Joakim Noah left the Chicago Bulls this offseason to sign a four-year, $72 million deal with the New York Knicks.

The Bulls showed little interest, if any, in re-signing Noah.

“What we felt was it was time,” Jerry Reinsdorf told the Chicago Tribune. “We felt Joakim wasn’t going to be a frontline guy anymore. I was pretty confident that Pau (Gasol) was going to leave. So it was important for us to get the center in (Robin) Lopez.

"It was time for Derrick to go on and play someplace else and try to establish himself. (Gar Forman) and (John Paxson) were high on the Grant kid (Jerian). We thought that was the necessary first step no matter how we were going to go.”

Last season, Noah was limited to just 29 games due to injuries.