Nerlens Noel Sends Boston Celtics Signal “Come Get Me”

After months of absorbing myriad trade rumors, Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel may have more meaning than just pride in his hometown. Perhaps he is signaling “come get me” to the Boston Celtics.

Trading in the NBA is dangerous game. Two teams face off and offer something of value, and each believes they walk away from the deal with more value than they had surrendered. Complicating the matter more is the players contracts situtations. Few teams see value in bringing in any player for one year, and with Nerlens Noel on his last year of his rookie contract, the Philadelphia 76ers have found that any trades involving Noel had resulted in disappointing offers.

The trick for any trade partner interested in Nerlens Noel would be foreknowledge that Noel would sign the next contract for the team.  If a team knew that Noel would resign, that would improve his value, and would enhance the team’s chances.

But how would that type of information be conveyed? Perhaps an agent could help translate player intentions to the new team.  But why not simply take to social media and share the thought with the world?

With so many whispers, in the situation when both the head coach Brett Brown and team president Bryan Colangelo have declared it difficult to find a way to play all three centers effectively this season, both Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel have shown remarkable restraint.

But it wears you down, it would wear anyone down.

We’ve used social media to get the leanings of players before.  When Jamal Crawford suddenly began to follow both Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, we interpreted that as his willingness to play for the Philadelphia 76ers. It turned out that Crawford and his agent were waving the Philadelphia 76ers’ interest in front of the Los Angeles Clippers to drive up the Clippers’ offer.

There is still a perceived need in Boston for additional front court help by the Celtics.  Despite signing free agent center/power forward Al Horford. For Boston, he will be paired up with 11 year veteran Amir Johnson in the front court.  But neither Horford nor Johnson are ideal NBA centers. The Celtics still need a true center to keep Horford at power forward and bring Johnson in from the bench. Celtics general manager Danny  Ainge knows this, and Noel would be the choice.  But Ainge had a less than hoped for draft, and is rigid in his attempts to poach a center from the Philadelphia 76ers for next to nothing.

Enrico Campitelli from CSNPhilly.com also noticed the tweet, and came to a similar conclusion. That is on top of CSNPhilly.com’s Sherrod Blakely noticing Nerlens Noel twitter home page listing – “current Philadelphia 76ers”.

In both reports, the articles indicate that the Boston Celtics are indeed interested in Noel.  But it would be foolish for the 76ers to help a division rival for the quality of offers the Celtics have suggested. As interviewed on SiriusXM radio

"“We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do with everybody, and when you look at the calls that are coming in, quite frankly, everyone’s trying to poach a big man from us. So when I say in a playful way I’m not comfortable, I think we can be a better basketball team if we could distribute that talent better, and maybe take one of those assets and address other needs on the roster,” Colangelo said. “But I think right now, it’s best to say we like all of them, we want to see if we can make the most out of each of them in terms of their contributions to this team. But at the end of the day, the reality says probably one has to go at some point, but only if the deal is right.”"

And so, the right deal appears to need some help. Perhaps that is what is at work here. If the impasse persists, this deal will never happen. After all, Nerlens Noel wants to start. Right now, that is unlikely in Philly as the team will look to start Joel Embiid when possible, and Jahlil Okafor at other times.

Next: Examining Brett Brown's Future With the Philadelphia 76ers

Tweeting pride in one’s hometown is nothing unto itself.  But in the context of the Celtics-76ers ongoing trade rumors over a center, it could mean much, much more.  It could mean that not only is Noel willing to be traded to the Boston Celtics, but that he wants a chance to start and he believes those chances to be better in Boston.

If the Celtics up their offer, that deal may happen.  With Nerlens Noel tweeting that he loves Boston, that offer may be raised.