First practice in, Bulls like Hoiberg's new vibe

There were a few minor-but-noticeable differences on the first day of Bulls training camp at the Advocate Center.

First of all, the visitors were back. When Scott Skiles and Tim Floyd coached the Bulls, there were typically a dozen or so college and high school coaches sitting on the sideline observing practice.

During the Tom Thibodeau years, the practice visitors were limited to a chosen few. Very few.

New coach Fred Hoiberg, sporting a white polo shirt, basketball shorts and red sneakers, chatted with some of the visitors before talking to reporters about the first NBA practice of his coaching career.

He said Tuesday's practice went fine, lots of teaching, running, etc. But since a change of coaches was the Bulls only significant move of the offseason, Hoiberg himself is the biggest story.

Jimmy Butler hadn't experienced an NBA coach other than Thibodeau until now. So how did it go?

"(Hoiberg) is very hands on," Butler said. "Like, he'll stop practice and tell you what it's supposed to be - you've got to make this pass, you've got to cut this way.

"And then at the same time he gives you the freedom to play offense. And then at the same time he's like you got to get out there and guard, so it's fun."

The perception of Thibodeau was that he worked the players hard, drove them hard, focused on every minor detail of his successful defense. Hoiberg is expected to be more relaxed and a better communicator.

Derrick Rose, who left Tuesday's practice early after taking an accidental elbow to the face, touched on that topic during Monday's media day.

"Being under Thibs system for so long, now there's a new vibe to the team, a new coach," Rose said. "He brings something new to the table where he's more relaxed. I think we should appreciate that more."

Taj Gibson, who was here during all five years of the Thibodeau era, pointed out a more subtle difference: Getting coached by Hoiberg may be more of a collaborative effort.

"It was good to see a lot of coaches give their opinions on things," Gibson said Tuesday. "We were able to get a lot of feedback from each of the coaches. It was pretty cool. A lot of teaching today."

Gibson has been working out at the Advocate Center all month and already developed an appreciation for Hoiberg's communication skills.

Unlike Thibodeau, Hoiberg played in the NBA for 10 years, allowing him to bring a slightly different perspective to his players.

"He's one of those guys, he's easy to talk to," Gibson said. "He's always talking to you, even when you're laying around, getting shots up by yourself, he'll come around and just start talking about regular stuff. So far, so good."

Hoiberg joined the Bulls after five successful seasons at Iowa State, his alma mater.

This is first time coaching in the NBA. Hoiberg's assistants include a couple of former NBA players - Pete Myers and Randy Brown - along with veteran lead assistant Jim Boylen.

Any new coach is going to spend the early practice days getting to know his players and teaching a new system. So it stands to reason that Tuesday's practice would include plenty of talking.

"It's kind of different because we've been around Tom for a long time," Gibson said. "It's a whole different system, whole different scheme.

"We're veterans now. We're not young bucks anymore, so it was much easier to understand what he wants."

It was no secret Thibodeau didn't always see eye-to-eye with Bulls management, so his firing in May wasn't a surprise, even though he produced a .647 winning percentage with the Bulls.

The players have a job to do and picking their coach isn't part of it.

"I really have nothing bad to say about Thibs," Joakim Noah said at media day. "I think we had a lot of success under him.

"We've all grown as players, we've all experienced a lot, but this is a new chapter for the Bulls and I just wanted to come as ready as possible. I'm just excited for this new chapter."

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