Rumor NBA Trade Rumors: Nerlens Noel To Trailblazers Raptors Cavaliers

OK, caveat No. 1 - Fansided is what Bleacher Report used to be, a fan written, vanity publishing site. Their articles have pretty much ZERO credibility. It's just a bunch of fans sharing their opinions and ideas.

Here's the link:

NBA Trade Rumors: Nerlens Noel To Trailblazers Raptors Cavaliers

Caveat No. 2 - the author gives absolutely NO details about why he included those three teams in the title of his article. So, again ZERO credibility.

But, what is clear is Noel is available. With Embiid winning hearts in PHI, they need to move at least one of their young centers. Back during the draft, they were actively shopping Okafor, but didn't get any takers willing to meet their asking price.

Now, it's Noel that has fallen out of favor in PHI. It's very telling that they picked up the options for Embiid, Okafor and Stauskas, but did not extend Noel. Brian Colangelo is on record that the 76ers are NOT tanking this year. He signed a lot of veterans over the summer and traded Jerami Grant to OKC for Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional 1st round pick this morning.

PHI needs guards BAD (not more bad guards - they have plenty of those). It would seem like a trade involving Noel to POR and Crabbe to PHI, as the main pieces, would make sense for both teams. We'd probably need to take back one of their lesser guards and include another big (they want floor spacing - send them Meyers), to balance out the rosters, or maybe get a third team involved.

Noel isn't a superstar, but he's an elite defender and rim protector. He's only 22 and attainable.

BNM

 

If it's just for AC, then hell ya. Even if it kills our shooting off the bench.

Noel is the prototypical defensive big in this generation. And his P&R game is not that bad either. And in this deflated center market, we could possibly be able to extend him for a decent contract as a RFA this summer.

 

Apart from that story about him trashing a rental property and then threatening the owners, I'm in. He's adept at both steals and blocks, and that's my kind of player. Of course, both of those stats can be "empty" if you're gambling, but it would be nice to have an elite, super-long athlete for a change. But what would they want of ours?

 

It drives me crazy how little importance Stotts places on steals. Steals are the single greatest defensive play a team can make:

1 - They rob the other team of even attempting to score. Much better than a missed shot, blocked shot, or shot clock violation.
2 - They often lead to an easy transition basket.

With the increased reward offsetting the decreased conversion rate, steals are the 3-pointers of the defensive end. Stotts loves 3-pointers, so why does he hate steals?

 

It's hard to call any stats for any PHI player over the last three years anything but empty, but Noel is an elite defender and rim protector. I posted this in another, unrelated thread last week:

In spite of missing 15 games last season and 7 the season before, he is the only player in the entire NBA to record >100 BLKs and >100 STLs for each of the past two seasons. And he did that at 20 and 21 years of age. He was also top 8 in DBPM for each of his first two seasons.

So, in spite of playing for a team that was trying (and succeeding) to lose, Noel was still top 8 in defensive box plus minus for two years in a row.

I'm sure they'll ask for C.J.. Neal will laugh REALLY hard, and offer them their choice of Crabbe or Turner. The'll pass on Turner. They drafted him at No. 2 and shipped him out when he didn't live up to his draft position. Besides, they need outside shooting to spread the floor for Embiid and Okafor. Crabbe would be great for them. They'd be giving up a bench player and getting back someone that would start for them.

Maybe we throw in Meyers and they throw in Stauskas (or one of their other mediocre guards, who pretty much all payed for us in the past) to balance the rosters.

BNM

 

This is actually a terrific question. I feel like it probably has a lot to do with personnel -- but Stotts in general believes in this conservative defense. Much like Vogel in Indy.

Could be a good question to ask if there's ever a meet and greet or Ask Stotts forum.

 

I'd just point out that Crabbe can't be traded until Jan. 15th.

 

Simple answer: I'm sure Stotts loves steals. What he doesn't love is the gambling usually associated with them, because that ruins team defenses. There are lots of awesome defenders who get very few steals but as a result are NEVER out of position.

 

With the way we just concede the mid-range, and often lay-ups too, it doesn't seem like gambling on steals would put us in a worse position than we're already in.
The problem with having Noel being the guy getting steals is we want him to protect the paint. We need everyone BUT him to go for steals, and if they lose the gamble at least we have Noel in the middle. But if Noel is playing the passing lanes there's nobody that has his back when he doesn't come up with the ball.

 

Or Meyers, or Harkless.

 

STLs are a double edged sword. Unfortunately, there is no stat that shows how many layups and wide open 3-pointers you give up when you gamble for a steal and don't get it. Stotts choose to take a conservative approach, but it's not like we play elite level defense by "staying in front" of our men. Maybe a little more gambling wouldn't hurt.

In spite of playing less than 30 MPG, Noel averages as many STL/G as Dame and C.J. combined. Imagine having a center, who is an elite rim protector that gets more steals than your starting backcourt.

BNM

 

He does both. He gets steals and protects the rim. If he was gambling and getting beat, he wouldn't have been 4th and 8th in the league in DBPM the last two seasons. He's not out pressuring the guards bringing the ball up the court. He's racking up steals in the paint by stripping other big men or intercepting entry passes.

BNM

 

It's funny: Noel's been in the NBA a while but we still know about as much about him as when he was coming out of college. Not only did he miss a bunch of time, but when he was playing, he was playing for the most dysfunctional NBA team imaginable.

It makes sense for him to be linked to the Cavs: whatever team goes after him better have a rock solid lockerrom hierarchy.

 

Nerlens Noel averaged 1.8 STL/G and 1.9 BLK/G as a 20-year old rookie.

Only 16 times since the NBA started tracking STLs and BLKs in 1973-74 has a player exceeded both of those numbers in a season. Hakeem Olajuwon did it 9 times. Nobody else has done it more than once.

Noel, if he plays 34 MPG and goes back to playing center (PHI played him out of position at PF last season so Okafor could play center), has the potential to average 2 STL/G and 2 BLK/G. That's only happened 6 times in NBA history. Hakeem did it 4 times and David Robinson and Gerald Wallace one time each.

BNM

 

Where would he play in CLE? I don't see the Cavs breaking up their starting front court to add Noel. Thompson and Love are both locked up for this season plus three more.

We have Damian Lillard. He's a great leader and we have a great culture here. Much better than the train wreck that PHI has been as long as Noel has been there. Imagine what it's like being a young player knowing your team is trying to lose so they can get a top 3 pick to draft someone to take your job - wwhich is EXACTLY what happened. Our lockeroom and team chemisrty would be life changing for a young player like Nerlens Noel.

BNM

 

I don't think so. He was signed using Bird rights, the team is over the cap, the player's new salary is above the minimum, and he received a raise greater than 20%.

 

Sign me up

 

We already have Ezeli.