Can Joel Embiid Resolve Nerlens Noel Drama?

Mar 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (left) and center Joel Embiid (right) share a laugh during warm ups before a game against the Atlanta Hawks at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (left) and center Joel Embiid (right) share a laugh during warm ups before a game against the Atlanta Hawks at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Sep 26, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Nerlens Noel (4) during media day at the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 26, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Nerlens Noel (4) during media day at the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

Noel Explodes

Nerlens Noel has been a very patient player. When the team needed a power forward to pair with arriving center Joel Embiid, he volunteered to cross-train. Similarly,the team needed the starting center to make room for the unanticipated arrival of center Jahlil Okafor.  And so, Nerlens Noel was willing to do so.  In the end, when the team needed Noel to slide back to the center position after newly arrived executive Jerry Colangelo named his efforts to play the four an utter failure, he did so.

But when the team fired the only team executive he ever knew, replaced him with the son of the man who claimed he was only a rim-protecting center, and then buried him third on a three man depth chart for the center position, he shared his frustration publicly.

End Of The Innocence

On the other hand, Noel had made some mistakes this season. He is a young man in the last year of his NBA contract, eager to showcase his wares to the NBA, and saw marginal opportunity to do so with the current Philadelphia 76ers depth chart.  As such, he’d elected to have surgery clean up his knee when the season started. He opted to train away from the team, despite the urgings of teammate-turned-coach Elton Brand to stay connected to the team and not become an outsider.

In the end, Noel knew the role he had under Sam Hinkie, and landed in the dark under the new reign of Bryan Colangelo.  The team decided to employ a basket-minded man of action.  Unfortunately, acting is always more difficult than the assurance that action will occur.