Is Hoiberg on hot seat? Absolutely not
This is a question that gets passed around in all sports for all seasons: Is the coach's job safe?
It's been asked of Joe Maddon, Joel Quenneville, maybe a high school coach in your neighborhood.
So where does Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg stand? Is his seat hot as the NBA season is set to begin?
Some have argued yes, but the feeling here is an emphatic no.
There are a variety of reasons why Hoiberg should feel comfortable. The biggest one is pressure.
The Bulls management team of John Paxson and Gar Forman took some heat for firing a coach popular with fans in Tom Thibodeau. That might have been a factor in their decision to trade Jimmy Butler and embark on a rebuilding project.
Rebuilds take time. It was like they closed the door to the basketball operations office and said, "We'll be in here rolling up our sleeves and working hard. Don't even knock for four or five years."
At every opportunity, Paxson has stressed how this is going to be a long, gradual process. He was careful to put zero expectations on this season at media day.
Firing the head coach at some point this season sends the opposite message. It tells everyone, "We should be doing better. This process needs to go faster." That's precisely not what the Bulls want right now.
Hoiberg is in the fourth year of a generous five-year contract, and that's probably a factor too. The Bulls had to pay off Thibodeau when he left and it's a little soon to do it again, especially when this is supposed to be a gradual climb.
Also worth keeping in mind is when the front office relationship began to sour with Thibodeau, the Bulls identified Hoiberg as a potential replacement. He's a guy who played for the Bulls, so Paxson and Forman were comfortable with him.
There is no natural Hoiberg replacement somewhere in the basketball world. The Bulls would essentially be starting from scratch and when that's happened in the past, the decision was a struggle. They settled on Vinny Del Negro in 2008, then quickly regretted the move.
Even when Thibodeau seemed like a no-brainer in 2010, coming off two Finals appearances with Boston, one of the main voices in the front office preferred Lawrence Frank.
Most candidates wouldn't turn down the opportunity to be an NBA head coach, but finding a Hoiberg replacement could be a difficult task.
Of course, there are qualifiers. Something weird could happen that prompts a coaching change. More likely, this season will be an evaluation of whether Hoiberg can be successful in this job.
He finished near .500 twice and made the playoffs once with Butler. Last year the team was trying to lose, so that's not the right time to judge.
Ever since Hoiberg arrived, his desire was to play with more of the Golden State Warriors' style in mind - fast-paced, frequent ball movement, emphasis on 3-point shooting.
When they had multiple 3-point threats last season, the Bulls' offense looked pretty good during the 14-7 stretch early in the season. But now Nikola Mirotic, one of the catalysts from that surge, is gone. Lauri Markkanen is hurt and expected to miss the first 15 or so games in the regular season, and the Bulls have shot 18.6 percent from 3-point range in their first two preseason contests.
So it will take a little time to judge Hoiberg's coaching progress. He's obviously a very smart person who likely knows what it takes to field a winning team. But one of the most challenging parts of NBA coaching is being able to get players to execute your plan, which usually requires setting aside personal agendas and buying into a team concept.
At this point, there is no reason for the slow-building Bulls to change coaches. And management shouldn't want to.
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls