Fred Hoiberg came into the league touted by GarPax as a 180-degree change from the slower defensive grind of Tom Thibodeau’s tenure.
In the college ranks, Hoiberg went back to his alma mater Iowa State and turned a middling basketball program into one of the top college offenses that regularly beat top tournament teams with NBA-styled offenses using unheralded, but talented players who bought into his pace-and-space system.
With the Bulls in the pros, Hoiberg stumbled onto something he probably never encountered: players entrenched into a slower pace who could not adapt to a faster style.