointment on multiple fronts.
But despite the team’s shortcomings, Derrick Rose doesn’t believe that Hoiberg is the primary culprit.
"“Fred’s been doing a great job of making us talk in practice,” Derrick Rose said via the Chicago Tribune. “(The coaches) rarely talk in practice now when we do drills, when we go over plays, because they’re trying to get us more used to being talkative while we’re out there. It’s rubbing off a little bit. It’s just that we need to do it more.”"
Taking those comments into consideration, it would not be right to blame Hoiberg for the team’s inconsistent play.
Let’s move on.
The Players
Although the Bulls’ offense isn’t the juggernaut that fans were expecting when Hoiberg was hired, the players have something to do with that. Regardless of how good of a game plan is created by the coaching staff, the onus is on the players to go out and execute that strategy to the best of their ability.
At times, the players have done exactly that, winning games against teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. In other instances, they build a sizable lead going into the fourth quarter only to watch it slip away as was the case in recent losses to the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
"“Every team goes through a rough stretch,” Taj Gibson said, via ESPN. “That’s what makes these teams good. But at the same time, in the Thibs days we went through a lot, so we had no choice. We went through a lot of this, so we had no choice but to keep rising. It was different personnel back then. We got a totally different new group of guys, young guys that’s coming from different clubs, so we have to try and mold them, try to keep pushing forward.”"
So are the players to blame for the team’s inconsistent play?
Getting close, but not quite.
Front Office
With the Bulls’ recent slide to the bottom of the conference, one could place the blame on the coach for not having the ability to reach the players. Another reasonable explanation would be the injury bug that has kept several players out of the rotation at various stretches.
That trend continued Monday in the Bulls’ 108-91 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, as both Jimmy Butler (knee) and Derrick Rose (soreness) were missing from the lineup. But if you choose to believe either of these reasons, then you’re not looking at the big picture.
The individuals who are responsible for this Bulls team are Gar Forman and John Paxson.
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In their eyes, a coaching change was supposed to help this team play up to its fullest potential. Needless to say that has not been the case at this point.
Furthermore, one of the reasons why Hoiberg accepted the coaching job was because Bulls executives sold him on the fact that he was inheriting a team with depth that was capable of contending for a title. This explains why the front office chose not to make any moves during the offseason despite the fact that the Bulls came up short in the playoffs yet again.
In reality, the only area of depth the team really had was in the frontcourt. But even that is no longer a luxury in light of injuries to Joakim Noah, Nikola Mirotic and Mike Dunleavy, who recently returned to the lineup for the first time this season.
What about Doug McDermott and Tony Snell?
Well, while both have shown glimpses of potential, neither of them has played well enough to be considered difference-makers on a nightly basis. The positive is the Bulls have a few good individual pieces on the roster.
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The bad news is they don’t have enough talent to seriously contend for a championship. Being that it has been that way for some time, the arrow has to point to Forman and Paxson as the primary culprits for what we have seen this season.
And unless changes are made at the top of the organizational hierarchy, Bulls fans should not expect to see their team playing in an NBA Finals anytime soon.