As if Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler indicting their teammates for lack of commitment and work isn't enough, Fred Hoiberg also is answering questions on whether players are following his orders.
Television replays indicated Hoiberg initially telling his team to call time out after Hawks center Dwight Howard attempted two free throws with 58.6 seconds left in the Bulls' collapse Wednesday night.
Those same replays appear to indicate Butler frowning and responding with, "What? No."
After Howard split two free throws for a 112-110 lead, Nikola Mirotic began to signal for a timeout. But Butler called for Mirotic to throw him the inbounds pass, dribbled down and banked in a pull-up jumper with 44.3 seconds left to tie the game.
Hoiberg fielded a question about the exchange and whether he wanted a timeout after the game.
"No, we were going to get it, go down and save that last timeout," Hoiberg said.
The Bulls ultimately used timeouts with 34 seconds left after a teamwide defensive breakdown allowed a Howard alley-oop dunk from Kent Bazemore and with 10 seconds left.
The Bulls took Thursday off. Near the end of last season, Hoiberg addressed his need to improve on holding players accountable. This incident could be another test.
