Biggest Hurdles for Nerlens Noel to Clear During 2014-15 Rookie Season
Nerlens Noel's first-ever preseason game was a four-turnover, six-foul microcosm of the season the Philadelphia 76ers should expect from their prized prospect.
And while his second preseason game went much better, people should delude themselves into believing this is going to be easy. There will be ups and many downs. Any attempt to define success for Noel this season has to account for challenges that await, setting the bar for victory a bit lower in the process.
"I didn't think I played well at all," Noel told reporters after his preseason debut in a 98-78 loss to the Boston Celtics, via CSNNE.com's Jimmy Toscano, "but you know, I am proud of the fact that I was able to suit up today in a Philadelphia uniform and finally say I played an official NBA game."
The first of many such learning experiences to come.
Noel has the kind of physical ability that could propel him into the Rookie of the Year conversation, but there's no denying he's raw. And after missing the 2013-14 season while he recovered from a torn ACL, he's also rusty.
The future is bright, but the present is more complicated. Here are five road blocks that could cloud Noel's long-awaited rookie campaign.
The Learning Curve
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Noel is about to embark upon a journey of adjustments.
His time off the court has taken a toll, and that's on top of the usual growing pains associated with rookie seasons.
"I just have to learn the game the way the NBA plays," Noel told reporters after the Philadelphia 76ers' preseason loss to the Boston Celtics, via CSNPhilly.com's Dei Lynam. "I watched all last season, but now that I am in it I have to adjust to the physicality and get back to the principles I need to play with."
For Noel, the pro level's demand for bruising screens and solid blockouts is new—as much a mental hurdle as a physical one.
Settling into the offensive flow will similarly require increased familiarity with the NBA landscape, both in terms of developing chemistry with his own teammates and knowing what to expect from the competition.
"It's definitely a work in progress," Noel said after the Boston game, per Sporting News' Sean Deveney. "Just having patience and understanding how to be timely with my shots, being able to know where I can get them. It is a learning process but I want to do good now, I want to succeed now. I am just going to continue to work and take it all in mentally."
It won't all happen overnight, but there are certainly baby steps the Kentucky product can take toward making a more immediate impact.
"He just needs to be a committed runner rim to rim," head coach Brett Brown told reporters after the preseason debut, per Lynam. "Missed shots, he should be taking off. He is a deer. We are always encouraging that he is as commanding as he can at the defensive rebound, but it is such a wide menu of things that he is being hit with. We are trying to shrink it into small things and nurse him through as we move forward."
Small things sound like a good place to start.
A Limited Supporting Cast
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The Philadelphia 76ers may be learning valuable lessons in their failure, but they've yet to make any serious strides on paper. This is still a raw, unpolished collection of prospective talent.
As Philly.com's Michael Kaskey-Blomain noted in September, "The departure of all of the team's established veterans, coupled with the lack of immediate impact players added through the draft and free agency, has some publications predicting that this year's incarnation of the Sixers will be the league's worst all-time team."
The woeful lack of depth and leadership surrounding Noel won't make his life any easier.
He'll be thrown into the fire from day one, relied on as the principal source of interior defense and likely pressed into more shot attempts than he'd encounter with a better team. There's no time-tested big man to mentor Noel, no superstar to follow.
One can certainly hope Noel develops an instant chemistry with reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams, but—even in the best of scenarios—one emergent duo does not make a team.
Bereft of a capable core to carry the load, Noel will certainly produce as a rookie.
His numbers will almost certainly be inflated by bountiful minutes on a bad team that plays at a high pace and misses lots of shots. According to Hollinger Stats, the 2013-14 Sixers led the league in pace (at 101.6 possessions per game) while coming dead last in true shooting percentage (at 51 percent).
That means lots of rebounding opportunities for Noel, plenty of opportunities in general—to block shots, run the floor and mop up all kinds of playing time in the process.
But the increased responsibility remains the byproduct of a shallow support system.
Noel won't be on his own this season, but there may be times in which he feels otherwise.
Inertia
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We haven't heard any horror stories from the Philadelphia 76ers' locker room nor any indications that the rebuild has taken an intolerable toll on team morale.
Still, there's always some risk that teams become too accustomed to losing, too comfortable with a culture that settles for moral victories. It's no secret that general manager Sam Hinkie has programmed this rebuild to be a deliberate, methodical one. We get it.
And the players do too—which could become a problem.
Coming off a 19-win season and facing appropriately pessimistic projections going into 2014-15, there's no sense of urgency for the Sixers. No consequences for another horrific season.
Instead, there's a very real threat of complacency. This roster could find itself mired in bad habits and chronically uninspired play—a hostile environment for Noel's growth. At a time when confidence is key, Philadelphia's institutionalized losing may obscure any silver lining.
Pressure to Score
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In his first preseason contest—a 98-78 loss to the Boston Celtics—Noel scored just four points in 27 minutes, making two of his nine field-goal attempts in the process.
Two days later, the 20-year-old posted 10 points (along with nine rebounds, three blocks and three assists) while going 5-of-13 from the field against Al Jefferson and the Charlotte Hornets.
What should we make of the early returns?
Admittedly, not very much. Preseason games are little more than an opportunity for teams to tune up and find some semblance of rhythm before the games start mattering. That's especially true for a guy who sat out his rookie season recovering from a torn ACL.
At the very least, however, these two games were a reminder of something we already knew: Noel isn't going to be a force on the offensive end, particularly in the early goings. His generally raw skill set is especially limited when it comes to scoring. If it isn't a dunk or a layup, it's probably a shot Noel shouldn't be taking just yet.
As head coach Brett Brown told reporters after the Celtics game, "I thought defensively he was pretty good. Offensively he struggled. The speed of the game in his mind I felt got the better of him. But I saw good things from him and I think that this whole year is going to be one where we keep trying to polish him up and get him NBA ready."
Noel seemed to agree, telling media, per Philly.com, "I think that's definitely a work in progress—just to have patience, understanding how to be calm with my shots and being able to know where I can get them. I'm going to continue to work and take it all in."
And eventually, he'll get there.
Expectations
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It's inevitable.
When you're selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the draft (in this case, 2013's), there will be expectations—both internal and external. That's not an entirely bad thing. The risk is that those expectations become a distraction, another negative vibe piling on to a season already doomed to lottery-bound irrelevance.
When it comes to Noel, head coach Brett Brown isn't having any of it.
"I think this is going to take a while," Brown told reporters after the Philadelphia 76ers' preseason loss to the Boston Celtics, per Toscano. "And it's not an insult to anybody; it's just reality. The summer league and NBA are worlds apart. They are worlds apart. And there has to be a real patience that we have, that I have with him, and we help him. He hasn't played basketball for a long time, so any weight of expectation is unfair."
Unfair and almost certainly unhealthy.
A scarred psyche may be the worst thing that could happen to Noel's young career.
It helps that Brown and Co. are in this for the long haul, all but forfeiting yet another campaign in the name of a protracted rebuilding process.
Per Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe, the coach told reporters the Sixers want to "let his athletic gifts shine, and then polish him up as he gets older, when he understands NBA basketball a little bit better."
That sounds about right. If Noel can ignore the media and forget the hype, he'll be just fine. The 76ers are perfectly content to wait this out—and enjoy the show in the meantime.
"This whole year, everybody's got to put their seat belt on and get ready," Brown added. "He's going to grow before their eyes."
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