Chicago Bulls: Fred Hoiberg was never given a fair shot

Fred Hoiberg may not have been a great coach, but the Chicago Bulls never really put him in a position to succeed during his time at the helm.

The Chicago Bulls decided to spice up everyone’s normally calm and collective Monday morning, letting go of head coach Fred Hoiberg, according to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

While this firing may come as a surprise — Hoiberg never seriously appeared to be on the hot seat — there was some writing on the wall. The Bulls have gotten off to a horrendous 5-19 start to the season, and since taking over prior to the 2015-16 campaign, Hoiberg has amassed 115 wins compared to 155 losses in a little over three years.

However, there is a case to be made in defense of Fred Hoiberg, and it’s one that seems to be the prevailing sentiment.

Following the exodus of former Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau, the front office pairing of John Paxson and Gar Forman decided to go with a more modern approach to their next hiring. Seeing that the league was shifting more towards the perimeter, Chicago decided to bring in former college coach Fred Hoiberg.

The leader at Iowa State for five seasons, Hoiberg’s preferred style of play fit perfectly with where the NBA was headed: plenty of 3-point looks from everyone on the court with an emphasis on pushing the ball in transition in order to generate open shots.

During his time at Iowa State, the Cyclones made four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including an appearance in the Sweet 16, for the most consecutive showings in the program’s history while pumping in an average of 283 3-pointers per season — a pretty respectable mark for a college squad.

Hoiberg’s recipe for success was clear to everyone who followed his team, everyone except those running the Bulls organization.

Following his first run in Chicago, the Bulls decided to pair All-Star Jimmy Butler —  who shot just 31.2 percent from distance the year prior — with Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade, who have combined to shoot just 31.1 from outside over the course of their careers.

It was the front office that, over the course of the last two seasons, traded two of the team’s best shooters in Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic. It was the front office that gave Cristiano Felicio a four-year, $32 million contract after he’d averaged just 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds a night during the 2016-17 season.

After the Houston Rockets hired Mike D’Antoni in the summer of 2016, general manager Daryl Morey made sure to supply the roster with plenty of shooters such as Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and P.J. Tucker because he knew that was how to best maximize D’Antoni’s coaching abilities.

Nobody was going to confuse Hoiberg with the elites at his position, but he clearly never got the chance to coach the way he wanted to. Had the Bulls kept and acquired players that fit his M.O., maybe the former Big 12 Coach of the Year would’ve been able to show exactly what made him such a desirable hire in the first place.