It's not uncommon for NBA centers to develop at a slightly slower rate than players at other positions do. It takes time to adapt to playing against legitimate big men instead of dominating over smaller players every game, and mastering the intricacies of back-line rotations in the NBA isn't the easiest task. There's a big learning curve.
With that in mind, perhaps it shouldn't be such a big surprise that Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah is having the best year of his career in his seventh NBA season.
Noah is posting career highs in points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game and PER this season, and his ability to anchor Chicago's defense has never been more impressive given the supporting cast and the loss of an elite perimeter defender in Luol Deng.
After years of being underappreciated, Noah's play and Chicago's sustained success have vaulted him into the MVP discussion. Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports recently weighed in on Noah's candidacy:
He's been so important, in fact, that it wouldn't be shocking to see him as both a top-five MVP fini ...
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Article written by D.J. Foster