Desperate Chicago Bulls Setting the Stage for Joakim Noah to Play Hero Again

Joakim Noah wishes he wasn't receiving the call, and the Chicago Bulls would rather not be placing it.

But with their rotation ripped apart by injury once again, the Bulls are in desperate need of a savior.

And as ESPN Chicago's Nick Friedell noted, no one handles that role better than the Windy City's fiery man in the middle:

Noah responds to adversity as well as any player in the NBA, which is an invaluable tool given how much of it the Bulls have faced these past few seasons.

Derrick Rose recently completed his third knee surgery in as many years. Franchise mainstay Luol Deng was shipped out for salary relief last season. Leading scorer Jimmy Butler is currently sidelined by a sprained ligament in his elbow, while steady sixth man Taj Gibson is working his way back from a sprained ankle.

The Bulls, who sit second in the Eastern Conference but are only a half-game ahead of the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, are running out of weapons in their arsenal. Their tank isn't empty, but the low-fuel light is on.

In other words, the conditions are perfect for a Noah takeover.

He's an energy guy at heart, and his blue-collar box scores don't exactly paint him as a game-changing talent. For his career, he averages a solid-not-spectacular 9.7 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 blocks per game.

But dig a little deeper, and the outline of a special type of player starts to take shape. He might not wow in any statistical category, but his ability to impact as many as he does is a powerful weapon in itself.

"He’s a big man that plays defense, rebounds, sets screens, and makes plays for anybody," Deng said, per Grantland's Jonathan Abrams. "For any basketball player, that’s the perfect guy to play with."

Gary Dineen/Getty Images

Watch Noah in action, and the first thing that jumps off your screen is his refusal to play at anything other than top speed.

"Few players, if any, boast the motor he does," wrote Bleacher Report's Dan Favale. "He's always playing, always fighting."

He's all hustle all the time. Despite having made two All-Star trips and collecting last season's Defensive Player of the Year award, the 30-year-old center will still gladly sustain a floor burn if it means buying his team an extra possession.

But there's so much more to him than intensity and determination.

Even if he shoots what looks like the NBA's version of the knuckleball, that does little to hide the fact that he's tremendously talented.

Despite lacking the scoring skills typically needed to fill a featured role. he can serve as an offensive focal point. A lethal concoction of selflessness, intelligence and creativity makes that possible.

There aren't many players with passing chops like his, period—let alone ones who patrol the paint for a living. Noah has averaged 4.6 assists per game since the start of the 2012-13 season. Marc Gasol sits second among forward-centers with 3.8. Pau Gasol (3.4) and Al Horford (3.2) are the only other bigs clearing three per game.

It's impossible to overstate the positive impact a prolific passer can have on an offense.

"Anytime you get somebody who can pass the way he’s been passing, what it does it makes everyone else better," coach Tom Thibodeau said last March, per Bulls.com's Sam Smith. "When you have the skill set of a big who can play away from the basket and create easy offense it’s a big plus."

Put Noah at the elbow, and he can pump some life into an offense that's missing 49.2 points and 9.6 per game between Rose, Butler and Gibson.

With the quick-triggered Aaron Brooks assuming point guard duties in Rose's absence, the Bulls need Noah to spark their passing game.

And, perhaps due to his unfortunate familiarity with the situation, he's already doing some of the heavy lifting. Over the last five contests the Bulls have played without Rose, Noah has tallied 9.2 points and 7.2 assists per game.

Arguably Noah's greatest gift inside the lines is his ability to read situations and adapt accordingly. Energy and strong defense are enough when Rose and Butler are around, but Noah has to bring more when the Bulls don't have their top guns.

He has accepted, embraced and passed that challenge all season long.

Both his scoring and assists spike whenever Rose or Butler is off the floor, and Noah's numbers have soared when both are out of the picture, via NBAWowy.com:

That's a big reason why Chicago fans can feel confident in Noah's ability to rise to this occasion. This isn't the first time he's faced this type of test, and history really likes his chance of passing—especially now that he looks healthy, something he hadn't appeared to be over this season's first few months.

As he continues moving further from last summer's knee surgery that was more serious than initially thought, he's finding his form at exactly the right time.

"He’s getting back on top of his game," Bulls forward Mike Dunleavy said, per CSN Chicago's Mark Strotman. "He’s getting healthier, he’s getting his confidence back, feeling really good about himself and leading us out there. ... He just brings the energy and it rubs off on everybody else."

It's about refusing to let uncontrollable circumstances dictate the direction of the season's final stretch. It's about not making excuses when so many understandable ones are available.

It's about defying the odds, an act that Noah has nearly perfected at this point. The fate of this team has once again fallen on his shoulders, and the only difference that's made is the signal he's received that it's his turn to lead.

"I'm feeling really good," Noah said, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. "Just got to hold it down until some of our key guys get back."

He makes it sound so easy. After all the unwanted practice he's had in this position, maybe it is.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.

Follow @ZachBuckleyNBA