Chris Szagola/Associated Press

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah reportedly revealed to a teammate he would be leaving the organization and signing elsewhere in free agency this summer, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The unnamed Bulls player told Cowley that Noah said he "has no trust in the front office getting this in the right direction" and that many players don't trust general manager Gar Forman.

That player also indicated to Cowley that former head coach Tom Thibodeau acted as a buffer between the players and the front office, fostering an "us against them" mentality. Because first-year head coach Fred Hoiberg was a Forman hire, however, the players are reportedly unclear of where the coach stands.

Cowley wrote that Hoiberg may not be on Team Forman, either, though a Bulls player said at least one of the coach's assistants is:

What the players have been trying to figure out in building their relationship with Hoiberg has been exactly how tied the coach is with Forman. "They might not be as tight as everyone, including Gar, thinks," one league source said of the Hoiberg-Forman relationship. That remains a very important issue moving forward for this team. "We know there’s at least one assistant [coach] that tells Gar everything that goes on," the player said. "There's a lot of guys that have a problem with that, and not just Jo."

The player did say Hoiberg's decision to bring Noah off the bench to start the season was not a factor in Noah's decision to test free agency—or at least that Noah didn't mention it as a reason to leave Chicago.

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Bill Duffy, Noah's agent, spoke to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, saying: "Joakim and I speak on daily [sic] about his future. There has been zero indication he doesn't wish to return to Bulls."

Duffy added that Noah "has great respect for the city, the fans and the organization."

If Noah, 31, has indeed decided to leave Chicago, he's changed his stance from earlier in the season in January, when he was asked if he would continue his career with the Bulls, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN.com.



"I hope so. Right now I'm not trying to focus on the future," Noah said. "I just had season-ending surgery last week. But this is all I know. So I'm looking forward to see what the guys are doing, and right now it's just all about taking a step back and just focusing on getting healthy, and then we'll go from there."

Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald reported in April that one of the team's "primary tasks for the offseason is to rebuild [its] relationship with [Noah]" and made re-signing him "a high priority this summer, according to a team source."

Given this latest report, that may be a tall task.

If Noah leaves the Bulls, he'll do so after having arguably the most difficult season of his career. Along with losing his starting job at the beginning of the season, he required season-ending surgery on his shoulder and played in just 29 games, starting only two of them.

He averaged a career-low 4.3 points in just 21.9 minutes per game, adding 8.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.0 blocks per contest.

Noah is an intriguing option for teams looking to add a veteran presence on the block. He remains an excellent rebounder and defensive presence and is a solid passer for a big man, capable of impacting the game on several levels.

While he never seemed like a natural fit next to Pau Gasol in Hoiberg's system, Gasol is also a free agent, and the Bulls would surely like to keep one of the two big men. With the team already in retooling mode after failing to reach the postseason, losing both Noah and Gasol would be a major setback.

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