Bulls' front office again makes life difficult for its coach

Bulls’ front office again makes life difficult for its coach

By Joe Cowley

The Bulls’ front office hasn’t exactly done right by coach Fred Hoiberg the last few seasons.

It admittedly hasn’t provided the right players for his offensive system and has saddled him with several assistant coaches who seem to have their own agendas.

Vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said Hoiberg would return for the 2017-18 season but brought up his shortcomings when discussing the improvements he needed to make.

“I mentioned to you last year that I view young coaches in this league like young players,’’ Paxson said Wednesday. “They have to develop and grow, too. I’m not gonna get into the specifics about things we’ve seen.

“I think Fred’s challenge this offseason is to find ways to be a better leader. I think he showed progress in that area. The team did rally around him at times. But that’s part of the process, too. We made the commitment to him. We support him. And we’re in this with him. That’s how an organization has to work.’’

The front office, however, continues to ignore a major problem: Its devaluation of coaches through the years continues to haunt the franchise.

Whether it’s a physical confrontation with Vinny Del Negro, the sabotaging of Tom Thibodeau or the questioning of Hoiberg’s leadership skills, players feed off those situations, and they make coaching the team more difficult.

Coincidentally, when general manager Gar Forman hired Hoiberg, he said in the introductory news conference that one of his strengths was communication.

Supporting staff

When asked if the assistant coaching staff would return, Forman and Paxson said everything will be evaluated.

“We’re in the process of looking at everything,’’ Paxson said. “That can’t be answered today. We want to get the entire staff together.

‘‘It’s been five days since we lost and the season ended. They’ve been out of town; we want to get them back in, sit down and have some real face-to-face, tough discussions.’’

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Email: jcowley@suntimes.com