Most Valuabull To His Team

I haven't had much opportunity to do a lot of analysis of current sports events lately. A lot of focus here has been on North Central basketball, or running crazy tournaments to decide historical Greatest-Of-All-Time teams. But I feel like this is a topic I should chime in on. After all, I can't let Geoffy have a monopoly on the NBA and the Bulls, can I?

I was kind of looking forward to this NBA season with Derrick Rose expected to return to complete a core that a lot of people felt was definitely capable of winning a championship, but things fell apart very quickly. A perfect sports day on my 24th birthday was ruined by news that Rose had torn his meniscus and was likely to miss the rest of the season. Unfortunately, injuries are a part of the NBA and we have to take that news when it comes.

Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

I think a lot of people, and I'd probably include myself, thought that that would be the end of the Bulls' season. The front office almost seemed to agree when they dealt Luol Deng to Cleveland. Even so, it was a move I agreed with, because it sets up the Bulls for reloading in the 2014 offseason, even though I'm not sold that they will get the ultimate prize. But that's a story for another time.

No one on the outside could have blamed the Bulls for dropping off the table after the Deng trade. Without your best guy, your glue guy, a team that was under .500 in a terrible conference would normally say enough and try to position themselves for the best possible draft pick this summer. But we all seemed to forget just who this Bulls team really is.

There should be some awards for this team that get announced this summer. First and foremost, and probably somewhat biased, Tom Thibodeau should win Coach of the Year. I don't mean to discredit guys like Jeff Hornacek, who has done a terrific job with the Suns, or perennial candidate Gregg Popovich of the Spurs. Thibs has had to deal with losing his best player to a knee injury for the third straight season (I'm counting the April 2012 ACL tear as the first). And when you consider what Deng meant to this Bulls team and Thibs in particular... man. Deng was one of, if not the guy that Thibs relied on most on this Bulls team. I thought for the last few years that Deng was the glue guy that kept this team going. Obviously the development of Jimmy Butler has helped with this loss to some degree. Say what you will about his management of minutes on his key guys, but this Bulls team would have folded without Thibodeau. This is not a debatable fact. Other coaches may have kept the ship around where Thibs has kept it, but I don't know if anyone would have had the same degree of success.

Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast (AP)

Going along with this though has been the presence of the guy who's clearly now my favorite Bull: Joakim Noah. He's the type of guy that you hate when he plays for an opposing team, but if he's on your team, you love him. I love how he does all the little things your team needs to do to win, and I love his energy and passion he brings every night. You know he cares and he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. Over the course of his career he's turned into one of the best defenders in the league, and I would go so far as to say he's the Defensive Player of the Year this year.

Now bear with me, because I'm going to put my homer hat partially on: Joakim Noah should get some votes for Most Valuable Player.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel (Getty Images)

Now before you denounce me as a lunatic Bulls fan, or a blind homer, or a "hater", let me clarify my position. Voters for the MVP vote for the top five guys for this award. I'm not going to sit here and say that Noah should be getting consideration for first place votes. If I had a ballot, I'd probably vote Kevin Durant first and LeBron James second. The kind of season Durant has had overall puts him in a very good position in that regard, and LeBron is LeBron. Those two guys deserve the 1-2 in MVP voting in some order. But I think Noah should finish in the Top Five. His numbers aren't first place-worthy (12.2 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 4.8 APG, 1.5 BPG, 1.1 SPG, while shooting 48.5% from the field and 71.5% from the line) compared to LeBron or Durant, but averaging a double double is nothing to sneeze at. But his value clearly comes from those intangibles. Even with the Bulls' loss last night, I still have to put Noah up on that list somewhere.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann (Getty Images)

I'm also a realist. This Bulls team, as currently constructed, is probably not going to win a championship. In today's NBA, you need to have at least one superstar to win, plus the one or two major sidekicks and a few key role players. Being without Derrick Rose all but excludes this Bulls team, and Joakim Noah isn't at that superstar level unfortunately. But you can bet that Indiana and Miami are not looking forward to facing the Bulls in the playoffs. The Bulls may not win, but whoever they face will be relieved to be past them because of the hell Thibs, Noah and company put them through. If you're going to beat this Bulls team, you have to earn it.