Noah pleased with roster moves and is confident Rose will be back at his best…
Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah has insisted that his team will focus on themselves next season but are ready for the challenge posed by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Noah is currently recovering from arthroscopic left knee surgery he had on May 2, but he is confident that he will return to training camp fully healthy and ready to lead his team into a new campaign.
However, if the Bulls are to realise their ambition of winning an NBA championship, then they will have to deal with the various changes that have occurred across the league, as well as the ones made to their own roster.
Noah is pleased with the work the front office has done this off-season, and is confident that Chicago has the depth and quality to compete but he is aware that it will take a lot more than that to end their wait for another title and LeBron James will continue to stand in the way despite his change of uniform.
“Every time LeBron steps onto the court he’s affecting the game,” Noah told ESPNChicago.com on Sunday during a promotional event for Adidas.
“He’s the best player in the game, but that being said, I think we have a chance to beat them. And that’s the goal. We want to beat LeBron James, we want to beat the Miami Heat, we want to beat all those teams who are in our way. He’s obviously one of the big obstacles.”
Meanwhile, Noah is also excited about the prospect of welcoming team-mate and friend Derrick Rose back to the fold next season, with the point guard missing a significant amount of basketball over the last three years due to injury.
Rose is scheduled to train with Team USA ahead of the World Cup in Spain next month, and Noah admits that the sacrifices that the 25-year-old has had to make have made him a stronger person and the team more united.
“Every day I work out, that’s all I think about,” Noah said, “is just how great that party would be after we win the championship. But I know to get there there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. It’s always a rocky road. It’s never smooth in the NBA. But I love our team, and now it’s on us to get to work.”
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