Imrem: Chicago Bulls' Hoiberg has to stop being Ventura
The Chicago Bulls made some high-profile changes since missing the playoffs last season.
Derrick Rose out. Rajon Rondo in. Pau Gasol out. Dwyane Wade in. Still others out. Still others in.
The biggest change, however, has to be the old Fred Hoiberg out and a new Fred Hoiberg in.
If that in fact is the case.
“Everybody learns from their mistakes,” all-star Jimmy Butler said Monday afternoon at Bulls media day in the Advocate Center.
Butler added about the Bulls' head coach, “That was his first year. He studied himself (in the off-season) and got better at what he needed to get better at.”
That's the hope, anyway. Otherwise, Hoiberg still will be to the Bulls what Robin Ventura has been to the White Sox.
Not good enough, that is.
Hoiberg and Ventura, the Sox manager, do remind you of each other to the point the suspicion is they're the same guy.
Each played for the team he's now responsible for. Each is pleasant. Each is likable.
Almost too much so.
One impression is that they're too nice, that it's difficult for players to take them seriously, that umpires and officials chuckle when they argue calls.
There are worse things to be in this world than too nice … unless you're a basketball head coach or baseball manager.
Hoiberg and Ventura have other things in common, one of them being that they work for Bulls/Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
A bigger one is that Hoiberg and Ventura each has one immense shadow hovering over him.
For Hoiberg it's Tom Thibodeau, his predecessor as Bulls coach.
For Ventura it's Joe Maddon, who manages the Cubs.
How many times did you hear, or even mutter, “Boy, the Bulls would have made the playoffs if Thibodeau was still here”?
How many times did you hear, or even muttered, “Man, it would be nice to find out how good the Sox would be with a manager like Maddon”?
Ventura is in his fifth and likely final season as White Sox manager, and the past four combined have been abysmal.
Only Reinsdorf would retain a manager that long despite that shabby a record.
Hoiberg is embarking on just his second season as Bulls coach and figures to receive considerable time to get it right.
In Year 1, Hoiberg didn't exactly distinguish himself as anything but overmatched.
Maybe it was his fault. Maybe it was the players' fault. Maybe it was the position the front office put him in.
Hoiberg never seemed able to install his systems. He never seemed to command the total respect of his players. He never seemed to be more than the wrong coach with the wrong team at the wrong time.
That's not surprising considering Hoiberg came from the college ranks at Iowa State, had no experience as an NBA head coach and was confronted by strong personalities like Rose, Butler, Gasol and Joakim Noah.
Now all but Butler are gone, replaced by what might be stronger personalities in Rondo, Wade and a Butler who is now an Olympic gold medalist.
So here we are in another late September transition period, with the White Sox fading out with Ventura and the Bulls fading in with Hoiberg.
“My job,” Hoiberg said, “is to get guys to go out and play more consistently.”
The Bulls have a chance to improve if Fred Hoiberg is a new enough guy to accomplish that.
mimrem@dailyherald.com