Nerlens Noel of the Philadelphia 76ers finished third in the NBA Rookie of the Year award voting. He even garnered three first place votes. The Minnesota Timberwolves Andrew Wiggins took home the award, with the Chicago Bulls Nikola Mirotic finished second.
Without a doubt, Noel was the best defensively, of all rookies this season. I broke down all the top rookies for the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. You can read that whole piece here.
Nerlens Noel could be “Anthony Davis 2.0.” They’re both Kentucky one-and-done bigs who made their name first on the defensive before developing their offensive game. Indeed, Noel has some A.D. traits and tendencies. Noel came very close to averaging 2 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. Davis is the only NBA player who achieved that this season. Since the NBA began recording blocks in 1973, only one rookie averaged a 2 and 1.5, David Robinson.
Nerlens Noel is giving the Sixers something to truly build around. If he continues to develop they can start to really have a true franchise brand identity; maybe. Instead of the current brand identity, which is pretty much tanking, tanking and more tanking.
Maybe they add another real piece in this draft and start to get an actual foundation in place, finally.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.