Unbreakable99 wrote:Do you guys think when Embiid joins that Noel's defensive impact will go down? Noel won't be guarding centers as much and his steal rates and blocks may go down as a result of guarding PFs. He will be further away from the basket and not be able to contests many shots. He may also be not as comfortable being outside the paint as much.
I expect that his defensive impact will go down for the first half of the season while he gets acclimated to playing a new position. Ultimately, I think that his defensive impact will go up simply because he is still growing a lot as a basketball player.
Maybe the perfect position for him to individually impact the game defensively long term is the Center position, but there is no doubt that the best place for him to play on the Sixers is defending the 4. The goal of the team is not to maximize an individual's performance, but rather to maximize the team's performance.
There will still be a large long term role for Noel on the Sixers assuming that Embiid can stay healthy.


























