Well this is refreshing.
In a season that has been mostly dominated by talk of teams tanking, from the 76ers losing 26 straight games to the always good Lakers going through their worst season in over 40 years, team tank has taken over the 2013-14 season.
But despite all the teams trying to lose for more ping-pong balls, there will actually be an NBA Playoffs this year. Surprising to some, I know.
And with the regular season winding down, teams who have locked up playoff spots tend to rest players and strategically lose games for better match-ups come playoff time.
All-Star center Joakim Noah made sure to let us all know that the Chicago Bulls are not one of those teams. Bulls beat reporter Nick Friedell had some words from Noah regarding the possibility that the Bulls would rest players for an easier route come playoff time.
Noah on playoff seeding: "There's no way in hell we're going to try to lose games to matchup against anybody."
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) April 3, 2014
Noah: "I think losing games to try to play somebody, I think that's soft. That's soft. We're not soft."
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) April 3, 2014
Noah definitely has a point. Teams that lose games on purpose to avoid certain match-ups are definitely showing a crack in confidence, so it says a lot about this Bulls squad that they are eager to play anyone they can come playoff time.
For a team whose players decided that they were going to band together and not fall apart in the face of another Derrick Rose injury and the trade sending Luol Deng to Cleveland for nothing, this type of attitude is expected.
With the confidence and toughness this Bulls squad has shown all season, maybe some of the teams in the East should be losing to avoid matching up with Chicago.
