"Freddy Del Hoiberg" is a show of disrespect, much like several oh so clever fans once did by dubbing the eminently respect-worthy Luol Deng "Dung." Hoiberg doesn't deserve it any more than Deng did, but that won't matter...it never does. It pisses me off when people do this shit, but I can't say it crosses the line into trolling.
I judge it the same way as K4E. Hoiberg is a rookie head coach in the NBA anyway you slice it. His prior headcoaching experience in college doesn't account for much of anything. As an example, David Blatt had a ton of experience coaching professionals in top flight competition. He also had a ton of international experience coaching actual NBA athletes, and he still had all kinds of rookie hiccups and setbacks. Steve Kerr faired far better but he had prior playing experience. I think playing experience is also going to give Hoiberg a leg up. But you know who else had prior playing experience? Vinny Del Negro. As far as Hoiberg's offensive schemes, I have no clue what the pundits and critics are basing their opinion on. We haven't seen Hoiberg's offense. He isn't going to be able to run what he did in college, and I'm sure he doesn't intend to. . . maybe some of the same concepts, but not the same offense. It's all just conjecture at this point.
K4's narrow accusation was that Hoiberg brings nothing new or valuable to the table. I can agree with your points about how his coaching year may turn out, while admitting that even according to your own words, the bar isn't very high for him to improve on the coaching job Thibs did last season: http://www.sportstwo.com/posts/3646164/ http://www.sportstwo.com/posts/3644388/ What we can all agree on is that there will be several fascinating threads to follow next season.
And, seemingly, that the Bulls are no longer contenders for the NBA title. Still waiting for any analysis from you that argues that Hoiberg will bring anything new to the NBA or that is a true value-add. I have an open mind on this and am interested to see what the front office had in mind with Freddy Del Hoiberg, other than just an Iowa State connection with Gar. An OK track record as a college coach but nothing spectacular. The college stuff he ran probably won't translate to the NBA that well and likely won't be the same. He used some established NBA sets in college, but that's not really much of a value add in the actual NBA. You just can't / won't write any thoughts of your own that really make the point. I look forward to reading whatever you can / will provide. So far its next to nothing.
I think the underlying issue is insidiousness. There's often a slightly-below-the-belt air of passive aggressiveness that makes posts hard to enjoy, but no one post is out-and-out trolling, so what you have is a tone that makes the board itself permanently less enjoyable, but no direct culpability from anyone involved, and it's just a matter of who can tolerate it the most. But when disagreements do get out, it often tends to get personal because people have pent up frustrations from thousands of previous "just so" ways of making arguments that sap your morale. Reading this board is like having an anti-virus program running in the background of your computer that sucks up all your RAM.....technically not doing anything wrong, but all the mental bandwidth it takes up makes everything else harder to enjoy, and occasionally leads to a big crash. I got annoyed when I had to read about "The Thidiot" in every thread for very similar reasons.
Please stick to talking baske- Err, never mind. Yes, agree. I actually like the slower but no less informative pace of this board; don't have tolerance for some of its quirks though.
This is a strange topic for discussion but I want to note that I'm beginning to view the "Del Hoiberg" label as useful, similar to how I felt about the "Thidiot" name. I'm now terrified about the prospect of a new rookie coach. It's not cold feet. I thought Thibodeau needed to be replaced and Hoiberg is as good a rookie coaching candidate as any. It's more like, it's becoming real how replacing your coach with a rook is a complete and utter crap shoot. I'm not used to seeing some of the offensive structures Hoiberg used in that first preseason game. Is Hoiberg going to change the NBA, or is he just another guy running a college system that isn't going to translate to the pros? If we are being completely honest it's probably the latter. I heard Reggie Miller toss around all kinds of superlatives when describing his former teammate during the broadcast. As of right now Hoiberg is a wildcard. It's going to be three months before we even start to know what we have in him. Fred Hoiberg at this very juncture is Vinny Del Negro when he accepted the Bulls' head coaching position -- he's a rookie head coach who had a nice playing career and looks to have quite a bit of potential. I think it's good to remember that when people want to prematurely annoint Hoiberg as the next big thing. The "Del Hoiberg" slight helps with that. As to Thidiot, I thought Tom Thibodeau was given a pass in the press and among fans for a lot of the dumb shit he pulled, especially toward the end of his tenure. He kind of looked like a crazy scientist, and because of that, I think people gave him way too much slack and always presumed there was a method to the madness. To me, the Thidiot name was refreshing in the way it cut through the public caricature of Thibodeau that the press had built. Thib's rotations last season were at best ineffective and at worst undercut the ability of his players to perform. Part of that stemmed from the weird roster composition, but a lot of that was due to the fact that Thibs lost his team. "Thidiot" captured that in a word.
