Underrated/Forgotten Peak: 2014 Joakim Noah

[AStark1991]

Probably because of how hard he fell off afterwards, it seems like a lot of NBA fans have completely forgotten just how impactful Joakim Noah was at his peak. First Team All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, and finished 4th in MVP voting. He was also the league leader for both defensive rating and defensive win shares and collectively Chicago was the #2 rated defensive unit in the league with Noah serving as their main anchor. And on top of all that, he also averaged 5.4 assists per game, which was absolutely unheard of from a Center at the time. In my eyes, he was basically a poor man's Bill Russell. I've always held the opinion that Russell in the modern game would essentially be 2014 Noah with Giannis level athleticism. Just so there's no confusion here, I'll preface this by saying that I am in no way comparing Noah to Russell in terms of overall impact and importance, but when you get down to brass tacks, their respective styles were remarkably similar. Both very mobile, slightly undersized Centers with exceptionally high basketball IQ's and strong leadership qualities. Defensively, they were both elite at crashing the glass and protecting the rim while also having the necessary speed and agility to go out and guard smaller players on the perimeter. And on offense they were both very team oriented due to a lack of consistent shooting ability and mainly acted as distributors/playmakers while also having good enough speed and ball handling to push the ball up the floor and be the leader of a fast break. Noah's success in the modern era completely debunks the foolish notion that some people have about Russell that he supposedly wouldn't be able to be a legitimate MVP candidate in the current style of play. Take peak Noah's playing style and mental toughness/leadership and pair that with Greek Freak level athleticism and that is exactly what Russell would look like in the current NBA in my opinion.

[tsherkin]

Noah was a very good player in his time. And Thibs was impressive for figuring out how to leverage him without any kind of range to speak of.

Excellent screener, excellent passer, strong rebounder, resilient man-on defender. That was the year he was DPOY, right? He was very good.

Solid mention.