Noah wants a do- over with Gasol
Says their ability to coexist should be judged at full strength
The “honest evaluation’’ that Joakim Noah was hoping to get will have to wait.
The Bulls center has been asked several times about the ability of he and Pau Gasol to not only coexist on the court, but flourish. Each time he pointed out that last season wasn’t a good barometer of that.
Not with a left knee that slowed Noah the entire year.
“I think we should give it an honest evaluation while I’m healthy,” Noah said of Year 2 of the experiment. “Last year, I wasn’t healthy. Let’s see how it goes, and then coaches can make a decision from there.”
With an offseason to come up with a program that has made the pain in Noah’s knee more manageable, he has had a bit more lift in his step.
But through two preseason games, Gasol has yet to play, and Noah hasn’t exactly been filling up the box score.
In 20 minutes against the Bucks on Tuesday, Noah was 1- for- 4 from the field, scoring two points and grabbing five rebounds. In 20 minutes against the Nuggets on Thursday, he was 0- for- 4, finishing with one point and eight rebounds.
Those aren’t numbers befitting a player who was fourth in MVP voting in the 2013- 14 season, averaging 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists.
Gasol was held out to monitor his minutes. He was scheduled to play Saturday against the Timberwolves.
Until the two can get some serious minutes together, the experiment is all speculation.
“I wouldn’t say it didn’t work [ last season],” Hoiberg said. “I thought they had a lot of great moments out there together. Again, Pau’s a guy that can space the floor. When you look at his numbers, what he shot from the mid- range last year was one of the best in the league.
“Jo, I think just the patience of him on the baseline, flashing to the middle so sometimes his guy can guard two players, the timing aspect of that has to be good for those guys to be out there for extended minutes. But those guys won a lot of games together when they were on the floor at the same time. So we’ll play to that. Again, just trying to get those guys playing off each other and reading each other well.”
It sounded as if Hoiberg was planning to start both bigs. But that’s written in pencil, not pen.
Noah still has to find his place on the floor when Gasol is out there, and he has to understand that the offense ran through him two seasons ago. It doesn’t anymore. That’s not easy to swallow for a player who will be a free agent after the season.
“I’m worried about this moment right now,’’ Noah said. “I’mworried about camp. I’m so happy I’m able to move the way I want to move. That’s something I’ve kind of taken for granted in the past. I’m just excited to show what I can do.”