Ruzious wrote:One thing you gotsta always keep in mind when evaluating Noel is - when you saw him, he was all of 18 years old. He turned 19 3 weeks ago. He will continue to get much thicker and much stronger. Strength is most likely not going to be a negative for him in a couple of years. It's a non-issue in the long run. And a kid like him who looks as competitive and a determined hard worker as he does is very likely going to improve at a faster rate than the average prospect. We know he's a remarkable defensive prospect. We don't know how well he'll develop offensively, but we shouldn't simply assume that he is going to be an unskilled offensive player in a couple of years.
Good points. Age is reflective of upside, by and large. And if he's got uncanny desire, then that's a big deal.
pancakes3 wrote:3 - Smarts. He's a very smart player. He may not be a good scorer but he knows that. He might not have a perimeter game, but he knows that. He knows to get the ball to the guard before taking off. He knows that if he doesn't have the jump hook to not force it, and to reset the offense. He knows that defense is important. He knows when to leave his man and when to chase the block. He's the anti-Mcgee in every meaningful and positive way possible. Playing within your limitations is a very underrated skill. It's why Dwight is Dwight and Josh Smith is Josh Smith. It's why Blatche never became even close to what he could have been. You can see this in Noel's game. His offense - hyperefficient and great assists. His defense - blocks as well as steals while maintaining his rebounding numbers. It's subtly, very impressive as opposed to someone like Varnardo.
Bonus * - Fit. He can slide into either frontcourt position with Wall/Beal and just run with it. He can play help defense, he can anchor it in the middle. He can set picks and screens. Basically he's a smarter, better Ibaka. John Wall and him are potentially an even better version than Payton/Kemp. Then you add Beal on the perimeter. It's all so very exciting on the half percent chance it'll happen.
If you are correct about smarts, this is huge. Chandler led the entire league in offensive rating this season because he took 87% of his shots at the rim, was low usage, and didn't turn the ball over much. If Noel is willing to follow that blueprint -- basically the exact opposite of Blatche and McGee when they were here -- we might have something.
As DCZ said, he doesn't have Ibaka's range (or close) yet, not does he have Ibaka's strength (yet). But Ibaka was listed at 6'10 220 just like Noel when he came into the league. So maybe. Based on their respective years at UK, he;s nowhere near the prospect Davis is, but that's okay and we knew that.
I still have some pause over the fact that he played seemingly very weak competition with the exception of Duke, Maryland, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, and Louisville. Save the Louisville game, he was so-so (granted Duke and MD were the first 2 games of the season). The likes of Len and Plumlee put up some pretty good numbers. Samford, Portland, Lipscomb, Marshall and most of the SEC isn't exactly murderers row.
