Chicago Bulls: Trading Joakim Noah for LaMarcus Aldridge Would Be A Mistake

The Chicago Bulls have had three major problems over the last few years that have prevented them from making a serious title run: 1) Injuries 2) LeBron James and 3) Not putting the right pieces around Derrick Rose. There’s nothing that can really be done about the first roadblock, but if the Bulls want to overcome the second item on that list, they need to address problem area No. 3. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why rumors of a trade between the Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers involving LaMarcus Aldridge have ignited on Twitter recently. However, the price they’d reportedly have to pay may move them further away from their objective of winning a championship.

Discussions between Chicago and Portland about Aldridge aren’t exactly new; according to Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com, the two teams talked about a Joakim Noah-LaMarcus Aldridge swap back in February until the Bulls turned Portland down. Sam’s report on July 5 noted that the Bulls view Noah as “untouchable.” And rightfully so.

Noah is one of the best examples of a “love him or hate him guy” in all of professional sports. Bulls fans love Noah for his tenacity, his intensity, his smart defense, his gritty rebounding and his loyalty to his teammates. It has to be mentioned that his hate for the Miami Heat is probably another reason Chicago loves him so much. But no matter what your stance on Joakim Noah is, you have to admit: You hate when your favorite team is playing against him, but you’d probably love to have a player just like him if you could.

According to both Sam and K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, talks between Chicago and Portland have heated up again, with Portland asking for Noah and Jimmy Butler. As Johnson points out, Derrick Rose and LaMarcus Aldridge share the same agency, which may be a contributing factor as to why these discussions continue to exist. Sam writes that although Noah is set to work with Hakeem Olajuwon this summer to improve his post game, one league source believes the Bulls are at least considering the offer now. It seems unlikely that Chicago makes the deal, but in the event that they do ship Noah off to Portland in exchange for LaMarcus Aldridge, they’d be making a terrible mistake.

That’s not to say that gaining Aldridge would be a bad thing. He’s coming off back-to-back All-Star seasons and has averaged a healthy 21.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in his last three seasons, while also shooting 50 percent from the floor during that same stretch. He’s a talented power forward who would immediately help the Bulls in the paint in a way that Carlos Boozer has only been able to for stretches at a time. He’s talented enough offensively to take some of the pressure off Rose and Aldridge would also greatly benefit from Rose’s penetration that draws in so many weak-side defenders.

That kind of offensive progress sounds great for a team like Chicago that has often stalled on that end of the court, but at what cost? I’m assuming the Bulls wouldn’t be boneheaded enough to agree to give away both Noah AND Butler, but for the sake of being thorough, let’s examine what they’d be letting go if they did. In Butler, they’d be losing a young, incredibly hard-working player who proved he was up to the task of guarding the best scorers in the league last year, just his second season. He gave the Bulls great energy off the bench, filled in for injured starters, shot 38 percent from 3-point territory last season, logged enormous minutes in the playoffs and showed huge amounts of potential as a well-rounded and intelligent basketball player.

Now let’s assume Chicago’s front office isn’t completely brain dead and wouldn’t include Jimmy Butler in a package for Aldridge. That leaves us with Joakim Noah, who would have to be the central piece in any deal the Bulls work out. That leads us to this question: Who wins in a straight up swap between Noah and Aldridge?

Well, let’s look at what each player brought to his respective team last year. Noah was the best defender and anchor for a stingy Chicago defense that held opponents to 92.9 points per game, good for third-best in the NBA. They were also eighth in the league in rebounding (43.2 boards per game) with Noah hauling in 17.3 percent of his team’s total rebounds, which was 18th highest in the league per Basketball-Reference.com. Noah was also eighth in the league in offensive rebounds (260 over the season), 14th in total rebounds (733), sixth in blocks per game (2.1), 14th in block percentage (4.4 percent), seventh in defensive rating (98.6) and 11th in defensive win shares (4.7). So yes, you could say that Joakim Noah was a pretty good defender this season.

As for LaMarcus Aldridge, he was 16th in the league in rebounds per game, but other than that, his accomplishments in the NBA’s top 20 lists reside on the offensive end. Although his work guarding post-up moves is admittedly decent, Aldridge brings none of the defensive prowess that made Noah the perfect anchor for Chicago’s stifling defense. Keep in mind this is the same team that features Carlos Boozer, who’s mediocre (at best) on defense despite his excellent rebounding skills. Can you imagine a LaMarcus Aldridge-Carlos Boozer tandem in the paint? They’d get rebounds, sure, but how many boards would the Bulls actually get if their opponents’ bigs were able to score at will in the paint with no Joakim Noah and his magnificent help defense?

Under Tom Thibodeau, the Chicago Bulls are a defense-oriented team. Without Rose last season, the Bulls still managed to lock up the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and win a playoff series. And that was with Noah, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng hurt or out for stretches of the playoffs! How were they able to do it? Defense. The Bulls have made strides to address some of their offensive issues this offseason by drafting Tony Snell and signing Mike Dunleavy for perimeter shooting. Most importantly, they’ll be getting Rose back next season. He’s easily their best offensive threat and will immediately help boost Chicago’s offense in (hopefully) the same jaw-dropping ways he did before tearing his ACL.

Bearing all this in mind, the potential risks on the defensive end aren’t worth the possible offensive benefits of trading for LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge isn’t a bad defender, but let’s not forget who we’re talking about replacing. Noah didn’t win the Defensive Player of the Year Award, but he finished fourth in the voting and there were many who thought he deserved the award over Marc Gasol. Are you getting that kind of defense from Aldridge? Probably not, especially since Aldridge is more of a power forward who’d be better off replacing Boozer’s lackluster defense.

People dislike Noah because of his attitude, which is as untamed as his hair and overall appearance at times. He rubs people the wrong way and seems to have a me-against-the-world mentality. But in reality, it’s not Noah against the world. Rather, it’s the Chicago Bulls against the world and that’s a quintessential trait in a good teammate in any sport, as he showed on the road in Game 7 against a more talented Brooklyn Nets team this year.

You want the guy who’s going to kill himself on the court for his team and his teammates. You want the scary-looking dude who won’t back down from anybody and will make big plays because of his hustle, defense and high basketball IQ. But most of all, you don’t want to trade a terrific glue guy who fits in with the team’s chemistry and makes up a huge part of its identity. LaMarcus Aldridge is a great offensive talent, but trading away Joakim Noah would be a huge mistake for Chicago’s identity and possibly their title hopes as well.