One Bulls starting spot open

Coach Scott Skiles confirmed Thursday that competition for starting spots on this year's Bulls team will be minimal.

"If we had to open tomorrow night against New Jersey, Kirk (Hinrich), BG (Ben Gordon), Lu (Deng) and Ben Wallace are going to start," he said. "There are four spots right there you can pretty much pencil in."

That leaves a battle for the power forward job between Tyrus Thomas, Joe Smith, Andres Nocioni and rookie Joakim Noah. But Skiles even tried to downplay that situation.

"I wouldn't read a whole lot into who's declared the starter at that spot anyway, because I think there are so many ways we can go," he said. "We may just be game-dependent on that, too. It might be certain nights we start somebody and certain nights we start somebody else."

At that point, the Bulls coach seemed to catch himself and change course, inviting the power forwards to step up and earn the starting job. It wouldn't be a Skiles training camp, after all, without some intense competition.

"I want the guys to battle for it," he said. "No matter what the players say, there's usually one or two guys that want to start. A lot of times that becomes clear by the way they go for it."

Noah's shoulder better: Rookie Joakim Noah felt his injured right shoulder is not yet 100 percent, but he doesn't think it will create any problems this season. The 6-foot-11 center-power forward sat out the summer leagues after being chosen with the ninth pick of the draft.

It was widely reported that Noah suffered a partial tear of his rotator cuff while playing for Florida in February, though Bulls general manager John Paxson insisted medical tests did not confirm such an injury.

"I still get pinches here and there, but it's definitely a lot better and I'm definitely in playing shape," Noah said. "I've been doing a lot of rehab for about an hour, hour-and-a-half every day. It's very repetitive and very boring. It feels a lot better and I'm really excited about the situation."

Bulls meet ref: Veteran NBA referee Danny Crawford visited the Berto Center on Thursday for the annual meeting to discuss new rules. But the league didn't make many changes.

"They have the ability to go to the videotape now on flagrant II fouls and altercations," Scott Skiles said. "They're going to try to keep the points of emphasis on palming, traveling and block-charge things around the restricted area."