The Chicago Bulls are off to a disappointing start for the 2016-17 season, hovering around .500. Chicago has won some big games against Cleveland and San Antonio, but the team has failed to be consistent.
Chicago will enter the 2017 portion of their schedule as either the 8 seed or on the outside looking in on the Eastern Conference playoff race.
With the Bulls struggles, Fred Hoiberg’s seat is warming up. ESPN’s Marc Stein reported Friday morning that Hoiberg’s job might be in jeopardy.
Here’s what Stein wrote:
Yet sources told ESPN.com this week that the Bulls have been increasingly assessing the coaching fit as well, sparked by an ongoing dip in the team’s level of play and consistency that began with an unraveling at home on Dec. 13 from 21 points up against the Minnesota Timberwolves and a certain Tom Thibodeau.
The greatest source of insulation that has protected Hoiberg to this point, sources say, is the fact that making a change now would require the Bulls to swallow significant guaranteed money on his five-year contract valued in the $25 million range.
Before the Bulls game on Friday against the Indiana Pacers, Hoiberg decided not to address the rumors from Stein’s report:
Hoiberg issues essentially a no-comment to the ESPN report about being on the hot seat. Said his focus is on getting team to be consistent
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) December 30, 2016
Whatever happens, the Bulls will have 49 games to turn things around and begin to gel as a team. It’s pretty safe to say that 2017 will be a very interesting one for the Bulls.
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