Chicago Bulls: Joakim Noah Still A Valuable Piece To Puzzle
Despite his recent demotion to the bench, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah recently reminded us of how valuable he can be to the team.
Last week, I wrote an article about Joakim Noah and how he has been struggling this season. Not only is the former All-Star posting career lows in points (3.1), shooting percentages (.365 FG /.294 FT) and minutes played per contest (20.6), Noah has also been held scoreless in seven of the 14 games he has played in.
Even more importantly, the lack in production was beginning to take its toll on the player who was once the heart and soul of this Bulls team.
That being said, Noah was in need of a solid performance to help boost his confidence due to the lack of impact games he has had up to this point of the year. And as fate would have it, such an outing took place during Chicago’s 92-89 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 30.
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In that contest, Noah scored eight points, grabbed 11 boards and handed out seven assists, which is far his best outing on the young season thus far. It is also worth mentioning that the Bulls were a plus-10 when Noah was on the court.
While the eight points won’t jump off the stat sheet at anyone, Noah was a beast on the glass while displaying the ability to be a solid facilitator when it was needed. Along with that, the emotion that Noah played with reminded us all why he is so valuable to the Bulls.
After all, there aren’t too many centers who can take a smaller defender off the dribble with an impressive crossover and finish with a left-hand layup.
In other words, when Noah plays with the kind of passion that has has endeared him to the United Center faithful over the past few seasons, the Bulls are a much better team. And although Noah’s role has been severely reduced, his teammates know how valuable he is to this ball club, as Jimmy Butler emphasized in an interview with ESPN:
"“He got his swag back. You can see the way he’s walking around here, back there in the hot tub/cold tub. He’s smiling. His spirits are high. That’s the Jo that we need each and every day."
And while it has been difficult for Noah to come off the bench, he offered the usual team-first response when he was asked if there were any frustrations in his new secondary role, as CSN Chicago’s Vincent Goodwill explains:
"“It’s not that. I wanna play the whole game, you know? I never want to come out. I understand this is my role now and I just have to accept it and be the best I can with what I can. Overall we just beat a very good team tonight. There’s been games where I haven’t played well. I have to keep building on this, hopefully, play confident basketball and it’ll definitely be a plus for this team."
Taking into consideration this is a contract year for Noah, it is easy to understand how frustration can come into play at times. Furthermore, it is difficult for an All-Star caliber player to happily accept being demoted while knowing he is still capable of providing contributions similar to what we saw against the Spurs.
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That being said, Fred Hoiberg needs to find a way to get Noah more involved from an offensive standpoint. Because while Noah will never be the primary scoring option, he still has the ability to be a difference-maker when he is playing with confidence.
And as long as Noah is willingly looking to take and make shots, he brings an added dimension to the offense, which in turn, makes the Bulls a much more difficult team to defend against.