Here's the next installment of our team-by-team season preview series on the Chicago Bulls.

2014-15 Record: 50-32

Notable Acquisitions: Bobby Portis (Draft)

Notable Departures: None

Temperature Check:

Despite his success during his five seasons at the helm, Tom Thibodeau’s grinding style and deteriorating relationship with the front office led to his dismissal this spring. In his stead comes former Chicago guard Fred Hoiberg, who leaves behind the college ranks after turning a middling Iowa State program into a perennial top 25 team. With much of the same cast under Thibodeau in place, the Bulls are hoping that Hoiberg’s fresh approach leads the team to new heights.

Inside the Playbook:

After years of watching wins come in a dull, grinding fashion, the hope for Chicago fans is that Hoiberg can breath life into an offense that often floundered, especially during the absence of Derrick Rose. While certainly handcuffed by Rose’s injuries, offensively limited players and his own desire to ride players trustworthy on defense, Thibodeau's offensive mirrored his persona -- very little flair or ingenuity, just straightforward, precise cutting and passing sequences that produce open looks.

After seeing the first game of the Hoiberg era, there is a sense that the Bulls' offense will have a whole new feel. For starters, the team jacked 39 triples in their preseason opener against the Bucks, nearly double the 22.3 attempts they averaged last season. There also much more of an open, attacking flow to Hoiberg’s offense, where players not named “Rose” seemed free to take creative chances or speculative shots without incurring the raspy, wrath of Thibs on the sidelines. That isn’t suggesting it was a free-for-all by any stretch, but hardly the steady, restricted beat that Chicago’s sets marched to under Thibs.

One play package in particular, a variation of which was actually the Bulls first play of the game, seems like a fun, funky way for the team to attack opposing defenses this season.  

This “Dribble Flip” series (That is a totally made up name for this as I’ve never actually come across the lingo for this grouping of actions. NBA terminology is confusing and not exactly uniform anyway) has several variations that Hoiberg had the team unveil throughout the game. This first one seems to be built for one of the team’s better shooters -- either Nikola Mirotic or Doug McDermott as the initial “dribble flip” at the top of the key is a way to create an option-screen read near the baseline.

Mirotic has his choice of either going off Butler along the baseline or cutting right up the middle off Noah’s screen. Like the choose-your-adventure books you used to read as a kid (or maybe I just did…), whichever choice Mirotic makes triggers a whole chain of different coordinated movements. Now in an ideal world, Mirotic (or McDermott, who ran this play later in the game) cuts off one of the screens for open shot. But as this clip shows, when that is taken away, the team can flow right into a pass-and-follow pick-and-roll that that keeps the possession humming along.

Thibs had sets similar to this as well, but not as well disguised and mostly focusing some type of interplay between the two bigs. A lot of the pass-and-follow situations in the past were more static in nature, with a big man just catching a simple reversal pass from one side of the floor and swinging it opposite while following the ball. In this particular set, the pass-and-follow pick-and-roll set by Mirotic stems as a counter to the initial, defense-shifting option which was the dual-screen read at the beginning of the play -- a subtle difference that scrambles this defense just bit more before they are put in another tough situation.

The fun part about this is that it appears to be a part of a series where that high dribble flip between the big and ballhandler at the start can flow into what appears to be a variety of different end games. A couple on display last night were the flip freeing Joakim Noah to move quickly into an immediate pass-and-follow to the weakside….

….and a throwback from McDermott led right into a surprise pick-and-roll in the opposite direction:  

Now none of these plays are some magical tactic that will unlock untapped offensive potential for every Chicago player. In fact, it’s hard to even say if they will even be effective. But given how stale things had gotten under Thibodeau near the end of his reign, they most important thing is just perhaps that they prove things will be different with the Bulls new head coach.

Lineup to Watch:

The Taj Gibson-Joakim Noah frontcourt

Last year was the first season in the half-decade Thibodeau coached Chicago that the team didn’t finish in the top 10 in defensive efficiency, per Basketball Reference data. While the introduction of offense-first type players in Mirotic and Pau Gasol into the team’s frontcourt rotation played a part in that slide, a bigger reason was the health-related decline of Noah and Gibson. Four years ago, those two joined together to post a formidable 93.7 defensive rating (league leading by a longshot if compared to an overall team) in the 311 minutes they shared the floor that year. Last season, their rating ballooned to 104.8 in 421 minutes, likely because of the dropoff in play due to the injury issues that plagued both all year.

