The Philadelphia 76ers relationship with center Nerlens Noel has devolved from “what might we get in exchange?” down to “just make the pain go away!”. As NBA Trade Rumors abound, might there be relief coming soon?
Nerlens Noel may be a young center in the NBA with question marks, but he is a bona fide defensive force to be reckoned with at the rim. No matter what the drama undercurrents going on among the Philadelphia 76ers executives, coaches, and players, the value of Nerlens Noel is real, and it’s spectacular.
If any deal was imminent, it would already be history. So far, scouting reports from NBA teams have not been impressed with Noel’s conduct. In fact, per Adrian Wojnarowski from a recent podcast the Vertical, they discussed the matter. Adrian Wojnarowski on The Vertical Podcast with Woj:
"Nerlens Noel in Philly, the research teams have done on him is not good. They don’t get good reports back on their intel, how he’s carried himself there, of his habits. It’s not a great return. So, there are teams willing to do deal and bring him in, but they don’t want to give up much."
Noel wants a new contract. So Let’s play Santa Claus for the young man, or men if a team seeks Jahlil Okafor insteads, and go down our list…
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But to make it interesting, gauging interest of an NBA team in either center will be graded in three categories: Fit, Interest, Public Sentiment. To make it easy to gauge, each category will be graded as: Cold, Cool, Neutral, Warm, or Hot. Since the NBA is typically run from bottom to top, let’s reverse this order. I mean, after all, the least value will likely come from the teams which are already on track for a championship, and are least likely to wow anyone with offers of draft picks due to the order of their picks.
Let’s see how this goes, shall we?