Nerlens Noel is a KING! One year deal
- Thread starter NewArena
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In certain ways yes. Hopefully Brown really goes with the small ball 5 unit next year so we can see what it looks like once teams start scouting it. It will either open things up even more for Fox, or teams will attack the heck out of it and Brown will be forced to abandon it. With the crop of backup C's in the league it's unlikely that it's going to be a terrible thing though.
Please point out something I said that logically shows my bias towards Len. You are clearly biased in evaluating Len’s game because you seriously used foul rate as a criticism of Len’s game for a guy tasked with coming in for 10 minutes to use his hard fouls most of the time. That was literally his job at times to play rough. Len’s been in the league 11 years. Obviously when he was a rotational player on the Hawks, Wizards, even Kings in years past his foul rate was not abnormally high. So your 1 criticism of my comment of Len being a great post up defender was non-sensical. Just pointing that out …
And using advanced stats for small sample sizes is pretty close to useless. In fact, you didn’t even say these advanced stats you speak up too. I might as well say “advanced stats prove Len is better” and not give any stats too. Lol. But since you said it, point to these stats, in fact show the advanced defensive metrics for Len once he took over the backup role. If you can’t use them or find them, well then stop making baseless claims over them & criticizing my posts when you’re the 1 not making rational/consistent sense.
And using advanced stats for small sample sizes is pretty close to useless. In fact, you didn’t even say these advanced stats you speak up too. I might as well say “advanced stats prove Len is better” and not give any stats too. Lol. But since you said it, point to these stats, in fact show the advanced defensive metrics for Len once he took over the backup role. If you can’t use them or find them, well then stop making baseless claims over them & criticizing my posts when you’re the 1 not making rational/consistent sense.
This is the second time you've gotten really touchy about Len criticism. It's really not that big of a deal man. He's an end of bench backup center who has almost no impact on wins or losses. I really don't care enough to get into some long winded debate full of sources and citations in an attempt to prove something about one of the least important players on the team. You've made claims that he is a top 5 and elite post defender without proving any proof but you get all bent out of shape that I disagreed without providing proof. Usually we mostly just like to state our opinion without having to write a thesis on it because we're just trying to have a good time and talk basketball. When talking basketball, you're going to run into people that disagree with you.
If Len turns out to be a vital piece this year, then feel free to point to this thread and say haha, I told you so. I'll merely just say I'm glad I was wrong and I'm glad he's playing well. That's really it because it's not a big deal.
If you feel like looking through some advanced stats, here's a link that has a few of them.
https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-database/
If Len turns out to be a vital piece this year, then feel free to point to this thread and say haha, I told you so. I'll merely just say I'm glad I was wrong and I'm glad he's playing well. That's really it because it's not a big deal.
If you feel like looking through some advanced stats, here's a link that has a few of them.
https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-database/
One of those three likely doesn't make the roster.
Skal is headed for Stockton, Queta is on the outside looking in (is he still eligible for the 3rd two-way contract?) which leaves Nerlens, Alex, and JaVale competing for two spots. McGee's familiarity with Mike Brown and Len's performance at the end of last year probably give them a leg up heading into training camp. If I had to bet, those would be the two that I'd choose. But I like that Noel brings a different dimension with his quick hands
Skal is headed for Stockton, Queta is on the outside looking in (is he still eligible for the 3rd two-way contract?) which leaves Nerlens, Alex, and JaVale competing for two spots. McGee's familiarity with Mike Brown and Len's performance at the end of last year probably give them a leg up heading into training camp. If I had to bet, those would be the two that I'd choose. But I like that Noel brings a different dimension with his quick hands
I agree, I don’t necessarily see it like “5 bigs competing for 2 spots”, since they technically rolled with 4 centers last year in Metu-Holmes-Len-Sabonis. Unless McGee or Len completely whiff in preseason I think they’re pretty set to be on roster. It’s moreso if Noel balls out, keep him. If not he’s cut. Having 4 bigs isn’t end of world especially when 2 or 3, if not all, are somewhat injury prone.
