(UPDATE: The Bulls have shut down Noah through the All-Star break.)

It’s a possibility. From the Tribune:

Noah clearly has been affected by the plantar fasciitis in his left foot the last two games and has not moved well.

Asked if the Bulls would shut Noah down if the third-year center regressed to the point where he moves even worse than he already is, Del Negro said:

“Yeah, absolutely. We’re just going to try to see what we can get out of him until he can get some rest at the All-Star break. We’ll monitor it every day. Some days, you feel better than others with it. We’ll use him as much as he can move.”

[ ... ]

ugh he did sit out the recent road game in Houston. Asked why the Bulls wouldn’t proactively shut down Noah, Del Negro said:

“If you shut him down for a week, that doesn’t guarantee he will feel better. That’s not how that condition works. You don’t know. I had it for two years when I played.”

Two things here:

1) Plantar fasciitis has literally become an epidemic in the league this year. Taj Gibson also has it. Tony Parker has it. Danny Granger was sidelined with it. Charlie Villanueva is suffering from it. Ron Artest has it. I think I’m missing a few others. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

2) Damn. The Bulls are now back in the eighth spot in the East, a game behind the Heat in the loss column for seventh. The Bulls play the Heat this weekend. It’d be nice to have Noah on board for that. But, it also makes sense to use these next four games tied together with the All-Star break to give Noah a bit of an extended break here and see if he gets any better. It’s not like he’s out for the rest of the year or anything.

And it’s not like the Bulls are fighting the last week of the season for the playoffs and Noah will be on the bench. Better to sit him now and see how it goes, then for the condition to potentially get worse.

But you’d hate to see them keep losing — they’ve lost two straight since the five-game road winning streak — without Noah if he sits, and then the team losing a bit of confidence heading into the back half of the season.