Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah has been one of the most popular players on the team since he was drafted, but according to one of his teammates, his time in the Windy City is drawing to a close.
In a column published by Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, a player has said that Noah has told teammates that he is “done with the organization” once he becomes a free agent this summer.
Here is more from the piece:
“According to a Bulls player, Noah has been telling teammates the last few weeks that he was done with the organization once free agency begins, and 'has no trust in the front office getting this in the right direction.””
The Bulls, who missed the playoffs this season for the first time since 2009, have a lot of other questions to deal with this offseason, including whether to trade Jimmy Butler or Derrick Rose (who will be a free agent at the end of the 2016-17 season), and deciding whether to keep Noah has been a decision up in the air throughout this year.
Noah went through an injury-plagued 2015-16 season, playing in just 29 games for the Bulls before a shoulder injury ended his season. Noah came off the bench during the year, and that could be one of the factors in his reported decision to leave Chicago.
The reputation of Bulls G.M. Gar Forman has been a question mark for some time, as the team has made a slew of questionable moves. One of the biggest moves that Forman made was to fire Tom Thibodeau, who reportedly clashed often with the front office, and to bring in the more malleable Fred Hoiberg before last season.
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That move proved to be a disaster, as the Bulls went from being one of the Eastern Conference’s perennial contenders to being an also-ran, struggling in every aspect of the game despite a surging Butler and a healthy Rose through much of the year.
That in-fighting and haggling over decision-making and discipline has led some to question whether or not the team can attract the free agents required to rebuild the mess, and Noah apparently shares that skepticism about the direction of the team.
