Chicago Bulls: 3 reasons why Fred Hoiberg will return next season

3. Led team through early season struggles

As if being told you’re going to coach a team full of unproven players wasn’t bad enough, Hoiberg was dealt another early blow due to a preseason altercation that took place between Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic.

The result of this unfortunate incident was the Bulls were without two of their rotational players at the 4-spot for a combined 31 games. Needless to say, this is not the way you want to start a season.

Forced to improvise on the fly, Hoiberg made the decision to insert rookie forward Lauri Markkanen into the lineup and that move paid big dividends on every front. Yes, the Bulls dropped 20 of their first 23 contests, but they responded with a seven-game winning to finish the month of December with a 10-6 mark.

Oh, by the way, it should be mentioned that this was accomplished with Kris Dunn still trying to carve out a spot in the rotation after missing the first few games of the season and with Zach LaVine out of the lineup.

Not only that, both Portis and Mirotic were key contributors to the Bulls’ unlikely rise to a level of respectability, even if it was only temporary.