The Chicago Bulls have already begun to phase out Noah playing time this year with the team.
Advertisement
Pistons center Andre Drummond, who’s averaging 17.8 points and 15.5 rebounds, will be an even more imposing challenge without Noah.
Noah injured the same shoulder last month and missed 9 games. Noah had recently missed nine games across three weeks after suffering a slight tear in his left shoulder on December 21, then suffered this more serious injury in just his fourth game back. Noah is also one of the leaders on this team, so to lose him for the season, is a big loss.
While his numbers have declined over the past few seasons, Noah may just need a change of scenery. Maybe not even the sustained, but short circuited success of the first great Bulls team with Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier, Bob, Love, Chet Walker and Tom Boerwinkle. However, thanks to former coach Tom Thibodeau’s decision to run the offense through Noah, the Bulls made an improbable run to the playoffs, concluding the campaign with 34 wins over the final 48 games, and they finished with the fourth best record in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago are now buoyed by the leadership of Jimmy Butler, who has taken the reins as the best player of the team due to Derrick Rose’s injury-plagued career significantly slowing him down. Noah has been with the team for 8 years, second only to Kirk Hinrich on this team.
Pau Gasol chipped in 18 in that matchup, and he had 29 with 14 boards in a 132-129 double-OT loss in the most recent meeting at United Center.
The Chicago Bulls said in a news release that the shoulder dislocation was “reduced in the training room” Friday night and was evaluated at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago, where it was determined that he will undergo surgery to stabilize his left shoulder.
I blacked out. I can’t remember a thing what happened there.
“We had some of that”, Hoiberg said.
Advertisement
Asked to recall his game-changing defensive play against Rose, Nowitzki sheepishly said: “I blacked out”. I just want to do whatever I can to help this team as much as possible. I like guys that are battlers, but we have a big picture to consider here.”ABOUT THE BULLS (23-15): Butler downplayed his huge game but coach Fred Hoiberg was delivering compliments in rapid fashion”.
