Bulls: Could Fred Hoiberg become next Steve Kerr?

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A rookie head coach leading his team to league's best regular season record and the NBA Finals?

It's normally unheard of, but the Warriors and Steve Kerr silenced any critics they had and took the league by storm in 2014-15 as they prepare for their matchup against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

With the Bulls starting their search for a new head coach after firing Tom Thibodeau on Thursday, most reports seem to link the Bulls with Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg.

Hoiberg is 115-56 over five seasons as the Cyclones head coach, including two NCAA Tournament berths and a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2014. As a No. 3 seed this year, however, the Cyclones were upset in the first round of the tournament by No. 14 seed UAB.

[SHOP: Gear up, Bulls fans!]

CSN Bulls analyst Will Perdue joined Kap & Haugh to talk about his former teammate and explained why Hoiberg could be slightly ahead of where Kerr was last year as a first-time NBA head coach.

"You're probably going to get a Steve Kerr," Perdue said of Hoiberg. "But you're going to get a guy that has coaching experience. Steve Kerr had no coaching experience...But yet we all agreed that from an intellectual standpoint, he truly understands the game. So you felt he would adapt but nobody felt he would adapt this quickly. One thing you've seen is the success Fred Hoiberg has had at Iowa State with his ability to communicate with players and adapt quickly.

"Fred can adapt to pretty much any situation that's thrown at him. I was fortunate enough to cover the Big 12 Tournament a couple of times and rekindled that friendship and talked with him about the heartaches of what it is to coach, what it is to lose. It's one of those things after that conversation I walked away and said, 'I think Fred was built for this.'"

[RELATED: Hoiberg leading candidate to replace Thibodeau]

Ames Tribune columnist Bobby La Gesse also joined Kap & Haugh and believes Hoiberg is an ideal fit for what the Bulls front office wants.

"He hits every check mark that Gar (Forman) basically brought up yesterday," La Gesse said. "He's a good communicator, he's known as a player's coach, will work with them...Fred is an offensive mind. He basically brought the NBA spacing, three-point principles that you see kind of dominating the league to college and found a lot of success with that. He's big into analytics which is something that's also big in the NBA. If you're looking for a leader or somebody who can do everything that Gar said, take the Bulls to what they hope is a level beyond what they've been able to achieve these last few years, Fred hits every mark on that box."

Check out more of what Perdue and La Gesse had to say about Hoiberg in the video above and the clip below.

 

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