Noah will join Portis on 2nd unit when he returns
Life without Joakim Noah hasn’t been too bad for the Bulls.
One of the benefits has been the emergence of rookie Bobby Portis, who has been turned loose on the rest of the league while Noah recovers from a small tear in his left shoulder.
Things, however, are about to get complicated.
Coach Fred Hoiberg said if Noah, who missed his eighth consecutive game Thursday and won’t play Saturday in Atlanta, is able to practice and take contact next week, he’ll rejoin the rotation.
What will that rotation look like
Well, Hoiberg has been able to put that question off since Noah went down, but the Bulls have won seven of the eight games without Noah, so it’s finally time to cross that bridge.
“Obviously, Bobby is still going to play,’’ Hoiberg said. “There’s no doubt about that. He has earned his way into this rotation. He’s too important for us right now to go back to the way it was. A big part of that is getting Nikola [ Mirotic] some experience at small forward. He looks pretty good with that lineup. So we’ll stick with that starting group. That will open up minutes for Jo.
“We’ll go back to playing four bigs there again and kind of work your way through the game, depending on how it’s going and different matchups and whether we need an offensive or defensive group out there. Is it exact? No, I don’t think it’s been exact all year as far as how we finish games or how we go about our substitutions as the game goes on.’’
Noah and Portis have played almost zero minutes together in the regular season, but they have played together in practice and have shown enough to make Hoiberg comfortable with the pairing.
“As a playmaker with that second group, being our secondleading assist player, you can run things through Jo,’’ Hoiberg said. “Bobby is versatile enough where he can score from the outside if Jo gets by his man, even dribble-handoff type of actions. . . . It’s just a little different dynamic when Jo is out there. He’s such a unique player because you can put the ball in his hands.’’
Around the rim
Celtics coach Brad Stevens missed the game to visit one of his former players who’s very ill in Indiana.
Derrick Rose admitted that Jimmy Butler might be the most talented teammate he has played with since joining the organization.
“I think so, man,’’ Rose said. “Who knows how good he can become. I just love his patience right now. He’s playing with unbelievable patience. He’s not rushing anything. He knows what he’s getting whenever he’s in the pick-and-roll or whenever he’s in the isolation. He’s reading everything right.’’
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