Bulls sign Noah to a 5 year 60 million dollar contract. Between that contract, Deng's contract, Boozer's contract, and the contract Rose is going to get in a couple years they are strapped for years. How many bad contracts can one team hand out? Erick Dampier thinks Chicago over paid Noah, ask the Hornets how giving a Center with no offensive skills works out in the long term (Chandler).
It no wonder the NBA is going to have a lock out, the owners just can't help themselves to over paying everybody. A ####### role player just got 12 million dollars a year.
I'll pay 12 million a year for Noah vs. 20 million for Amare, 16 million for Gay, and 20 million Joe Johnson is getting. It's better to overpay for defense and at the C spot than to overpay for offense.
I mean for 60 million you get a guy who can shutdown the opposing team's 100 million dollar player.
Noah is kind of becoming that so under rated hes over rated player. He is a very good defender, but not elite, and a very good rebounder but not elite and the only thing he offers offensively is garbage near the hoop. I can't think of a single defense only big man who has ever lived up to a big contract. While I hated the Amare signing, a healthy Amare putting up 25 and 9 is far more productive for an NBA team than 10 and 10 with solid defense.And about him shutting down the other team's opposing player, I would argue that his strength defensively is much more as an active team defender than it is shutting down the opposing center. In 2012 and 2013 (Deng's final two years) they are going to be paying him 13.3/14.3, Noah 11.1/12.1, Boozer 15/15.3, and Rose will be on his new contract giving him something around 15/16. In 2013 they will be paying those four somewhere in the neighborhood of $58 million.
The Bulls have gone all in with this team, and its very unlikely they will be making any significant changes four the next 4 seasons. We'll get to see if this huge off season for the Bulls pays off, but I envision a very disappointing 4 years for the Chicago Bulls.
What starting Cs would you rank as better defenders then Noah? I can only think of a few off the top of my head (Howard, Perkins, Oden, Camby, Dalembert). Regarding his rebounding Noah WAS an elite rebounder last year.
Noah TRB Rate
He ranked 8th in RPG, had total rebound rate of 20.4 per 100 possessions which is good for 9th in the NBA, and according to 82games.com the team rebounded collected 2.1% more rebounds when he was ON the court vs OFF. This means that he's an actual difference maker in rebounding (not just collecting rebounds that the team would have gotten other wise).
So all in all I think that's worth 12 million.
Now Andris Biedrins at 9 million a year is a STEAL!
I think you're my favorite basketball poster here because our views and opinions are so much different that it makes it fun me to read what you have to say, and you usually bring up some fair points.Better defenders:
Howard (Clearly)
Oden (Clearly when healthy)
Perkins (Far superior on the block, not as good elsewhere)
Varejao (Does everything better than Noah other than rebound, defensively... played lots of PF last year but should get most of his time at C this year)
Duncan (he's lost a step, so he can't defend the pick and roll well any more, but he is still pretty stellar everywhere else)
Okafor (Underrated because of his bulky contract)
Guys that are comparable overall, but may have weaknesses:
Camby (mediocre on the block, but is probably the 2nd best weak side defender in the NBA behind Howard)
Haywood (Very good on the block, quick enough to step out, not the athlete Noah is)
Ben Wallace (Still a good athlete for being pretty old)
Bogut (knows where to be, blocks shots, good low post defender)
Biedrins (Just Kidding!! - As a side note, it his limited action last year he shot 16% from the line...4/25)
So I would put him in the 7-11 range as a defender, probably closer to 7.
As a rebounder his number are slightly over rated because of the rebounding talent around him. Gibson and Thomas are average rebounders as PFs (played about 70% of the PF minutes) and Deng (good rebounder for a SF) and Warrick are both terrible as rebounders from the PF spot and they filled the majority of the rest of the PF minutes. Overall as a team, minus Noah, they are bad rebounding team so it gives Noah more opportunities as a rebounder.
Overall I think Noah is probably in the 12-15 range as an NBA center (Howard, Lopez, Duncan, Perkins, Lee, Amare - when considered a center, Varejao, Oden - when healthy, Bynum - when healthly, Bogut, Horford, both Gasols - when Pau is considered a center, Kaman and probably Okafor). Nearly all those guys are making similar money or soon will be, so maybe by inflated salaries he got fair market price, but how many teams are happy with their $10-12 million dollar centers.... not many.