Hoiberg facing ‘bigs’ question
‘Jumbo’ experiment proves to be failure in preseason defeat
Every player, every lineup, is still in play for Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. That’s why Wednesday against the Detroit Pistons was ‘‘jumbo’’ time.
Still searching for combinations that work, Hoiberg started his ‘‘jumbo lineup’’ of 6-11 Joakim Noah at center, 7-footer Pau Gasol at power forward and 6-10 Nikola Mirotic at small forward.
Let’s just say the lineup was short-lived in the Bulls’ 114-91 loss.
After the Bulls fell behind 17-9, Hoiberg pulled the plug on the new look and put Doug McDermott at small forward. He then opened the second half by keeping McDermott at small forward and moving Mirotic to power forward.
Welcome to the hardest part of Hoiberg’s job.
‘‘I’ve said since Day 1 that my biggest job is going to be to figure out a rotation and try to get everybody to buy into roles,’’ Hoiberg said. ‘‘A lot of guys deserve to play.’’
Especially a lot of big guys — and therein lies the problem.
Gasol is the Bulls’ most productive big man on offense — from his scoring to his rebounding to his passing.
Noah is supposed to be the ‘‘energy guy’’ and was the 2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
Top reserve Taj Gibson made his preseason debut after having offseason ankle surgery and scored four points in 10 minutes.
Mirotic is a must-play because of his ability to stretch the floor, espe- cially at power forward.
Finally, there’s rookie Bobby Portis, who was expected to make some noise in training camp, but not this much. He entered the game averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 12.3 rebounds in the Bulls’ first four preseason games, then scored a teamhigh nine points in the first half.
‘‘He is making it hard,’’ Hoiberg said of keeping Portis out of the rotation. ‘‘There’s no doubt about it. We have a lot of people we can throw out there.’’
Portis just wants to make sure he’s one of those in the mix.
‘‘It’ll be tough, but that’s all players,’’ Portis said of a scenario in which he wouldn’t be in the rotation. ‘‘I feel like all great players have to go through adversity to go somewhere. All great players have done that. If I want to be a great player, it’ll happen to me someday. Everything isn’t peaches and cream.’’
With small forward Mike Dunleavy (back surgery) likely to miss at least the first month of the regular season, Hoiberg still has more questions than answers. Tony Snell and McDermott are the top candidates to replace Dunleavy in the starting lineup, then it will be up to Hoiberg to find minutes for his five bigs.
‘‘It’s going to be, ‘Be ready, be ready,’ ’’ Hoiberg said of the mentality he wants his players to carry with them. ‘‘If you don’t play one game, you might play 20 or 25 minutes the next.’’
That wasn’t the only message Hoiberg gave his players, especially after they yielded 38 fourthquarter points and dropped to 2-3 in the preseason.
‘‘The fact that we’re not getting back in transition is the disappointing thing,’’ Hoiberg said. ‘‘That’s obviously going to be a point of emphasis in practice the next few days.’’
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