Westerlund: Red Flags Are Everywhere For The Bulls
By Cody Westerlund--
CHICAGO (CBS) – In refusing Monday morning to back down from critical comments he made Saturday night about Fred Hoiberg's coaching style, Bulls star wing Jimmy Butler maintained that the "elephant in the room" being addressed as it was in a team setting could be a positive moving forward, that an airing of grievances could be just what this team needs.
"If we run off 20 games in a row, it was a good thing," Butler said.
If that line of thinking is to have merit, then the inverse must also be true: If the Bulls' uneven, too-often lackadaisical play continues, his remark about Hoiberg needing to coach "a lot harder" and his insinuation that Hoiberg's laidback approach isn't what the players need right now has done nothing but raise the alarm and crisis level surrounding the Bulls, strapping another unnecessary burden onto Hoiberg's back as he tries to earn the trust and respect of the locker room in his rookie NBA coaching season.
On Monday night, the Bulls' uneven, too-often lackadaisical play continued in a 105-102 loss to the lowly Nets, who entered the night 7-20 overall and 1-12 on the road before thrashing Chicago's defense to the tune of nearly 53 percent shooting through the first three quarters and then hanging on despite trying to give the Bulls the game down the stretch. It was Chicago's third loss in a row, dropping it to 15-11, and it raised more red flags.
So judge for yourself the effect of Butler's remarks after they did nothing to light a fire in Chicago on Monday. While doing so, feel free to indulge in the reading between the Bulls' lines of Monday as well. Each leaf of the page could only add to the concern.
Just two days after Butler made his most forthright move to be considered the Bulls' team leader, there was Hoiberg explaining that everyone was a leader.
"Again, this team, it's leadership by committee," Hoiberg said. "We've got so many older guys, veteran guys that have been around this game for a long time. Those guys, they like each other, they get along with each other. So that's what it has to be. But to answer your question, leadership, it's huge in this business."
Then there was Hoiberg harking back his playing days in Minnesota with Kevin Garnett. You couldn't help but wonder if this was a subtle reference to the more fragile egos in Chicago's locker room.
"When Kevin Garnett used to foam at the mouth at me, I knew how to take it because he was a great leader," Hoiberg said.
To his credit after Monday morning shootaround, Butler beelined over to a large media contingent and faced the music regarding the latest drama.
His responses seemed genuine – heck, he said "no" when asked if he regretted his original words – which is why it's worth noting his take on a certain topic. Asked if he was a fit for what Hoiberg's doing offensively, Butler sounded more like he was part of an arranged marriage rather than one of harmony, which dovetailed with recent reports that he'd raised concern over his role in the offense.
"I think so," Butler said of the offensive fit. "I have to be because he signed here for five years, I signed here for five years. We're going to be here, so we I think we have to make it work, we have to make it work within this team. But I know that we will. He's a hell of a coach."
There was no sign of progress for Butler and the Bulls on Monday night. He had a game-high 24 points, reaching that mark when he hit a 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left.
It meant nothing, going down as one of the emptiest buckets of his career.
On a day when the Bulls should've had a fire lit in them, with a chance to stand up for a coach amid a basketball soap opera he doesn't want to deal with, they were outplayed by the likes of Bojan Bogdanovic, Willie Reed, Donald Sloan and Wayne Ellington.
"It's a bad, bad loss," Hoiberg said.
"It was defensively. We had no togetherness out there at all. We had no toughness."
The question now is how much do the Bulls players care? Are they truly fed up with their collective play? Are they taking anything Hoiberg says to heart? Are they embarrassed to be a part of something like this after years of tenacious play? Are they mad at one another for a failure to execute?
Or are they only going through the motions and cashing those checks, bound for 40-odd wins and a first-round playoff exit?
The answer to that will decide whether there's hope left for this team. Pau Gasol said as much.
"We all have to take responsibility," Gasol said. "We all have to take it personally. It has to hurt. If it doesn't hurt, then we have a problem that might not be correctable.
"Every player feels a little different about it, but I think every player should feel a level of pain and frustration about this situation and about losses like this, that you come in the next day or the next day and you just can't wait to be on the floor and compete and kick somebody's butt. If that's not the case, then we have a core problem or personnel problem. Hopefully, things will improve, everyone will do what they're supposed to do, look in the mirror."
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
