Selling Noah easy, but what about signing him?

Interesting question posed in a chat I just had with a longtime front-office chief: How many young players have more contract leverage right now than Bulls center Joakim Noah?

Answer: Aside from Kevin Durant, absolutely no one from the NBA’s 2007 draft class.

Noah, like Durant, is eligible for a contract extension this summer. But Noah also happens to be one of the Bulls’ major selling points to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and especially Chris Bosh in free agency, because Chicago’s pitch to the top free agents centers around the fact that it already has an elite point guard (Rose) and a blossoming big man (Noah) in place. When it comes to Bosh specifically, Noah’s presence means Bosh could stay at power forward as opposed to masquerading as a center, which is something Bosh does not want to do.

You figure that the Bulls would prefer to wait until after their expected free-agent splashes -- with the $30 million in salary-cap space they’re throwing at James, Wade and Bosh -- before getting serious with Noah, even though an extension wouldn’t affect this summer’s cap room.

Yet you could also make the case -- something I’m quite sure other teams chasing the top free agents have made clear to James, Wade and Bosh -- that the Bulls don’t really have Noah "in place" until he’s locked up long term.

Which brings us to one of the biggest hurdles Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has to clear if he wants to lure a LeBron-and-Bosh or Wade-and-Bosh combo to the Windy City.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/17651/selling-noah-easy-but-what-about-signing-him