Joakim Noah Got His Swag Back, For One Night At Least

I’m not sure if people watched last night’s Bulls game while Matt Schaub was captivating the nation but if you did you saw one thing that stuck out, our good friend Joakim Noah coming back to life. I’ve said it before, this Bulls team is confusing, none of the pieces quite fit and it feels like all the good offensive guys can’t play defense and all the good defensive guys can’t play offense (Jimmy Butler being the lone exception). I also have said that the only thing that can take this team to the Finals is old school Derrick Rose and old school Joakim Noah showing up. Well last night we got 1 of the 2. Joakim hit the way back machine to a couple of years ago and actually looked confident in his game. 8 pts, 11 rebs, and 7 assists. And while from the surface that may not seem that amazing, anyone who watched Jo in last year’s playoffs knows that 8 points for is something to marvel at. He has completely lost his offensive game, to the point where it’s difficult to watch as he passes out of offensive rebounds under the hoop or throws wild shots off the backboard with no touch. But thanks to an even older and slower David West and a need to contribute with half the team injured old Jo showed up. I don’t know if it will last, it probably won’t, but it was great to see. When he has bounce in his legs and can contribute on the offensive side the team looks a lot different. 10-5 to finish up November, I’m a firm believer that the season doesn’t truly start until after Christmas but so far I would say I’m cautiously optimistic yet again. The Defense, which we thought would be bad, is actually very good. And yes the Bulls look sloppy as fuck at times and it’s still hard to get buckets late and the pieces don’t quite fit but if we get a few more old school Jo nights like last night mixed with a couple Derrick Rose coast to coast drives I might get crazy and just go and talk myself into losing in 7 to the Cavs. Watch out!