How Fred Hoiberg Can Maximize the Derrick Rose-Jimmy Butler Backcourt
Not every rookie head coach has the pleasure of inheriting such a talented roster. But such is the case for Fred Hoiberg, who will be making his sideline debut with the Chicago Bulls when the 2015-16 season kicks off.
There can be no adjustment period. The Bulls are ready to compete right away, and Hoiberg will have a fantastic chance to follow in Steve Kerr's footsteps as a rookie signal-caller who can immediately lead his troops to greatness.
Of course, it won't be easy, and part of the challenge will be maximizing the backcourt combination of Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose.
.png?w=256)
It's not as if the two Chicago stars are incompatible or spent the last season at each other's throats. They may have playing styles that don't mesh together seamlessly, but they still show the potential to complement each other quite nicely.
Take that slight lack of cohesion out of the equation, and you're looking at a team that's inevitably going to play even better basketball.
For now, forget about any rumors of animosity between the two that you may have heard. They're largely ill-founded, and as Butler explained on ESPN's First Take (via the Chicago Sun-Times), they wouldn't exist if the Bulls had just experienced the NBA's ultimate panacea—winning:
"I don't think it matters. If we win, this isn't an issue. But since we lost, it's an issue. I think it gives you all something to talk about, to tell you the truth. If we win the championship, nobody is worried about any of that. The only reason it came up is because we lost. I don't think we have any beef or whatever you want to call it. I think we just want to win. We didn't win, so now we're beefing. Now we have a problem with each other, and I don't think that’s the case.
"
So in deference to the rising star who just inked a max contract, let's forget about any bubbling discontent between the two guards. There's no reason to expect it to carry over into the 2015-16 season, assuming it even existed in the first place.
Hoiberg's challenge isn't necessarily going to involve personalities—though we'll cover that in a bit. Instead, he will try to maximize the offensive talents of two ball-controlling scoring options. It won't be easy, but the unit's potential is lofty enough to eventually hang from the rafters of the United Center.
Quick Transition Action
If there was one characteristic of Hoiberg's offenses at Iowa State, it's that they played quick, uptempo basketball designed to get off plenty of shots in expeditious fashion. He didn't ask for "seven seconds or less" offense, a la Mike D'Antoni, and he didn't force up speedy but ill-advised looks; he just used myriad screens and off-ball action to create quick mismatches and open space.
The new Bulls head coach was running the show for the Cyclones from 2010 through 2015, and his teams always managed to finish near the top of the NCAA in both pace and adjusted offensive efficiency. Keeping in mind that the collegiate landscape features more teams (351) than the NBA (30), here are his rankings in the two categories each season, according to Ken Pomeroy:
Now compare that to the offensive rankings of the Bulls under Tom Thibodeau, who also took over during the 2010-11 campaign:
Even though it runs counter to the popular misconception, Thibodeau can coach a strong offensive squad. He did so when Rose was at full strength, figuring out how to maximize the talents of his MVP-caliber floor general.
But still, the gravelly voiced man on the sidelines never finished in the top half of the NBA's pace rankings prior to his dismissal from the Bulls organization; before accepting the job as his replacement, Hoiberg never so much as ranked outside the top third in the NCAA.
Something has to give, and Butler and Rose should both be happy to accept "The Mayor" and his drag-screening ways in transition.
He explains one basic set in the video below, but keep in mind that there are plenty of nuances he'll be working in throughout the season:
Sometimes, the screens will come even quicker. Bigs will get in the way of defenders during transition opportunities, allowing the guards to push the pace and attack the hoop while the rest of the squad spaces out the court.
The Bulls are built perfectly for this type of action, given the prominence of players such as Mike Dunleavy and Nikola Mirotic, as well as the attacking athleticism of Rose and Butler.
Imagine Rose handling the ball in this "double drag" action, where Joakim Noah screens and rolls before Pau Gasol runs a pick-and-pop just behind the initial movement. All of a sudden, a defense must react to far more than a simple isolation play, and having Butler and Dunleavy waiting in the corners prevents any other defenders from cheating off their assignments.
Hoiberg himself has already expressed his thoughts about using Rose in this system, via K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
"It will be great for Derrick. Derrick's obviously a guy who's at his best when he's playing downhill. If we can get the wings out running, you get that first big running to the rim, and you give Derrick space on the fast break, that's going to create a lot of opportunities. We run a lot of simple drag screens in transition with the floor spaced with shooters, where he can get in the paint and make plays. And that's where I think he's as good as anyone in the world.
