Filed under: Bulls, Clippers, Mavericks, Trail Blazers, NBA Coaches, The Works
In The Works today: Mark Cuban renounces stats, and we try to bring him back; we offer Rudy Fernandez a gameplan to get out of Portland; and the Clippers get their morning in the sun.But first, the exquisite inevitability of the Joakim Noah extension.
Believe It
One day later, Joakim Noah's extension -- by some estimations, premature or overly large -- remains a mystery. After all, while Noah has been the second-best player from what was supposed to be the best draft class since 2003 (which was the best since 1984), and a linchpin of the Bulls' hot, young future. He may not be the most skilled big man around, even if he was in college, but Noah boards, defends and just generally hits the ground running like few players in the game today.
And yet the contract, which will pay the scion of French tennis royalty $60 million over five seasons, seems premature, excessive, maybe even silly. Noah has never strung together an entire All-Star-ish season like, say, fellow 2007 alum Al Horford; that doesn't make him Andrew Bynum coming off of a breakout marred by injury. Noah is always a factor and increasingly, a force. What's more, while the Bulls could have waited to see if Noah continued to progress and then snatch him up as a restricted free agent, they decided to spare the formalities and reward him now.
It's hardly the most calculating plan for the future. Calculating, though, is not the same thing as calculated. Sometimes, being decisive and seemingly rash is the most shrewd move possible. The Noah deal falls into this category: an agreement struck ahead of schedule because without Joakim Noah maturing into a $12 million man very soon, the Bulls are back at square one.
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