The Chicago Bulls’ biggest stars play on the perimeter, but the team’s biggest strength is undoubtedly its depth up front. Tom Thibodeau didn’t manage it well last season, and Fred Hoiberg is already showing he won’t make that same mistake.
Nikola Mirotic, faults and all, offers offensive versatility and dynamism that Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and even Pau Gasol can’t match. But the 24-year-old didn’t become a permanent fixture of Chicago’s rotation until midway through his rookie season, and struggled in the playoffs after going in and out of the lineup with no sense of rhyme or reason. He may not be a better player than his more established teammates, but Mirotic certainly warrants an increase in playing time during his second season – a reality owed to Hoiberg’s offensive schemes as much as the skilled big man’s unique skill level.
When the former Iowa State coach was named Chicago’s replacement for Thibodeau last spring, it became a foregone conclusion that he’d stagger the minutes of Gasol and Noah in his first NBA campaign. Nagging knee pain sapped Noah of the mobility and explosion last season that made him a two-way force one year prior, and Gasol simply can’t move in space the way he once did. Both offensively and defensively, pairing either of them with one of Mirotic and Gibson makes the most sense for the Bulls.
And with the regular season less than one week away, it appears Hoiberg might have settled on a way to best utilize all of Chicago’s interior talent. According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, the Bulls are leaning toward starting Mirotic and Noah in 2015-16.
While Hoiberg said he hasn’t decided who will start the Oct. 27 regular-season opener against the Cavaliers, sources said the first-year coach is leaning strongly toward starting Nikola Mirotic.
Chicago opened last week’s exhibition loss to the Detroit Pistons with Mirotic at small forward alongside Gasol and Noah. Thibodeau tinkered with oversized lineups that featured the Montenegrin sharpshooter on the wing last season, but only 59 of those 338 minutes came with the Bulls’ frontcourt starters on the floor, too – and the team was generally out of sync regardless.
That was also the case against Detroit, and Hoiberg’s offensive philosophy doesn’t mesh with the inevitably slowed identity those units present. Barring untenable performance by Tony Snell and Doug McDermott during Mike Dunleavy’s recovery from back surgery, don’t expect to see Mirotic on the wing for anything but the briefest stretches this season.
Hoiberg likes the the space and playmaking he provides at the 4, especially when paired with Gasol. The future Hall of Famer says he’s extremely comfortable playing with his fellow Spanish national team member, too.
Hoiberg: "Those two (Gasol, Mirotic) do play well together. And I thought Taj and Jo played well together."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 21, 2015
Gasol, on his comfort level with Mirotic: "Big."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 21, 2015
We’d assumed that the Bulls would eventually decide on playing Mirotic with Noah and Gasol with Gibson in 2015-16. On paper, those tandems provide more seamless blends of offense and defense more than any other combinations – including those Hoiberg seems to prefer.
But it remains to be seen if both Noah and Gibson will be able to regain the stellar defensive forms they showed so consistently before last season’s injury-plagued campaigns. And perhaps more importantly, there’s no hard-and-fast rule in basketball that says all lineups must be balanced: one can build a lead offensively while the other sustains it on the other side of the ball.
This is a fluid situation. Hoiberg has yet to officially announce his starters, and surely won’t refuse to adjust accordingly as the season progresses. Regardless, pay special attention to Chicago’s frontcourt rotation throughout 2015-16. It could decide not just how the Bulls fare in 2015-16, but how they proceed with Noah and Gasol’s respective free agencies next summer.
[Via Chicago Tribune]
