Episode 29 of the Sports Betting Tips podcast, featuring veteran NBA journalist Chris Sheridan, is now available. In this week’s episode, Chris speaks with Sam Smith — the NBA writer, not the pop singer. Sheridan and Smith, a longtime Bulls beat writer, discuss Chicago’s coaching change and the team’s future.
Listen to the full conversation here:
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Bulls Fire Hoiberg
The Bulls on Monday fired coach Fred Hoiberg, the former Iowa State coach. Hoiberg acquired a 115-155 record in three-plus seasons. The team was 5-19 to start the season.
“Unfortunately, this was probably coming,” Smith said.
The circumstances facing Hoiberg were difficult as four of the team’s top seven players have missed significant time due to injury.
“It’s just too hard to survive losing, no matter the circumstances … of course it’s not fair, but it wasn’t fair when a lot of our colleagues got run out of the newspaper business,” Smith said.
Bulls’ Future
The Bulls are the second-youngest team in the league, and they have plenty of cap space moving forward.
“The team is well-positioned,” Smith said. “The trade they made for Jimmy Butler was the right trade.”
The situation may look bad right now, but the future should be brighter for Bulls fans. Former assistant Jim Boylen is the team’s new coach. Boylen will lead the team for the first time Tuesday when the Bulls play the Pacers.
“This is the second Jim Boylen the Bulls have had as interim coach,” Smith pointed out. “They’re completely different people.”
The new Boylen was formerly a longtime NBA assistant and head coach at the University of Utah.
Later in the podcast, Chris and Smith discussed which teams look like contenders through 24 games, memorable stories from Smith’s career, how the league has changed, who will win MVP (hint: don’t rule out Damian Lillard) and more.
Listen to the full episode by hitting play above, and be sure to subscribe to Get More Sports’ podcast Sports Betting Tips with Chris Sheridan on your platform of choice.
