Would you draft-day trade our pick (#7-11) for Nerlens Noel?

[BDeCosta26]

Up to the past few weeks, my answer was no. But he's developing nicely now since MCW left and he certainly has DPOY potential.

If They would take our 2015 1st and a 2016 MINorPHI 2nd I'd do that for sure. Maybe the LAC 1st instead of they insisted. At some point you figure they're gonna want young players in return but idk if that's the case just yet.

If Boston could draft WCS with their pick, I would try to keep it and take him cause they strike me as very similar players. But he could easily be gone by then.

[jonaslopes]

I'd give our 2015 pick, Philly's 2015 2nd round back and Dallas 1st for him. But they would not accept, unfortunately.

[Forza Juventus]

I've always been a huge fan of Nerlens Noel. I remember where I was when he hurt himself at Kentucky. I felt so sad for him. I knew right away it was serious. He should have been picked number one in his draft and I would have drafted him number one any way. I would offer anyone on our team besides Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. I would offer all our picks in the upcoming draft but I think Philadelphia would insist on a Brooklyn pick. I would probably say yes if that was enough. 3 first round picks and 2 second round picks sounds like a lot but I think it would take a godfather offer to trade for Nerlens Noel.

[LHR]

I actually discussed this possibility here:

http://clnsradio.com/boston-celtics-news/item/11595-summer-possibilities-for-the-boston-celtics

Mentioned on today's show that they're in such an incredible position with all their flexibility - that they'll do just whatever is most advantageous to them.  Basically, they'll just sit around and pounce on Isaiah Thomas-like deals.

It's just ridiculous how well-run this franchise is...

[soulman]

I've always been a huge fan of Nerlens Noel. I remember where I was when he hurt himself at Kentucky. I felt so sad for him. I knew right away it was serious. He should have been picked number one in his draft and I would have drafted him number one any way. I would offer anyone on our team besides Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. I would offer all our picks in the upcoming draft but I think Philadelphia would insist on a Brooklyn pick. I would probably say yes if that was enough. 3 first round picks and 2 second round picks sounds like a lot but I think it would take a godfather offer to trade for Nerlens Noel.

TP,  I like Noel too, i hope one day we will get him for much less than that.

[LarBrd33]

Since this thread has been posted I have been paying a lot more attention to Nerlens Noel. As a result I must admit that I have underestimated his defensive ability and athleticism. The more I see the more I like. Now would I sell the farm for him? still no, but I must say that I think LarBrd and Raaaaaaandy were on to something that I wasnt seeing.

Hes got a long way to go but Nerlens Noel could well become a dominant defensive force in this league and thats worth something. In fact, that's worth a lot.

... He's a 20 year old raw rookie coming off serious surgery.   He was considered BY FAR to be the best prospect of the 2013 Draft.  It's bizarre to me that people would judge the kid based on his first month or two of NBA basketball.  He's obviously going to progress.

And that's exactly what's happening... he's progressing.   Look at his last 10 games since All-Star Break:  12 points, 10 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.9 blocks and 2.7 steals in 33.9mpg with 44% shooting, a much improved 72% shooting from the line.

The defensive stats are insane if he can keep them up.  Kid looks like he'll be a DPOY candidate every year.  Even his season averages (which are going up) of 1.8 blocks/1.8 steals probably compare favorably to every single modern rookie center you can think of (Dwight, Brow, Drummond, etc).  He had a career high 17 rebounds in his last game.   The kid has HUGE Potential.   Championships are won with elite scoring and elite bigs.  If you could get Nerlens for our draft pick (assuming it's not top 4) + Sully, you'd have to do it.  If you could get Nerlens for our draft pick + Smart, you'd probably have to do that too.

If Philly lands Okafor in the draft, they are going to have a really tough decision... because everything I read about Joel Embiid is that he's going to be a transcendent center in this league... and looks like he's getting healthy (vid from 2 days ago):  https://vine.co/v/OEKxv2pHlmj

A few points,
First, I would say that I am absolutley for moving any non top 3 pick (at this point 4-7 are completely impossible) along with their pick of Sully KO and Zeller all for Noel. I assume most fans are in the same boat.

