Is the Nerlens Noel trade better or worse now than it was at the deadline?
Do you like the Nerlens trade more or less than when it happened now that his summer has gone the way it has?
— Josh Wilson (@J_WilsonSports) August 5, 2017
I’ll reference another well-known adage for this one: hindsight is always 20/20.
At the time of Noel’s trade, the thinking was pretty simple. In the current market, Noel is going to command a max deal and likely receive one, and that wasn’t something Bryan Colangelo was willing to invest in somebody who would inevitably become Joel Embiid’s backup.
The Sixers lacked leverage and Noel’s value obviously wasn’t that high, but they got some semblance of tangible value for somebody they didn’t view as a long term piece in the organization. Justin Anderson and a couple of second round picks wasn’t an ideal outcome, but the trade made sense nonetheless.
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Now, those feelings have changed slightly. The market has dried up quicker than expected, and centers are getting the short end of the proverbial stick. With the league transitioning towards perimeter-oriented basketball, no teams were willing to throw money at an offensively-limited big man of Noel’s ilk — and now Dallas holds all the leverage in contract negotiations.
Noel won’t get a max contract, and at this current rate may end up settling for his qualifying offer. If the same thing had happened with Noel still on the Sixers roster, they may have been able to keep him around for one more season on an affordable deal.
That would, at the very least, give Noel the ability to play up his trade value. The deal looks worse now than it did at the deadline, but that’s not something we could have foreseen.