Chicago Bulls: Is Fred Hoiberg turning into Bulls’ long-term coach?

Fred Hoiberg has caught a lot of flak during his tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bulls. But has he started to show that he deserves to stick around for the long haul?

At various times during his tenure with the Chicago Bulls, Fred Hoiberg has looked in over his head, defeated and browbeaten by his own star players.

As such, with the team coming into 2018 in clear rebuilding mode, it seemed like Hoiberg could be a casualty as soon as this rough season ended.

So…what happened to all that?

Well, whatever voodoo Hoiberg had going last year when he helped push the Bulls into the playoffs seems to have stuck around. Believe it or not, he has this ragtag team playing like it could surprise everyone and somehow, someway, make the playoffs this season.

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Now, whether that’s good or not obviously is up for debate.

After all, the plan after trading away Jimmy Butler and buying out Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo was to essentially wave the white flag. This was supposed to be a tank season. And for the first 23 games, the Bulls were doing it right.

Then, with the return of Nikola Mirotic, the Chicago Bulls started charging up the Eastern Conference standings. Sure, they’ve since slipped after their shocking seven-game win streak, dropping to 13-27 (third-to-last in the conference).

But regardless, they’re playing competitive basketball that will surely help the development of their young stars going forward.

And a lot of that development has come from Hoiberg’s decision-making and hands-on approach.

For one thing, though injury partly necessitated this, he started Lauri Markkanen immediately and rolled with him even when Mirotic returned. The 2017 seventh-overall pick has received valuable NBA minutes and subsequently proven he can play well at this level.

He also made Kris Dunn the starting point guard and moved Jerian Grant to the bench, which benefited both players. Furthermore, he has personally tutored Dunn as a jump shooter, leading to him boosting his three-point percentage to 32.5% (up from 28.8% last year) and bringing his true shooting percentage up from .432 last year to .486 now.

And he somehow has created an environment where Mirotic and Bobby Portis can play at the same time—productively, I might add. After Portis punched Mirotic into the hospital, who saw that happening?

In the end, the players win and lose on the court, and the Chicago Bulls still aren’t a great team. Hoiberg can’t always stop Jerian Grant and Justin Holiday from jacking up awful shots. He can’t always keep Dunn from turning the ball over on errant passes. And he can’t make Paul Zipser be good at basketball, unfortunately.

But for what he can control, Hoiberg has done a tremendous job so far in a few tough situations.

Last year, when it looked like his job security was toast, he helped keep the Bulls alive long enough for a surprise playoff berth. And this year, he has a team of scrubs playing watchable, sometimes even really good, basketball.

Next: How Zach LaVine can help the Bulls make playoffs

After many Chicago Bulls fans wanted him gone not long ago, I think he’s showing that there’s more to him than we originally thought.

Maybe Hoiberg can actually be the head coach of this team when it’s good again.