Imrem: Hoiberg has a challenge with Chicago Bulls
Oh, to be a sports psychologist and have the Chicago Bulls plop down on your couch.
“As a kid did you cry when the peas touched the potatoes on your plate?” … “Did you ever have a dog named Klank?” … “How many of your sisters posterized you in junior high?”
Silly, yes, but so is the Bulls playing and talking like a bunch of head cases in search of therapy.
The Bulls' confidence is somewhere off the side of the road in a brown paper bag, as evidenced by their performances with the game in the balance in the past three games: A combined deficit of 102-70 after entering the fourth quarters tied or ahead.
In the process the Bulls looked disjointed, from player to player and player to coach and coach to player, pretty much defining how difficult it has been for head coach Fred Hoiberg to replace Tom Thibodeau this season.
No matter how professional these Bulls have been over the years, it's a challenge for them to take a new coach seriously when he follows an immense presence like Thibodeau, especially when Hoiberg was coaching in college at this time a year ago.
It isn't normal for the Bulls to lose consecutive home games to Charlotte and Phoenix and then a third straight Wednesday night at Boston 105-100.
Sometimes the Bulls look more like a collection of individuals than like a team. The players appear to be confused by the game of basketball, which makes them look uninspired and uninspiring, which makes them look soft.
The Bulls' record is 11-8 but feels like 8-11 after the past three games. Selective memory makes everything seem to have been better under Thibodeau, who was fired after last season. The divorce with management was messy, leaving the players caught in the middle.
“Fellas, do you feel like you're a product of a broken home?” … “Do you resent down deep Thibodeau being gone?” … “Is Hoiberg more a step-coach to you than your biological coach?”
Bulls vice president John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman did what they thought they had to do … transition from the abrasive Thibodeau to the polite Hoiberg.
Hoiberg is in a precarious predicament because many of the key Bulls — Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson among them — grew up in the NBA under Thibodeau.
Bulls players were accustomed to Thibodeau's unyielding demands and responded to them no matter how annoying he was.
Now they're out from under Thibodeau's thumb — actually out from the grasp of his iron fist — and who knows what that has done to their collective psyche? It might be natural for them to appreciate Hoiberg's softer touch or natural for them to test him.
It's a strange brew, bro, and Hoiberg will have to figure out how to navigate murky waters.
Thibodeau won over the players by demonstrating that none of them worked harder or cared more about winning than he did. Hoiberg and his new style and systems will have to find a way to win his players' respect and trust.
Or it could be that Paxson and Forman will have to provide the new coach with a whole new set of players he can call his own.
“Guys, does this No. 2 pencil remind you of anyone from your childhood?” … “When was the last time you ate broccoli?” … “Chris Berman or Dick Stockton?”
mimrem@dailyherald.com