I suspect coaching the Sixers for Brett Brown has been a nightmare. Front office bungling caused Doug Collins to quit. He had built a decent playoff team, defensively oriented, which got dismantled around him.
Hinkie has done the same with Brown, making tanking fashionable, unloading good players for nothing, and drafting 3 centers high in three successive years creating the current logjam.
The League finally called in the Colangelos to sort out this mess. It will take them years.
Why hasn't an obvious deal gone through yet for Noel to Boston? He's a local guy, and would seem to be a good fit. I can think of a couple reasons. For one, he's a FA next year, and the Celtics can get him for free, if they want to pay him. But they need a guy right now, if they want to climb in the playoffs. So, maybe it's a cat and mouse game as to the right price.
A secondary consideration is the Boston-Phliiy rivalry going back to the Russell-Wilt days.I doubt that's a major factor at this point--the Colangelos worked with Ainge in Phoenix.
Brown is in a pickle with Noel right now. Their problem is everybody knows it, he's a FA next year, and nobody wants to give up very much for him.