Where is Nerlens?

[Chris4Vikes]

Seems to me we have some guys here that are a lot more invested in Jahlil Okafor's career (or being proved right in their high evaluation of him) than the success of the 76ers.

Honestly you seem more invested in Okafor failing then anything else...

I never root for any player to fail. I want Okafor to succeed and I'm confident he'll have a good career. On the right team he'll have a Brook Lopez type career. That's a success. I just don't want that kind of Center on my team, because Centers like that make it near impossible to build a contender. How is that, in any way, rooting for his failure?

The only way that Okafor plays for a title team is as a 6th man role player. A volume scorer off the bench in short stints. He should not see the floor in crunch time of a close game because of his lack of an ability to defend the pick and roll.

Nonetheless, he's one of the most talented low post scorers in the league.

[Sandalf42]

By what measure did Okafor play well?

Per game rank among all NBA Centers:

FG% : 29th
Rebs: 28th
Blks: 22nd
Ast: 26th
Stls: 41st
FT%: 27th

Advanced Stats:

Oh never mind... because advanced stats, when applied to Okafor, are nothing but voodoo, that don't take in account that he was "only 19" and played with "historically bad teammates."

Leaving out points per game when pointing basic stats and not bolding the specific individual stats I mentioned in my original post tells your agenda. But it's understandable given u want to prove your point and again my position is not saying Okafor's without fault but I favor the position that the team has a bigger fault on D and it's more constructive to just look forward and not bringing up all issues of a rookie's deficiency playing with a horrible team that encountered some off court issues specially when we're just around a month from the new season.

Interesting choice of words. You have a "position" while I have an "agenda". It seems to me that you may have an agenda that you are trying too hard to push. These random, short sample, close to meaningless stats you keep posting... Shots challenged? Are you for real? Take that nonsense to the General board.

Are you for real? You just listed a bunch of out of context stat rankings, and neglected to mention his ppg, and where that ranks among NBA Cs. Which happens to be his strongest skill. And asked "what exactly does he do well?". Your agenda is transparent.

how are you trying to evaluate a rookie with NBA position rankings? Big surprise, he's not top 10 rebounding. Which NBA rookie is? This is a thread about Noel and we have to listen to you tell us how okafor is such trash. And then turn around and say, "I never said he wouldn't be good, what's you problem?"

Are you for real?

[spikeslovechild]

Seems to me we have some guys here that are a lot more invested in Jahlil Okafor's career (or being proved right in their high evaluation of him) than the success of the 76ers.

Honestly you seem more invested in Okafor failing then anything else...

I never root for any player to fail. I want Okafor to succeed and I'm confident he'll have a good career. On the right team he'll have a Brook Lopez type career. That's a success. I just don't want that kind of Center on my team, because Centers like that make it near impossible to build a contender. How is that, in any way, rooting for his failure?

Because that statement is disingenuous nonsense. First of all, if you agree that Lopez is a valuable player then how does having him on his rookie deal for the next three years make it impossible to build a contender. I would think and feel free to call me crazy but signing a center to backup Embiid for 18-20 million would make it much more difficult to build a contender.

Honestly you seem more invested in Okafor failing then anything else...

I never root for any player to fail. I want Okafor to succeed and I'm confident he'll have a good career. On the right team he'll have a Brook Lopez type career. That's a success. I just don't want that kind of Center on my team, because Centers like that make it near impossible to build a contender. How is that, in any way, rooting for his failure?

The only way that Okafor plays for a title team is as a 6th man role player. A volume scorer off the bench in short stints. He should not see the floor in crunch time of a close game because of his lack of an ability to defend the pick and roll.

Nonetheless, he's one of the most talented low post scorers in the league.

I know I'm going to incur the wrath of sixercan once again but it bears repeating Okafor was 19 years old at the start of last season. Taking that small 60 or so game sample size and extrapolating and mapping out his entire career is crazy.

Also, I want to challenge him to improve. That means putting him out there in situations where he may not succeed and see how he reacts. We are not going to be a tittle contender next year there is no need to protect the team from young players making mistakes.

