- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
NBA Rumors: Latest Trade Buzz on Nerlens Noel, John Wall and More
- Updated: December 19, 2016
The rumor mill is starting to crank up, even if only the same few players seem to be powering it. Below, we’ll break down some of the juicier buzz around the NBA.
Nerlens Noel, C, Philadelphia 76ers
Perhaps you’ve heard by now that the Philadelphia 76ers have a glut of young centers and not enough playing time to accommodate all of them. After all, Nerlens Noel’s anguished cries can be heard throughout the Association.
After playing in just eight minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night—with Joel Embiid playing 29 and Jahlil Okafor playing 24—Noel unleashed the full measure of his discontent upon reporters.
“I’m not an eight-minute player, so I don’t know what that’s about,” he said, per Jessica Camerato of CSN Philly. “I don’t really care. I need to be on the court playing basketball. I think I’m too good to be playing eight minutes. Like, no, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. They need to figure this s–t out.”
Noel has been jockeying for a trade since the offseason, which is when most Philly fans assumed the team would move him or Okafor.
Embiid is the future of the Sixers and—barring injury—will be the team’s center for years to come. And while the Sixers can justify having one of Noel or Okafor as a backup to Embiid, having both is causing a lot of drama for a team that has a trio of promising rookies in Embiid, Ben Simmons and Dario Saric.
The issue is that neither Okafor nor Noel is worth as much as the Sixers probably want them to be on the trade market. Okafor is a huge liability on defense and isn’t the athletic rim protector that teams crave at the position. Noel, meanwhile, has caused concerns around the league with his injury history and immaturity, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical Podcast with Woj:
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. There are teams willing to do a deal for him and bring him in but they don’t want to give up much. And so at some point there, Philly has got to make a decision, ‘What’s the best we can get for him?’ I think at some point he probably moves, too.
One of the teams that has long been rumored to have interest in Noel is the Boston Celtics. As A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE noted, “Let’s forget for a moment that he’s a Massachusetts native, which I have been told multiple times has ‘absolutely zero’ to do with Boston’s interest in him.”
So you’re saying there’s some interest, eh? And Boston isn’t worried about those maturity issues or Noel’s recent comments about his playing time?
Well, regarding the latter, one assistant general manager told Blakely that Noel’s remarks are understandable:
I never like to hear that stuff, guys complaining about minutes publicly. But Philadelphia…they have too many bigs and they’re trying to make it work but you know and I know and Nerlens knows, somebody is going to get the short end of things when it comes to minutes. And Nerlens doesn’t want to be …
