Last offseason when the Chicago Bulls parted ways with head coach Tom Thibodeau and brought in former Iowa State head man Fred Hoiberg, all anyone talked about was how the team was about to adopt these fantastic offensive schemes and become a high-flying, high-scoring team -- all but abandoning defense. However, the Bulls are proving that it's quite the opposite, in spite of switching coaches.
Nay, the Bulls mainstays have said.
Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, even Derrick Rose -- all of these guys have it in their blood, whether naturally or instilled by Thibs, to compete hard and play defense, especially in big games. Truly, that's where this team has made their mark this year.
You see it in almost all of their wins -- including tonight against the San Antonio Spurs, a 92-89 final -- the Bulls remain committed to defense, especially since the offense hasn't been that much improved from last year.
Chicago is still in the top six of the league in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 97.0. Meanwhile the offense is 27th in offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) at 97.3. The reason that hasn't hurt them so much is because their turnover ratio is one of the lowest in the league, and their pace is also one of the highest -- meaning they're earning a lot more possessions per 48 minutes than their opposition while not giving those opportunities away too frequently. Even though their shooting percentage as a team is down, their opportunities are way up, and combined with the good defense, they've been winning two out of every three games so far.
Ultimately, what is different with this team offensively is the freedom they have now -- another reason why their pace has improved compared to when Thibs was there (95.35 last year with Thibs; 100.06 so far this season with Hoiberg).
It's become more and more clear each game and each week that this team will continue to be one of the best defensive squads, but have gained the necessary freedom offensively to play to their strengths. That means if their defense results in a quick rebound, steal or block, they can now push the ball -- something Thibodeau discouraged while Hoiberg feels the exact opposite. Hoiberg's greatest strength is allowing this team to play to what it does best.
At this point, playing defense is still what they do best. The only difference between this year's team and last year's is that they don't have to run these vanilla halfcourt sets all game long on offense. Instead, we see more alley-oop designs to Butler or Gibson. We see guys not being afraid to take shots when they have them. We see more playing time for more skilled offensive players such as Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic and E'Twaun Moore.
Ultimately, that may make a world of a difference in the playoffs. Perhaps they won't go so stagnant during key stretches if they're encouraged to push the ball more, which is something that was lacking at times in previous years, as really only Rose was allowed to do that. It won't be an issue with Hoiberg, though -- or at least it shouldn't.
So Bulls fans need not worry. This team will continue to play good defense late in games, as it has in several big wins so far in 2015-16.