More to the point this is probably our last year where we can evaluate players this way. We need to know where we stand with Simmons. Okafor. Embiid. And yes even Noel.

Well as long as Embiid and Simmons pan out as expected I'm indifference about others. Just little tired about all these endless argument while no one can actually persuade others. Just trade Okafor and lets see how he develop in different scenery and we'll know who wins the bet eventually.

I can only speak for myself but I'm open to anything whether it be keeping Okafor trading Noel, trading both, or trading Okafor and keeping Noel. I just don't see the logic of the argument of keeping Noel at this juncture unless he for some reason was willing to accept a contract much less then what he could get on the open market.

It would have to be something along the lines of Noel willing to accept a contract for 8-11 million and getting good value on the trade market for Okafor. I just don't realistically see either of those two things happening. I also take the opposite approach of Llyod. I find that where teams get in trouble is maxing out non-stars. Which Noel is and I think at this point going into year 4 of his NBA career likely always will be.

People talk about not winning with a high usage big. Which is fine but how many teams win paying a def big 20 million? Mozgov walked. Bogut was traded. The raptors let Biyombo go. CHI let Noah walk. Where did they end up? Orlando, Lakers, Knicks, and Mavericks. Are those the teams we want to emulate?

I want to pay my skilled players max money whether Okafor develops into a player worthy of that remains to be seen. I know Noel isn't. I can shop the reduced section in free agency and find my self a defensive big a hell of alot cheaper. Teams do it every year. Biyombo for example was 2.5 million. Cole Aldrich who I really like for the role was signed by the Clips for 1.5 million not sure how much he got this offseason think somewhere around 20 million. Thats affordable.

[Ericb5]

Seems to me we have some guys here that are a lot more invested in Jahlil Okafor's career (or being proved right in their high evaluation of him) than the success of the 76ers.

I am much more invested in Okafor's career than I am in Sixers success this year. We control him for 3 more years, and it is more important that we figure out what he is correctly, than it is that the Sixers win more games this year.

Unless we are hurting Simmons or Embiid's development, I don't care how Okafor currently affects the quality of team that we have on the floor. We have to find out if he can play the 4. If he can't, then he needs to be traded.

Since we already know that Noel can't then I would say that he needs to be traded, but the one thing that makes him capable of staying is that he may not be good enough to need to start. I can easily see Noel's long term role as a backup center. I think he will be better than that, but he conceivably could live on this team as a backup.

Okafor is going to be a very good quality, if not all star quality starter for someone in the NBA. That can either be us, or on another team that acquired him from us for that kind of price. We at least have to extract that price for him.


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[LloydFree]

Seems to me we have some guys here that are a lot more invested in Jahlil Okafor's career (or being proved right in their high evaluation of him) than the success of the 76ers.

I am much more invested in Okafor's career than I am in Sixers success this year. We control him for 3 more years, and it is more important that we figure out what he is correctly, than it is that the Sixers win more games this year.

Unless we are hurting Simmons or Embiid's development, I don't care how Okafor currently affects the quality of team that we have on the floor. We have to find out if he can play the 4. If he can't, then he needs to be traded.

Since we already know that Noel can't then I would say that he needs to be traded, but the one thing that makes him capable of staying is that he may not be good enough to need to start. I can easily see Noel's long term role as a backup center. I think he will be better than that, but he conceivably could live on this team as a backup.

Okafor is going to be a very good quality, if not all star quality starter for someone in the NBA. That can either be us, or on another team that acquired him from us for that kind of price. We at least have to extract that price for him.

Now that's logical. That's something I can understand. I don't agree that he's the level prospect that should command that kind of attention, but I understand the thought, because that's how I feel about Embiid and Simmons. I dont see Okafor as a building block caliber talent, so I'm not spending minutes that should be used on Simmons and Saric to try to recreate a player that is clearly a Center, just so I can say I didn't waste a #3 pick. He doesn't have the athleticism or skills to be a Power Forward, so I'm not wasting my time with that.

[eagereyez]

Has it been mentioned before that Okafor is only 19 years old? N I N E T E E N Y E A R S O L D. He could be the next Wilt. 20/10 rolling out of bed.

