Noah To Miss Three Weeks, Can Bulls Survive

The Bulls have announced today that they will hold Joakim Noah out for the next three weeks to rest his foot and hopefully have him ready for the playoffs.

The real question is will there even be a playoff spot waiting for them in three weeks?

Noah has been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis since January. The team held him out for 7 games during the month of February before returning for four games. In the first three he played a total of 26 minutes but then in the fourth game against Portland he played a total of 28 minutes. 

Noah has since missed the last two games, both loses.

Let's just assume that he will miss three weeks from today. During that time he will miss some very important games. Two games each against Memphis and Dallas, home games against the Cavs, Jazz and Rockets with road games against Orlando, Miami and the 76ers. His first game back might be against the Miami Heat on March 25th or maybe March 27th against the Nets. That leaves about 11 or 12 games for Noah to get back into game shape and ready for the playoffs but that is if the team can survive the next 9 or 10 games without him.

They did sign Chris Richard, Noah's former Florida teammate to fill the void.

As of today the Bulls have a record of 31-29 and are in 6th place in the East, 1/2 came behind Toronto for 5th and only 2 games ahead of 9th place Charlotte. If Deng and Rose stay healthy maybe they have a chance to stay in the hunt but if either of them misses time then we Bulls fans will have a lot of time to waste between the last game on April 14 and the draft at the end of June.