Some good news: Joakim Noah has been extended

According to Sam Smith of Bulls.com: “While the team learned that free agent power forward Carlos Boozer would be lost with a fractured right hand, league sources confirmed the Bulls have come to an agreement with Joakim Noah on a contract extension. Sources said the deal is for five years and is worth about $60 million. It would go into effect after this season. An announcement is expected this week.”

Whew.

In last week’s post about Noah’s worth — remember, the Bulls had offered $57 million over five years while Joakim’s camp reportedly wanted $65-70 million — I was asked in the comments section what I felt Noah should be paid. I said: “Truth be told, I think the $57 million is probably a fair [market] price. However, clearly Noah doesn’t think so. Frankly, I don’t think $70 million is fair to the Bulls. $65 million would be pushing it. I think that somewhere between $60-62 million would be a fair compromise.”

So I’m pretty happy with the $60 million figure.

It was important for the Bulls to get this done. There really is no room for a contract distraction right now, especially with Boozer’s injury. Of course, fans still hoping the Bulls would pull of a trade for Carmelo Anthony might be a little bummed. As ESPNChicago’s Nick Friedell pointed out, Noah’s new deal unofficially kills any possibility of a ‘Melo trade.

Of course, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. When this subject came up a couple weeks ago, I stated firmly that I believe Noah contributes more to winning than ‘Melo would — particularly when you consider how the Bulls are constructed — and so trading Noah and (most likely) Luol Deng for Anthony would be foolish. David Berri from The Wages of Wins Journal has the hard data (with charts!) to back that supposition up:

According to Berri: “The most productive players on the Bulls last season were Deng and Noah.  Of the team’s 36.8 Wins Produced, 19.1 – or over half – can be linked to these two players.  And Noah didn’t even play 2,000 minutes. Meanwhile, Anthony — as I noted last August (and many times before that, and also since then) — is overrated. Yes, he can score.  But his scoring is primarily due to his willingness to take many shots. He is not a particularly efficient scorer. And he doesn’t help out much with any other facet of the game.   Consequently, we should not be surprised that Melo only posted a 0.108 WP48 [Wins Produced per 48 minutes].”

And they say intangibles can’t be tracked.

Anyway, with Boozer shelved for the next two months, Noah — already the foundation of Chicago’s defense — will become the team’s primary inside scorer. Now that his financial situation is squared away, I hope Joakim is ready to step up his game.

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10 Responses to Some good news: Joakim Noah has been extended

  1. chicondo@hotmail.com'
    luvabullnj October 4, 2010 at 3:34 pm #

    Is Dampier signed already or still available. He’s looking like a good pick up right about now.

  2. bob.edwards47@yahoo.com'
    BoppinBob October 4, 2010 at 7:05 pm #

    Lets not forget that Taj Gibson as a rookie almost averaged a double/double and is a bettr defender than Boozer. While it may be hailing, the sky has not fallen. We will get an opportunity to see if Gibson will continue to progress, The bench gets the chance to shine early and we will get a shot in the arm in early December. I am a glass half full guy, hopefully Thibs is also.

  3. kpark1@gmail.com'
    ken October 5, 2010 at 3:29 am #

    Yay! I’m glad Noah signed. I agree that it was the right move. Parting with Noah now would be tough, especially with no good alternatives at center.

    But I think you are being overly harsh on Carmelo. Some statistical measures indicate he’s far superior to Noah. On the whole, I think the statistics show mixed evidence on their relative values. Your preference for one over the other would really depend on team need.

    As for Melo’s inefficiency, in his 3rd, 4th and 5th seasons, Melo shot over 48% from the field! I think that at least shows potential for higher conversion rates.

  4. kpark1@gmail.com'
    ken October 5, 2010 at 3:31 am #

    Dayam luvabull … you’re right … Dampier would be an awesome backup …

  5. tiffac008@yahoo.com'
    tiffac October 5, 2010 at 12:29 pm #

    If Deng can knock down some threes and start attacking the basket than taking them long twos, then we can put all this Melo trade to rest but if we see the Deng of 09-10 season. You better believe everyone will we shouting for a trade, including me.

    With Boozer out I hope we get something out of JJ. He has become an intangible now. JJ has to show us something or he’s a bust.

  6. mears54321@hotmail.com'
    chad October 5, 2010 at 9:20 pm #

    why do we get rid of everyone so we can afford to overpay someone who’s constantly injured

  7. mears54321@hotmail.com'
    chad October 5, 2010 at 9:20 pm #

    next noah will get hurt playing with his money

  8. Joe.sez@gmail.com'
    JoeSez October 6, 2010 at 3:20 am #

    Dampier.

    Makes no sense.

    He was an underachiever at GS, in Dallas and where ever else he lands.

  9. felipeagarcia87@hotmail.com'
    Dj October 6, 2010 at 4:40 am #

    Yup, I agree with JoeSez!

    Watching the game against the Bucks made me realize of how much we need to add more bench scorers!!! Please Portland! take James Johnson and our 1st round draft pick in exchange for Rudy Fernandez!

    We also need to add another big guy that can score like: Earl Barron and sign another PG that can hit the 3 ball like: Rafer Alston.

    Then we will be set with having our roster look like this:

    Starters:
    PG: D. Rose
    SG: R. Brewer
    SF: L. Deng
    PF: C. Boozer
    C: J. Noah
    Bench:
    PG: C.J Watson and Rafer Alston
    SG: Rudy Fernandez
    SF: K. Korver
    PF: Taj Gibson and Brian Scalabrine
    C: K. Thomas or Earl Barron

    And I finally agree with Boppinbob we need to send Asik to the D-league to improve his game.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Thoughts on Noah’s Extension | tavromachia - October 5, 2010

    […] why this was a good move by Gar Forman, John Paxson and Little Mikey Reinsdorf (see KD, Thonus andMcHale).  First off, let me voice complete agreement with those assessments, I think Noah is a fantastic […]

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