Matters of Size

By: Charlie Danoff

The Bulls beat Detroit last night, for their fourth win in five games. It’s too early to say they are back on track - they are still five games under .500 - but winning is always better than losing. The victory had to be particularly sweet for Ben Wallace, especially since it was the second time this year the Bulls have beaten his former team.Flash back to summer 2006, when Joe Dumars decided Wallace wasn’t worth a long-term investment and Ben hopped across Lake Michigan to the good side, signing a four-year deal with the Bulls. As fans know, the new marriage has been a little rocky so far. In the second quarter last night, Wallace had a particular display of ineptitude.

Following a missed shot by Captain Kirk, Wallace tipped the ball to a teammate, and quickly got a return pass. Noticing his free path to the hoop, Wallace leapt from the right side of the rim for a thunderous jam… only to viciously clank the ball off the rim. He complained to the refs afterwards about getting fouled, but that was clearly only to save face.

Despite the miss, the Bulls remained in control for most of the game - late into the third quarter, when Wallace was replaced by rookie Joakim Noah with 1:45 left. In addition to following in Wallace’s footsteps in the category of most interesting hair for an NBA big man, Noah has quite a story.

For those Bulls fans not entirely familiar with this year’s rookie, he was born in New York City in 1985, son of Yannick Noah and Cecilia Rhode. Yannick was the 1983 French Open champ, and Cecilia had quite a background of her own; but I’ll get to that later. When he was 3, Noah moved to Paris - which is probably where his particular eye for fashion was honed.

Along with developing his aesthetic tastes, Noah played some ball, and continued upon returning to NYC, as a “5-11 point guard … he played at Poly Prep in Brooklyn for his first three years of high school, growing to 6-2 as a sophomore, 6-5 as a junior, and 6-10 as a senior.”

Yes, you read that correctly - the Bulls’ 7-foot rookie center was a point guard heading into high school.

As the draft express profile points out, this likely means that Noah has not really begun to tap into his potential. Consider that he’s only been playing center for 4 or 5 years; normal big men in the NBA - think Samuel Dalembert, Tyson Chandler, etc. - usually take at least 3-4 years in the NBA to become an effective center, after playing it their whole lives.

But there are a couple of big differences between Noah and those other two players. For one, he is not as athletically gifted as either. Secondly, he played point guard in high school, and neither Dalembert nor Chandler seem to be even remotely capable of dribbling a basketball down the floor in an empty gym.

Noah’s abilites as a passer are already helping the Bulls in their half-court offense. He makes good decisions with the ball in his hands, not panicking and treating it like a hot potato as Ben Wallace sometimes does. He even, heaven forbid, moves without the rock in his hands and sets screens off the ball, demonstrating his basketball IQ.

The draft profile mentions that he even led fast breaks at times as a Florida Gator. While Joakim has yet to display that ability in his time with the Bulls (and it might not be particularly advisable) it is exciting to know it’s a possibility. And more importantly, it means he has more-than-adequate ballhandling skills for a player of his size.

Passing aside, though, Noah’s best assets at this point in his career are his energy and defensive abilities. These are what he is most famous for, and what made Paxson draft him ninth overall in June. He matched up well against former All-Stars Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace on Friday night. Already he is using these attributes to make an impact, and to compensate for his lack of bulk and scoring ability.

He plays somewhat stiff on the low block, but does work hard to establish position; and he’s getting better. At one point early in the fourth quarter, Andres Nocioni found him for scores on three straight possessions. He just kept cutting to the basket and avoiding Pistons defenders - for a dunk, a layup and a shooting foul where he sunk one of two free throws.

Noah seems to be progressing ahead of schedule after only 13 games. Against Detroit he scored 11 points in 16 minutes, moving ahead of Tyrus Thomas (who never left the bench despite a history of performing well against the Pistons) in Coach Skiles’ rotation. He is only averaging 3.7 points and 3.3 boards per contest, but keep in mind that he has played only 12.3 minutes per game.

His per-40 minute numbers are not awesome, but they are encouraging: 13.5 points and 10.3 rebounds. What happened in last night’s game will soon start to become standard - even with his struggles, Noah already has a PER of 17.73, second on the team behind Nocioni’s 18.1. Platitudes aside, the rook has a long, long way to go. And regardless of what happens going forward, he has a truly hot mom - 1978’s Miss Sweden - to boot.

At the Palace last night, Skiles put Wallace back in with 7:58 left to close out the victory. Embarrassing missed dunk aside, Wallace has improved as of late and finished the game with 13 boards and 4 blocks, out-rebounding former teammate Rasheed by 6 despite playing less minutes. But even with good performances like these, Wallace’s inconsistency is frustrating and he could begin to cede minutes to his young backup.

If it turns out that Wallace has only lost five steps instead of ten, Noah continues his accelerated progress, and Tyrus figures out a way to stay on the floor, things might just be alright for the Bulls in the middle.

Tags: , ,

Charlie is an aspiring writer and a caddy at Skokie Country Club. Odds are you will hear a lot about him in the years to come, so if you want to be the first kid on the block familiar with his work, click here.

Share This Article

No Comments

No comments yet.

Comment On This Article