http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats Only the hapless Sixers are worse at offensive efficiency than Hoiberg's Bulls. To say this is a shocking situation 20 games into the season is an understatement. Especially given that this same roster was the 11th most efficient offense in the NBA last season. Nowhere to go but up from here! Wasn't Hoiball supposed to improve the offense from the stubborn, behind-the-times Thibs though? He had this group at 11th last season. Strange times.
Again, I'll point out that you're making arguments against a certain zeitgeist, but one that no one on this board ever actually made except Bullsville. So WRT the people you'll be debating in this thread you're jousting at windmills. This is what I said when the rumors were circling that Thibs was on the way out and Hoiberg on the way in (emphasis added by me): But anyways...... With regards to the offense these are my big takeaways so far: 1). Stylistically I think it's striking how similar the two teams are, despite the different philosophies of the two coaches. I think this says more about the roster than the competence of either coach. 2). With regards to player performance I think there are two guys that have Hoiberg's name on them: Doug and Pau. Doug's playing a lot better and Pau a lot worse. It's hard to say how much of this is due to natural progression/decline on each player's part but they're both clearly playing different roles than they were last year so Hoiberg has a role in at least some of it. 3). I'm beginning to wonder what type of offense Derrick Rose is capable of running. Throughout his career we've only seen one. I'm not sure that isn't a coincidence. Thibs tried to open up last year with a Spurs-ish pace n' space offense but canned it by about this time of the season. It's possible having Derrick at the helm just limits what kind of ball movement you can have. 4). I don't hold Hoiberg responsible for Derrick's decline. 5). I'm actually encouraged by Jo's play so far. He looks more active and I like how he's used (not used) within the offense. His 'hustle stats' are either close to or above career averages......it's just that his ability to finish at the rim has totally fallen off a cliff to epic proportions. 6). Given Fred's talents are as an offensive coach and everyone's skepticism was about the team's ability to maintain its defensive identity I'd rather start the season with good defense/bad offense since I think that's mostly likely to trend upward, or at least as much as a coach could control (and it might not be that much with the roster we have). 7). This has not been mentioned yet but there's 1 player who's experiencing a career renaissance that I don't see talked about very much........ And I know this might sound silly......but I actually think Hoiberg deserves some credit for this. He's used much more sparingly and there seems to be a deliberate attempt to have him play less in order to keep him more effective. So far Hoiberg does not seem like a very good offensive NBA coach, although he seems like at least a replacement level NBA head coach overall. Not sure what to make of him yet, to be honest.
But this roster was the 11th most efficient offense in the NBA last season. This year its the 2nd worst in all of the NBA. This roster can play efficient NBA basketball on the offensive end. We saw it last season. Many thought it could be even better under Hoiball, but 11th isn't that bad. Not even in the same ballpark as 2nd to last. A lot of guys are worse. Look at the current TS%s of basically the entire team this year compared to last year. Butler: 58.3 -> 57.1 Rose: 49.3 -> 41.3 Gasol: 55.0 -> 48.9 Mirotic: 55.6 -> 51.8 Snell: 55.0 -> 48.5 Gibson: 54.5 -> 51.5 Noah: 48.2 -> 37.3 Nearly everyone is scoring less efficiently. The only guy that is really playing much better that gets many minutes is McDermott. But he's just gone from putrid to below average. He is shooting better, but he doesn't do much else. Hard to say about Rose. He's much worse this year than last year. The Bulls were a whisper away from the Finals last year with Rose, but he was not anywhere close to an all-star anymore. This year though its been another step back. For him and a lot of Bulls. Its hard to prove anything. Basically the entire team is worse at scoring efficiently under Hoiberg. Some worse than others. Jo looks more energetic at times but his PER is down from 15.3 to 12.2 and Hoiball is not helping him in the scoring efficiency department. But that's the case with nearly everyone. The effort is there. Can't play top NBA defense without effort. But the complaints all season last year were all about the need to modernize the Bulls offense and lots of talk about Warriors and Hawks and pace n space and Hoiball. This effort is not off to a good start. Kirk is playing better BTW. Just not enough minutes to matter. And Hoiball was supposed to unlock the talents of Dougie and Niko leading to the Hoiberg / Butler / McDermott / Niko future. Its hard to be very excited about that right now.
I liked the play with Noah pushing the ball right fast up the court against NO Pelicans. Without Noah or Brooks at 4th quarter the offense wasn't that fast. Often looks like the passing player expect another "Laufweg" (don't know the english word) from the receiving player leading to turnovers...
