Del Negro said that Noah and Thomas must focus better and work harder.

"It takes a while," Gooden said. "I went through my growing pains. There's not one guy in this league who hasn't.

"This is a job. This is a work atmosphere [compared to] going to college and playing Basketball basically for your education. This is your living and this is a business.

"[Noah and Thomas] understand it. ... They will grasp it sooner or later. ... They're still young. They have a lot of potential."

For the second straight day, Thomas declined to comment on Del Negro's criticism. But Noah agreed with Gooden that his development is a work in progress.

"It's just taking every experience and learning from it," he said. "I feel frustrated about what has happened to me individually in terms of playing time and production on the court. But we just have to worry about winning.

"The game I didn't play the other night, we actually won, so it's not about me or anybody else."

Noah said coaches have communicated their expectations to him.

"That's something coach definitely tells us all the time -- what our role is and what they want us to do," he said. "I'm trying to work on my conditioning and doing extra running because I have been getting tired on the court. I know what coach expects of me, and I'm trying to do it to the best of my ability.

"Communication is good, but actions speak louder than words. I have learned you don't control how much playing time you get, you can only control what you do on the court. You can't be in a bad mood or frustrated before you even step on the court."

Clearly, the Bulls would benefit greatly with some accelerated development from the two.

"They understand, they're smart," Del Negro said. "We've drilled on things enough now, we've been together long enough where they understand what we're trying to do. But there's not a lot of practice time because of the schedule so a lot of times, especially for young guys, you have to teach them in game situations, and that's magnified a lot.

"They have to continue to get better, and as they do, we'll improve."

Layup: Rose will lead the Bulls against Memphis on Friday night. It won't be far from the campus he loved his one year there -- and a life he clearly still misses.

"Sometimes I wish I could go back to class or the cafeteria or just hang out with my old teammates," he said. "But I had to make this move."

Still, there is no comparing the camaraderie he felt in college to the NBA lifestyle.

"In college, you're with your teammates the whole time," Rose said. "Here, people have their own things, their own agendas. They have businesses to go to, they have to go see people, they have families. So it's hard trying to get to know them really."

misaacson@tribune.com