Now to address a few of your points, he and Griffin both had huge knee procedures during or before their rookie year. Noel took more than 20 months off from injury to debut. Perkins recovered from the same injury in 7 months. Blake Griffin was in a similar scenario. He hurt his knee and returned to action the next season after fully recovering and having a few months to come play at 100% with the staff etc. Both were on similarly awful basketball teams when they did make their debuts. Griffin scored 23ppg and got 12.5 boards per game. Noel is getting 9 and 8. You mentioned Noel played great against the hawks with 17 boards but you neglect to mention that the Hawks completely didnt care about the game as the sat two all stars and Demarre Carrol, one of their best players.

I did not judge him based on his first month of pro basketball, because I felt he had a huge advantage over every other rookie. Hes been in the league a full 12 months longer than them working on his game, with the coaching staff, getting used to the pros, and he was playing on a team where other teams came in looking to lock up the game in the first half then rest starters. When he played the C's I would watch and he didnt impress me. I instead judged him on the fact that many considered his offensive game to be hopeless coming out of Kentucky, the fact that he hasnt washed away any knee injury concerns (hes played like half a season, bravo), and the fact that when I watched him play he did not jump off the page.

I like his game as a rim protector and not just that but I think hes a really good all around defender, but look how many rising star or already very good centers/ rim protecters there are around the league.

Gobert
Jordan
Henson
Drummond
Hibbert
Gasol
Bogurt
Cousins
Deng
Len
Mozgov
Horford
Nurkic (younger and more blocks, points, and boards per 48)
Noah
Chandler
Adams
Asik
Davis
Ibaka
Duncan
Whiteside

Combine that with Towns and WCS coming in this year and thats 24 players who either are or project to be very effective defenders.

Its not like great defensive C's are one in a million.

Id move our #1 unless we win the lotto and Id let them pick one of zeller, KO, or Sully, Id also let them take back teh '15 second. If they wanted to talk james Young Id listen. Smart is off the table and unless he is the center piece, so is Thomas.

Fwiw Blake played two years of college ball and was infinitely better his second season. He had a stronger base to go off.  He was a scorer.  It's expected he'd show scoring ability as a rookie.

Nerlens is a defender.  And like I said, find me a recent rookie big who had his type of defensive statistics.  The fact he's not scoring 20 points is irrelevant.   

And yes great defensive centers are hard to come by and arguably are the most important factor in building a championship.  Hence KG leading us to a title in 2008... Or the Spurs remaining relevant well into the twilight of Duncan's career while he reminds a DPOY candidate... Or the Hawks having the best record in the league with al horford as their best player.   If you can lock up a 20 year old center with superstar defensive potential, it's a heck of a start towards building a team that matters.

[greece66]

Some of you guys are tripping. Noel is legit.  Getting potentially dominant defensive centers isn't easy.  Noel is going to finish this season averaging something like 10 points 8 rebounds 2 blocks and 2 steals ... Considering he's coming off a major injury and 20 years old, it will take a lot.

If we end up with a top 5 pick and they land Okafor, they might consider it.

If we are picking 7-12, I think you will need to include sully or oly.

TP for keeping it realistic. Still  it's not gonna happen.
Hinkie is playing an 'all or nothing' game: he makes constant trades, tries out players from the D-league and any NBA left-overs he can find in order to get more draft picks in order to create a team with all star talent. Unless a player has proven all-star ceiling Hinkie trades him in a split second for more draft picks (KJ, MWC and earlier this season Shved). You see good but not all star ceiling players hurt his team's tanking effort.
But if he thinks the case is otherwise, he won't trade him for anything in the world. So far, he seems to value only two players: Embiid and ... yours truly. So justforgetaboutit...

[greece66]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

[celticsclay]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

For what it's worth I have read some heat articles that are insinuating the team will start to tank to keep a top 10 ten pick because with banged up dragic, wade, deng and bosh out for the year that would have a lot more value to the franchise than a first round matchup as an 8 seed. If I was a fan I would probably want the same.

This also kind of raises the issue of how protection on lottery picks should not be allowed. I don't know if anyone else was watching tonight but the Lakers just completely stopped trying halfway through the 4th quarter. They scored 1 point in the last 6.5 minutes. Half of that can be attributed to some good defense from Dallas, but they also just 100% stopped trying, they didn't foul or anything even when the game was close. I would expect to see some efforts like that out of Miami soon and wade shut down for the year.