"
The result, getting off shots early in the shot clock, will be entirely new for the Bulls. And not just because, as Kelly Scaletta explained for Today's Fastbreak, "the Bulls were last in effective field-goal percentage in the 18-22-second range of the shot clock" during the 2014-15 campaign.
Somehow, a team with such a wealth of offensive options managed to finish with only 1.08 points per possession in transition sets, according to NBA.com's SportVU data. That left the Bulls ahead of only seven teams in the entire Association, and they used transition possessions more frequently than just six squads.
That's not a strong combination.
Something as simple as running drag screens more often might seem intuitive and nonessential, but even that type of change will have a big impact on the attacking success of Chicago's dynamic guards.
Quick Handoffs and Passes
"Even with the addition of the talented Gasol and a mostly healthy Derrick Rose, Chicago's offense too often stagnated last season," Ian Levy recently explained for Bleacher Report. "Tom Thibodeau's reliance on big lineups often meant the pace was slow and spacing was hard to come by, creating a challenging dynamic."
Going smaller will help, and the Bulls have the tools necessary to do so without sacrificing much—if any—firepower. But so too will preventing ball-movement stagnation, which often happened when the Chicago offense dissolved into one isolation set after another.
According to NBA.com's databases, 8.2 percent of the team's field-goal attempts came within the final four seconds of the shot clock, which is not typically a good thing. And if that wasn't bad enough, the effective field-goal percentage in such situations was a putrid 37.8 percent, better than only six other squads.
If you're going to wait that long into the shot clock to loft up an attempt, it better be a desired outcome, not a heave at the end of a possession because nothing has developed. And that's exactly the type of outcome Hoiberg's offense should prevent, given the constant off-ball motion and quick dribble-handoffs and swing passes.
Now, the one potential issue here is that Rose won't be able to dominate the ball quite as often. Bulls Zone's Tyler Pleiss went into more detail:
"The point guard in Hoiberg's offense was generally not ball dominant, considering the constant movement within the offense. Some may say this will present a problem for Hoiberg with Rose on board. However, I don't think that will be a problem, as Hoiberg is a good enough coach that he’ll be able to adjust his offense as he sees fit. Furthermore, Hoiberg’s offense may get Rose moving off the ball more, in a Tony Parker-esque fashion. Previously, Rose would pass to the wing and cut through only to be an observer. Getting Rose coming off screens, more so flex screens, curls or pin-downs will present the Bulls and Rose with more options.
"
Pleiss breaks down plenty of specific sets that Hoiberg can bring with him from Ames, and, assuming Rose is amenable to a ball-sharing system, all of them seem quite promising.
Just take "Huskers" as one example, and imagine Butler finishing the play as the man driving to the hoop after he curls past a screen at the top of the key:
"Jimmy's an attack player," Hoiberg told Johnson after he officially became the next Chicago head coach. "If you can get him the ball on the run, on the move, and attacking the basket with pace, it's an ideal system for him."
Traditionally, the Iowa State offense has minimized the usage rates of its playmaking point guards, forcing them to remain efficient while everyone else gets involved. Point forwards reign supreme—oh hey, Nikola Mirotic!—while the wing players seek out one mismatch after another by virtue of their ability to maximize dribble-handoffs.
As such, compromise will be necessary.
Rose is still one of the more dynamic players in the game with the ball in his hands—when he's healthy, at least—and Hoiberg is too much of an offensive savant to completely negate one of his team's biggest strengths. He'll adjust, but he'll also require the incumbent floor general to do the exact same thing.
Giving and taking is equally necessary.
We could go over plenty of other sets that Hoiberg will run in the United Center, but the biggest key doesn't involve X's and O's. Instead, it requires Rose to buy in completely and realize that he's not playing on a team that will thrive most when he dominates the ball.
If anything, he needs to take more of a backseat role and cede the reins to Butler, who has become the team's best offensive option and will only keep growing. Plenty of sets will still be run that allow Hoiberg to make the most of his point guard's unique ability, even if his usage rate dips.
This can't be a one-man team on any possession, and the offense needs to be geared toward getting the best options involved with the most frequency.
In order to rise up to the top of the Eastern Conference, Chicago must maximize the backcourt. That involves two pieces, not one.
Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")