Philadelphia 76ers have a player who can make an arguement for to win Rookie of the Year in Nerlens Noel. While Minnesota Timberwolves rookie phenom Andrew Wiggins is the favorite to win, Noel has been in the conversation as of late.
It’s amazing to think about how far Nerlens has come from his days sitting on the bench and missing all of last season, setting his career back a whole year.
With Noel’s progress after the injury, it appears that Noel will be rewarded for his work this season and will be able to take some time off in the summer.
Following from Bob Cooney of Philly.com.
“I don’t think I want to play him in the summer league,” Brown said of Noel. “I don’t feel like the need to do that. I think that he’ll come and practice with the team. I think there’s a lot of logic that you could spin it and say, ‘Well, shoot, you’re missing opportunities for [Embiid] and Nerlens to play together.’ I think it sounds more glamorous than it would need to be. I don’t believe that’s a must. I see Nerlens coming in and practicing with that team and investing a hell of a lot of time this summer with Joel, but perhaps not in that environment.”
Noel’s official rookie season has been stellar and warrants a summer off from competitive basketball. He does have a legit case to challenge Andre Wiggins for the Rookie of the Year with the great numbers he’s put up all season. If averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds 1.9 blocks and 1.8 steals per game this season isn’t enough, there also is his fantastic PER since the All-Star break.
Rookie PER since the All-Star Break:
Nikola Mirotic 20.7
Nerlens Noel 20.5
Elfrid Payton 16.7
Andrew Wiggins 15.2
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) April 6, 2015