[tazzmaniac]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

The Miami pick is top 10 protected and the OKC pick is top 18 protected.  So they could have 1 to 4 1st rounders.  Best possible is 1, 6, 11 and 19.  Hinkie has done a very good job accumulating draft picks without significantly impacting their cap space.   

[celticsclay]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

The Miami pick is top 10 protected and the OKC pick is top 18 protected.  So they could have 1 to 4 1st rounders.  Best possible is 1, 6, 11 and 19.  Hinkie has done a very good job accumulating draft picks without significantly impacting their cap space.   

If the teams (Lakers, Heat) care at all about not blowing assets the Sixers will end up with something like the 4th and  20th pick. The following year would be another opportunity for a windfall. The Celtics could potentially get 3 lottery picks this year if the Clips and Mavericks lose out, but it seems silly to throw out unlikely best case scenarios.

[tazzmaniac]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

The Miami pick is top 10 protected and the OKC pick is top 18 protected.  So they could have 1 to 4 1st rounders.  Best possible is 1, 6, 11 and 19.  Hinkie has done a very good job accumulating draft picks without significantly impacting their cap space.   

If the teams (Lakers, Heat) care at all about not blowing assets the Sixers will end up with something like the 4th and  20th pick. The following year would be another opportunity for a windfall. The Celtics could potentially get 3 lottery picks this year if the Clips and Mavericks lose out, but it seems silly to throw out unlikely best case scenarios.

The Sixers are currently on track for the 2nd, 12th and possibly 19th (coin flip).  Maybe the Heat start tanking to avoid losing their pick but they haven't done so yet.  If the Lakers finish with the 4th worst record, there is a 17% chance that the Sixers get the pick.  For comparison if we finish 10th worst, we only have a 4% chance for a top 3 pick.  So its unlikely but not unreasonably so.  I'm hoping they get all 4 picks as they may be more open to a trade. 

[celticsclay]

On a different note, even if Philly misses LAL's protected first rounder, it still gets 3 first rounders and 5 second rounders in the coming draft. Just insane... 
http://www.tankathon.com/76ers

The Miami pick is top 10 protected and the OKC pick is top 18 protected.  So they could have 1 to 4 1st rounders.  Best possible is 1, 6, 11 and 19.  Hinkie has done a very good job accumulating draft picks without significantly impacting their cap space.   

If the teams (Lakers, Heat) care at all about not blowing assets the Sixers will end up with something like the 4th and  20th pick. The following year would be another opportunity for a windfall. The Celtics could potentially get 3 lottery picks this year if the Clips and Mavericks lose out, but it seems silly to throw out unlikely best case scenarios.

The Sixers are currently on track for the 2nd, 12th and possibly 19th (coin flip).  Maybe the Heat start tanking to avoid losing their pick but they haven't done so yet.  If the Lakers finish with the 4th worst record, there is a 17% chance that the Sixers get the pick.  For comparison if we finish 10th worst, we only have a 4% chance for a top 3 pick.  So its unlikely but not unreasonably so.  I'm hoping they get all 4 picks as they may be more open to a trade.

see the thread on the lakers game last night (or their roster) the twolves will pass them soon.

Also it almost feels like some Celtics fans are rooting for things to work out in Philly. Do people forget they are in our division and are projecting to be good the same time as the Celtics? We really want everything to break right for them so they get 3 lottery picks? I am not bullish on their team by any means but 3 lottery picks would really bolster their hopes. It is not like they are just going to give people away if that happens.

[nickagneta]

The Sixers are currently on track for the 2nd, 12th and possibly 19th (coin flip).

Correction: The Sixers are currently on track for the 4th, 12th and possibly 19th pick. Remember, the lotteries odds as to where the Sixers pick will land are highest in finishing 4th even though they have the 2nd worst record. Also remember 2007. The C's ended up 5th even though they had the 2nd worst record.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

The Sixers are currently on track for the 2nd, 12th and possibly 19th (coin flip).

Correction: The Sixers are currently on track for the 4th, 12th and possibly 19th pick. Remember, the lotteries odds as to where the Sixers pick will land are highest in finishing 4th even though they have the 2nd worst record. Also remember 2007. The C's ended up 5th even though they had the 2nd worst record.

They're more likely to be in the top 3 than 4-5th so saying 4 isn't accurate either.