National Basketball Association

Chicago Bulls agree to deal with Fred Hoiberg

Published Jun. 1, 2015 11:12 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Ryan Phillips.

On Tuesday the Chicago Bulls will officially announce that they have hired Fred Hoiberg to be their new head coach. The 42-year-old Iowa State coach has agreed to a five-year, $25 million deal to return to Chicago, where he spent four years as a player during his NBA career.

Hoiberg has been rumored as the eventual coach of the Bulls for a few years now. Chicago general manager Gar Forman has been enamored with Hoiberg for a while, so this move isn’t surprising at all. Hoiberg has been the head coach at Iowa State since 2010 and boasts a record of 115-56.

There are a ton of questions about Hoiberg and whether or not he will be a successful NBA coach. He did a nice job at Iowa State and certainly knows the game inside and out, but he has no experience as a head coach at the highest level. This could wind up being a disastrous hire for Forman, especially after he unceremoniously dumped an extremely successful head coach in order to hire his new guy.

Hoiberg will almost certainly dial up the Bulls’ offense, as his teams at Iowa State played an up-tempo style, while also being efficient. That will be a big change from what we have seen out of Chicago over the past few years. While it sounds like we’re down on Hoiberg’s prospects for success, that’s not the case. He’s a smart guy, we’re just not sure he’s the slam dunk Forman clearly thinks he is.

The Bulls have a rapidly closing championship window, thanks to Derrick Rose’s declining health and the age of key players like Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. Hoiberg won’t be able to ease into his job and will be expected to produce results early.

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