With Gasol and Mirotic slated to return, and the latter seemingly a lock for a drastic minutes increase, the Bulls defense is going to take a hit again this season. But if Rose’s injury misfortune continues, as it has already during training camp, the team may not be able to score with opponents no matter how well Mirotic and Gasol play. By providing Hoiberg with a frontcourt pairing that allows Chicago to lock down the opposition defensively, Gibson and Noah would allow the team be less reliant on this new offensive system being forced to carry the team to wins -- something that will be vitally important if Rose continues to miss large chunks of the regular season.

The Wildcard:

Doug McDermott

After a rookie season derailed to an early season injury, McDermott’s potential impact is hard to evaluate. But with Mike Dunleavy set for an extended spell on the sidelines, someone in the Bulls thinning backcourt rotation needs to join Rose and Jimmy Butler in providing some offensive punch.

As we know, McDermott can shoot the lights out but it’s hard to tell how wide-reaching his shooting stroke can be when it comes to impacting a defense. Players like Steve Novak (when he actually played), Anthony Marrow and other knockdown, spot-up types certainly garner the attention of defenses, but they need other players to help augment their valuable skill.

Where McDermott can really provide a boost is not just by knocking down open shots, but by emerging as something of a Kyle Korver-lite, the former Bull who used to anchor the team’s second unit. Under Thibs, Korver would enter games and run off all different types of screens, forcing defense to shift in ways that created easy scoring opportunities for teammates without him even touching the ball. But because of his limited role last season, it’s unclear whether McDermott not only has the potential to be that type of player, but if he’s ready to do it for a team that’s built to win right now.

If McDermott is, it could add a whole new element to Chicago’s offense and raise their entire ceiling as a team.

Coach’s Question:

Does Hoiberg need to consider bringing Pau Gasol off the bench?

On the surface, it certainly seems outlandish to suggest the idea of bringing a player fresh off an All-Star selection off the bench. Yet if you dig deeper into what’s going on with Gasol and the Bulls, it may not seem so crazy after all.

For starters, Gasol may have been an All-Star last year but is 35-years-old with lots of NBA miles on his legs. And while Gasol posted a more than respectable VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) mark of 3.2 -- ranking him in the league’s top 30 -- last year at 34, only six big men in league history have turned 35 or older and posted such a sterling mark, per Basketball Reference data.

Gasol’s surfaces numbers and general formula’s like VORP certainly don’t suggest evidence he can’t be number seven on that list. Yet those numbers also don’t jive with that fact that Chicago didn’t really miss Gasol much when he was off the court as they were just over a point per 48 minutes worse during the 1,295 minutes the veteran Spanish big man was on the bench. On top of that, Gasol had just the sixth best net rating - which measures the contrast in offensive and defensive efficiency when a player is on the floor -- on the team, with every Bull ranked above him accumulating at least 1500 minutes on the court (in other words, no small sample size outliers).

Now when you add numbers like that to the Bulls roster makeup, you see the real case for such a move. Gasol and Noah, the team’s preferred starters last year, were exceedingly mediocre in their minutes together, though again, some of that may be placed on Noah’s injury issues. Still, if Hoiberg locks himself into starting combo with limited upset, he’s simply burning valuable time before he gets to better pairings. When facing that problem in a world without ego and perception, that means you just split the duo up.

There’s no way a healthy Noah, or one somewhere within shouting distance of the Defensive Player of the Year Noah, should be resigned to the bench. And moving Noah there wouldn’t help a bench unit that will already be heavily reliant on backup point guard Aaron Brooks for offense anyway. Gasol, on the other hand, would be well served for such a role and it’d free either Mirotic or Gibson to claim the starting job and allow the Bulls to open games with either more spacing or more defense, instead of more….size, I guess?

It’d be a tricky clash of ego for a new coach to handle, but for the betterment of the Bulls, bring his venerable veteran big man off the bench is something Hoiberg might have to seriously consider.

Best Case Scenario:

49-33 If….

Hoiberg’s approach doesn’t compromise an already slipping defense. Rose stays (relatively) healthy and continues to inch back toward his former MVP self. Butler’s explosion last year proves to be the real thing and he continues his excellent production.

Worst Case Scenario:

41-41 If…

Injuries to Rose expose middling backcourt depth behind him. Hoiberg can’t push the right buttons with a deep frontcourt rotation. Butler regresses from his sterling past season while Noah and Gibson struggle to find their best selves.

Click here for a full list of NBA Season Previews from Brett Koremenos.