Come down off the ledge SST. Summer league is almost certainly non-indicative of what the pro level offense will look like. There's little time to install an offense, and I'm not even sure you'd want to given how few of these guys will make the fall team. He's missing his associate head coach, his pro players who'll know instinctively what will work and what won't...no reason yet to think he'll try to foist something transformative on the league. Truth be told, traditional pro sets out of a motion offense will suffice - an old fashioned look for the mismatch and exploit it. I definitely think we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
Oh, and who are these people and why are they saying this? Hoiberg is enjoying a bit of a honeymoon, true, but that's because A. he's largely kept his mouth shut and B. most new coaches get put through the grinder only when the season begins. Maddon has survived. Fox and Hoiberg are next through the trials.
I'm not really on a ledge as much as I think we're a little too comfortable right now. I remember when Thibs was appointed, and it seemed like we were all waiting for his gruff mannerisms to clash with Derrick or Noah and risk everything unravelling. VDN was fresh in our minds and we were well aware that rookies coaches often didn't work out. That's where we are now. Hoiberg is a shiny prospect. I feel like I've read ten articles about how the offense is going to be better this season. All I'm saying is that's one possibility. There are many others.
Bulls were 11th in offensive EFF last season. Let's put the over / under at 8 for this season, given the guaranteed Del Hoiberg bump and increased emphasis on offense over defense. And of course McDermott finally being unleashed. Over or under?
Also, as the person who coined the moniker Vinny Del Hoiberg, I get to define it. Its not meant to be an insult, just, IMO, a reasonable assumption for what our new coach is at this point. A rookie NBA coach with an affable personality and a winning smile. He might be great, he might be terrible, he might be average. Average is the safe bet. Del Negro was an average NBA coach as well and was a guy that was easy to get along with, until, of course, he wanted to win regular season games, which led to Paxson physically attacking him. Terms like "Thidiot" (idiot) or "Dung" are clearly meant to be insults. Del Hoiberg isn't, at least when I write it. The one that I remember from back in the day was the classic "In Pax We Trust." That was a lot of fun for some people to write and read, annoying for others. It basically depends on what your opinion on the Bulls is at the time. If you remember, "In Pax We Trust" was written by people that thought John Paxson was doing a great job as general manager and that the "Core 4" of Hinrich / Gordon / Deng and Nocioni was a legitimate NBA Championship contender. Funny, when you look back at it.
And right on time... Portis and McDermott will benefit (one hopes) from playing with better players too - players the defense has to key in on. There were numerous reasons to move on from Thibs - and that one offensive stat that keeps getting tossed out - offensive efficiency - is a dodge used to distract from the other reasons.
IT'S THE SAME THING. This is crazy. I wish we hadn't been made mods - it took away my ability to put you and your posts on ignore when I needed a break. The others can tolerate your schtick, it's overly annoying to me. And no, I'm not leaving the site.
Oh, OK. Well, please try and stick to posting about basketball. It isn't the same thing. I created the term and I'm telling you the definition. It means average, replacement level coach low on experience but with affable personality. It doesn't mean idiot or excrement or anything really bad like that. We'll see if he's a value-added coach. I think everyone hopes he is.
This is silly. Though I criticized the Del Negro hiring, I ended up defending him at the end. He was not the disaster I thought he'd be. He took an average team and brought them in at .500. His team played consistently hard. If he had been strong on the technical aspects of the job where Thibodeau excels, he very well might have been a success. But I digress. Among Chicago Bulls' fans, to be a basketball coach and likened to Vinny Del Negro is an insult. You can try to dress it up, but I for one ain't buying.