Memes aside, they're both backups if Embiid is healthy. Having a scorer of Okafor's caliber off the bench would be extremely valuable. I've gone back and forth on the Noel/Okafor debate so many times now, at this point I just want to see Embiid dominate.

[Easymoney]

It won't be long until we see which side was right regarding Okafor and I am excited to see the results.

I am the type of person who will willingly admit when he's been proven wrong. Have never really had a problem doing that. Hopefully those on the other side are capable of the same.

[CoreyGallagher]

Has it been mentioned before that Okafor is only 19 years old? N I N E T E E N Y E A R S O L D. He could be the next Wilt. 20/10 rolling out of bed.

Never got this. His birthday was during the season - he was 19 years old for 24 games, turned 20 and played 29 more games. If we go by minutes played then it's 784 minutes to 807 minutes. So, about half of what we actually got to see from him this season was when he was technically 19 years old. I'm not sure why his age was nitpicked when other young players are often referred to by the age that they began the season.

He's a young player regardless and Idc what age you want to refer to him as, but at least for his rookie season, referring to him by either age seems acceptable to me - given the facts.

[phiphan]

Noel pissed, calls for moves (but doesn't demand trade)

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20160926_Nerlens_Noel__Sixers_situation__doesn_t_make_any_sense_.html

[CoreyGallagher]

As most have suspected - he is disgruntled. EDIT: ^^^ There's the link

[Easymoney]

Some players respond to adversity by hitting the gym, staying positive and keeping their cool.

Other players go into hiding for a summer, then resurface to whine to the media.

[Kirk Van Houten]

Noel pissed, calls for moves (but doesn't demand trade)

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20160926_Nerlens_Noel__Sixers_situation__doesn_t_make_any_sense_.html

The problem from day 1 with Noel is that he thinks he is a starter. Further proof of this in the article where he states there is "3 starting centres". This has always been the issue. Trade him now and get some decent value. Keeping him will longer will only make the situation worse.


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[Andrew McCeltic]

What would Philly want from Boston, at this point, if you were trading us Nerlens or Jah?

[Sportfan73]

What would Philly want from Boston, at this point, if you were trading us Nerlens or Jah?

Bradley or smart will do it for Nerlens. Think Jah is to hard to trade right now.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Shocked to see Boston do either, unless Rozier dominates in our training camp. I could see us trading Rozier for Nerlens, easily. An Olynyk/Noel swap could make sense. You could definitely get a 1st from us straight up. Smart for either makes sense as raw fairness, but that's not where the market is, and Boston's probably not going to pay above market value. That's just my take, though. Bradley could happen if we're thinking about cap management, and/or have other deals lined up. But Smart's value, to me, is as weird as your centers', I can't tell if he's overrated or underrated.

[Sixerscan]

I'm sure there will be many reports about Rozier dominating Celtics training camp. Then he won't play.

[Sportfan73]

Shocked to see Boston do either, unless Rozier dominates in our training camp. I could see us trading Rozier for Nerlens, easily. An Olynyk/Noel swap could make sense. You could definitely get a 1st from us straight up. Smart for either makes sense as raw fairness, but that's not where the market is, and Boston's probably not going to pay above market value. That's just my take, though. Bradley could happen if we're thinking about cap management, and/or have other deals lined up. But Smart's value, to me, is as weird as your centers', I can't tell if he's overrated or underrated.

We don't need Rozier. Bayless and Rodriguez will get the bulk of the point guard minutes. So I think we look elsewhere for a combo guard if neither are available.

[eagereyez]

Why do I always see Rozier's name pop up? He looks like a bust in the limited minutes he played last season:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/roziete01.html

Was he injured or something? I just don't get it.

[CoreyGallagher]

Why do I always see Rozier's name pop up? He looks like a bust in the limited minutes he played last season:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/roziete01.html

Was he injured or something? I just don't get it.

Summer League.

[76ciology]

Guys like Rozier and Mickey can easily be signed thru FA similar to Cat Barber and etc.

Considered everything, Marcus Smart for Noel is a reasonable trade.