Will Nerlens Noel Play Minutes Enough To Impress NBA?

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Apr 5, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown talks with forward Nerlens Noel (4) during the second quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

Schedule Favorable

In the next two months, the Philadelphia 76ers will play consecutive games back to back on just six occasions. If Noel is up for significant minutes, that cold mean he would alternate 10 minutes in one game, and 20 minutes playing time in the other. On 6 occasions, that would yield 180 minutes of playing time for the young center.

Likewise, the team will take two road trips of four games each in that period as well. Of those eight games, two are on back to back nights. Just speculatively, let’s slide an average of 15 minutes onto Noel’s plate for the remaining travel games. Another 90 minutes. So far, we have considered 18 games. So for the remaining 13 games, let’s assume he averages 12 minutes a game. That’s an additional 156 minutes.

In the end, we have 180 minutes, 90 minutes, and 136 minutes to layer onto his current total of 25 minutes for the season. That is 431 minutes before the trade deadline out of the possible 2,832 minutes to play at the center position. In the 2015-2016 season, he had played 442 minutes by Thanksgiving.