Noah the reason Bulls are 8-2 in January

[ChiTownCliff]

First, I would like to say, that while I loved Deng and a person and a player, the Bulls made the right move in trading him off. A long term contract on him would bite the Bulls in a couple of years.

So, let's talk about Noah. I have always been a huge fan and last season he really came into his own. He still suffers from getting foot and ankle injuries every so often and it seems hard for him to stay healthy for a whole season. With that being said, Noah has been on fire, and while most would have considered the Bulls lottery bound after the loss of Rose and the trade of Deng, they seemed to have come to life. I point to Noah!

Let's look at his numbers in the 10 games thus far in January.

14.9 ppg
14.7 rpg
5.2 apg
1.9 bpg

He has been a monster! Now if the Bulls can manage to get into the playoffs, they are likely one and done. It would take a perfect storm and the right match-up to make it to the second round. Short term I love the heart of this team. Long-term, an appearance in the playoffs is not as important as their placing in the draft. As a long time fan of the Bulls (since they drafted MJ when I was a kid) I will enjoy watching Noah play his heart out and worry about next season, next season...

 

[bksballer89]

I thought Boozer was the reason?

 

[lakersrule]

You should credit the clock operator for one of those wins

 

[BOTSLAYER]

@OP nobody thought Bulls were lottery bound with out Rose and Deng, they are a good team with a really good coach who get's the most out of his players every night.

 

[majoyenrac]

Hey wow, finding ChitownCliff again too. Apparently I missed the ball on this being the landing spot for all my old CBSSports cronies.....the way they slowly killed that site and then finally killed it, I wasn't too active there by the end.

Yes Joakim Noah is the single most underrated reigning all star in the NBA....the dude's amazing, his stats are solid too (something like 14-15-6-2 the last 14 games and 12-11-4-1.3 for the season, but even better is the guy's leadership and defense. Indy has the leagues best defense hands down, but they've got plus defenders at every position. I mean George and West are two of the best defenders at their position.

Bulls have Taj...and when healthy Jimmy, and while he's not what he was Kirk Hinrich's D is what keeps him in the game....but Noah's the only all league defender (Taj probably is too but doesn't quite get enough burn). Bulls routinely throw out Dunleavy and especially Boozer making Noah's D all the more better....

He's awesome.

Great finding you!

 

[majoyenrac]

Also, what do you mean nobody thought the Bulls were lottery bound after losing Deng and Rose for the year.

Hell before this stretch they looked lottery bound with Deng on the court givne they were so deflated post Rose, lost 2 playmakers who while not indivdually great, offered something that the Bulls severely lacked in Robinson and Belinelli from the Cinderella team last year....and add to that Butler (one of our best players) has been hampered with injuries all year. Derrick Rose when 100% is every bit good enough to hide these things, but he was out....

They looked every bit lottery bound and tankworthy....then Noah turned it up a notch and now, while we ain't winning, this team is turning into a pretty good "Major League--movie esque" team.

What team loses their superstar for the season to injury, trades one of it's two all star caliber players for nothing to help the team this year, and loses the only 2 playmakers sans Rose it had last year....and is still playoff bound and even better yet given teh weak East over .500....none.

Credit goes to Thibs, luck goes to us getting Augustin--perhaps the best of the Thibs system nobodies turned somebodies we've had, but the biggest credit goes to Joakim Noah, our leader and our superstar....

He might not score 30-40 pts, but he's just great.

 

[ChiTownCliff]

Awesome to see you here MAJO! The old crew is still finding their way here! Hope all is well with you.