Sixers: Remembering the Nerlens Noel saga one year later
One year since Nerlens Noel aired his grievances, and the Sixers find themselves with a possible hole at center to start the season.
This wasn’t the Sixers greatest fear to start the season, but it’s not the ideal situation. Joel Embiid may still start the season, but it seems more unlikely with each passing day of not being clear to participate in 5-on-5 drills. Beyond Embiid, the only “true” center was the struggling Jahlil Okafor.
Not a dire situation by any means, as Amir Johnson can take on a bulk of the minutes as a small ball center. The team also tried to remedy the potential problem by bringing in NBA journeymen Kris Humphries and Emeka Okafor.
One would think the team keeping Nerlens Noel would have been more sensible because of a situation like this—except not really. Talent-wise, Noel is even overqualified as a second center. That’s not in question. But take a trip down memory lane, on the eve of the 2016 Sixers media day.
Nerlens Noel had an interview with the Inquirer’s Keith Pompey, where he exclaimed his dissatisfaction with the team still holding all three centers.
“I think I sacrificed a lot. And at this point, there’s really not too much that I’m capable of sacrificing”, is what Noel said. And in that quote he sacrificed his trade value, putting the team in a lose-lose situation. It’s not that the team traded the wrong center, as the team was seemingly inches away from shipping Okafor.
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They traded the more marketable center, at his lowest trade value at this point in his career. They did it with money in mind. Noel was demanding a near to max contract, and he was adamant about it all summer. What he or the Sixers didn’t account for was how dry the center market would be come. Noel entered a contract dispute with Dallas, leading to a new agency and a qualifying offer.
So what does this look like? It looks like both parties lost in what they intended to do. Noel wasn’t happy about his role, even if he was starting to get comfortable as his role as the second center. In a separate Pompey interview in December, Noel answered “will just be a matter of time”, when asked if he would be comfortable remaining as Embiid’s season.
Not a total disdain for the role, but it’s clear Noel wants more. The irony of it comes with his current coach Rick Carlisle stating he doesn’t see Noel as the starting center to begin the season.
There never was a realistically clean ending to the Noel saga, traded or not last season. And the situation got a little messy for him this past summer, while the Sixers are on the brink of starting the season without and Embiid and a below-average replacement.
It was the inevitable ending to a messy situation caused by draft strategy, and a year later, the effects are being felt on both ends.