Joakim Noah's struggles continue in return from shoulder injury

The loud-mouthed, hand-clapping figure of Joakim Noah took off his warmup jacket midway through the first quarter after a nine-game absence and was greeted with a shower of applause at the United Center.

But after an 0-for-7 performance in the Chicago Bulls' 114-100 loss to an old nemesis in the Washington Wizards, a frustrated Noah returned to the bench with little fanfare.

All of Noah's shots came from inside five feet, but he couldn't get anything to drop. He eagerly flashed into post position and demanded a pass in the second for his first attempt, only to uncork an awkward lefty hook that clanked wildly off the rim.

He didn't even attempt to call for the ball the rest of the way. He tried a smattering of tip-ins off four offensive rebounds, but he couldn't get up high enough to get a decent look.

Even slam dunks weren't slam dunks. He was caught from behind on one instance by John Wall's highlight block and stripped on another instance by Jared Dudley. That's the same Dudley who effectively guarded Noah in last year's playoff series when the Milwaukee Bucks went to a small-ball look and Noah couldn't take advantage of a wing guarding him on the block.

More worrisome was Noah's ineffectiveness on defense. He was powerless against the Nene-Wall pick-and-roll as he was too slow to rotate from stepping up on Wall to checking Nene's roll. He's supposed to be in for his defense.

It's tempting to cite injuries as the cause of Noah's struggles. He missed three weeks with a shoulder injury and he didn't look fully up to speed. But when does he ever? Like most of the Bulls' core pieces, Noah's always battling an ankle, a sore back, a tweaked knee - that's the pound of flesh Tom Thibodeau claimed after five demanding years at the helm. There's no going back to the days of clean injury sheets.

Granted, Noah's bound to improve after a rusty return. But by how much? Noah's averaging 4.5 points per game on a true shooting percentage of 42.8 (even lower than Kobe Bryant's season average) and the Bulls have the league's fourth-worst offense when he takes to the court.

With young Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic emerging as more complete two-way options behind the duo of Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson, playing Noah is becoming increasingly difficult for Fred Hoiberg. Every minute for Noah takes away time from someone else.

Noah wasn't the reason why Chicago lost Monday. Chicago's defense as a team was uncharacteristically lax and they couldn't ever get back in transition against Wall's relentless drives.

But with every passing game, the murmur grows louder: What's the opportunity cost to playing Noah?