Thomas, Noah, anytime you want to do something right now that'd be great

Here’s the basic dilemma the Chicago Bulls have: Their best player is a rookie; their most-dedicated player is a rookie; their most mature is a rookie.

Derrick Rose grimaced his way to a career-high 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a 113-108 loss to the Atlanta Hawks earlier this week. The star rookie suffered a back strain and was noticeably uncomfortable throughout the 4th quarter.

But he’s a man.

Meanwhile Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas were getting comfortable on the bench during that time.

Noah, who apparently spent his summer playing Xbox and doing other things (cough), is out of shape and mostly confused on the court. Aside from the millions—and that’s a huge undersell—how can anyone be so inept at their profession?

I’ve been hammering this point for a while. I’m confused is to how someone who has been practicing their craft since they were children, now reaching the highest level with access to the best facilities, trainers and mentors on the planet, with abundant free time to sharpen their craft, is woefully incapable of running back and forth?

When does a coach come forward and say something? New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t hesitate to let Eddie Curry that breaking a medicine ball is a strong sign you’re incapable.

But now the Bulls await a struggling Dallas Mavericks team that suffered a 30-point pummeling from Rose in the preseason.

But that will change. The Mavericks didn’t study film or anything—Larry Hughes is coming back tonight.

Sure, the Bulls are undermanned at the guard position, but watch how the offense will come to a halt as the 6-5 guard prefers to hold the ball more than any player on the team, and tries to isolate and beat people off the dribble rather than run a set offense.

Hughes is the same guy who was showered with boos every time he’d touch the ball in Cleveland, not because he was awful, it was because he refused to give the ball up to another blossoming star, Lebron James.

If James didn’t touch the ball enough, what about a 20-year-old, humble point guard?

And here’s where it matters for a rookie coach like Vinny DelNegro. We don’t know who he is. We know that he wants to run; we’ve seen some of that, but not enough. We know he comes off as a nice guy, but we don’t know what kind of manager he is.

He let Tyrus Thomas heave 19 shots against the Boston Celtics earlier this season, sinking only two. He left the young forward out there as the Bulls sank against the world champs.

What was he trying to instill? Did he talk to him? Did anyone talk to him? Did anyone explain to him why he was consistently being left open?

In the meantime we’re looking for reasons to believe this team can play defense. Because both Noah and Thomas are considerably underweight, weak and soft, it’s a turnstile for offensive bigs, like say, Al Horford.

Right now, Noah’s best defense is a foul and Thomas is the handful of goal-tends he’ll pick up by half.