Yes. Under this scenario our 15 NBA deals would be:
Fox/Mitchell
Huerter/Monk/Jones
Barnes/Duarte/Edwards
Murray/Vezenkov/Lyles
Sabonis/Len/McGee/Noel
With Ellis/Slawson/Queta as two-ways, and Noel as a straight-up G-League contract (can't be a 2-way as he has too much NBA service under his belt).
I think there are other ways that the roster could come out, but right now we don't have much in the way of competition for NBA slots in the backcourt. I doubt Slawson is being considered for an NBA promotion at this time, and Ellis seems on the edge of that at best. That does mean that we're likely looking at a very frontcourt heavy roster whichever guys win out.
Fox/Mitchell
Huerter/Monk/Jones
Barnes/Duarte/Edwards
Murray/Vezenkov/Lyles
Sabonis/Len/McGee/Noel
With Ellis/Slawson/Queta as two-ways, and Noel as a straight-up G-League contract (can't be a 2-way as he has too much NBA service under his belt).
I think there are other ways that the roster could come out, but right now we don't have much in the way of competition for NBA slots in the backcourt. I doubt Slawson is being considered for an NBA promotion at this time, and Ellis seems on the edge of that at best. That does mean that we're likely looking at a very frontcourt heavy roster whichever guys win out.
Technically, but I think it's a bit of a stretch that Queta would sign a 3rd G-League deal with us. He'd probably try to ink with another G-League squad or maybe go overseas.
Fox
Huerter
Keegan
HB
Domas
Davion
Monk
Edwards
Vezenkov
Lyles
Duarte
Jones
Len
Javale
Those are our 14 guaranteed deals. Queta and Noel both have an opt out by the beginning of the season (I believe) and we gave them 300K to duke it out.
I think my preference would be to go Noel over Queta. I'll just trust the track record of when healthy, Noel has been an awesome player. Now, maybe he doesn't have anything left, but even if he's like 70% of what he was in OKC... that's an enormous win and massive upgrade over what we've been trotting out at back-up C.
The extra C body is just flat out important too with it being very unlikely that Domas plays 79 games again. We can insulate with any other injury to the starting 5, aside from Domas. But between Lyles/Len/Noel/Javale... I think you can play match-ups and get 48 decent C minutes from that four man grouping.
Fox
Huerter
Keegan
HB
Domas
Davion
Monk
Edwards
Vezenkov
Lyles
Duarte
Jones
Len
Javale
Those are our 14 guaranteed deals. Queta and Noel both have an opt out by the beginning of the season (I believe) and we gave them 300K to duke it out.
I think my preference would be to go Noel over Queta. I'll just trust the track record of when healthy, Noel has been an awesome player. Now, maybe he doesn't have anything left, but even if he's like 70% of what he was in OKC... that's an enormous win and massive upgrade over what we've been trotting out at back-up C.
The extra C body is just flat out important too with it being very unlikely that Domas plays 79 games again. We can insulate with any other injury to the starting 5, aside from Domas. But between Lyles/Len/Noel/Javale... I think you can play match-ups and get 48 decent C minutes from that four man grouping.
I get that feeling as well.
I would argue that we can't effectively guard against an injury to Fox, either. A huge slew of big men gives us an option to move off of the high post offense and go a bit more traditional if Domas goes down, so that would soften such a blow. But we really don't have a long-term solution if Fox goes down. Davion/Monk/Jones just aren't likely to cut it as lead guards, and we'd completely lose our clutch scoring creation on top of that. Perish the thought!
I would argue that we can't effectively guard against an injury to Fox, either. A huge slew of big men gives us an option to move off of the high post offense and go a bit more traditional if Domas goes down, so that would soften such a blow. But we really don't have a long-term solution if Fox goes down. Davion/Monk/Jones just aren't likely to cut it as lead guards, and we'd completely lose our clutch scoring creation on top of that. Perish the thought!
Sure, obviously we're pretty well screwed if Fox goes down, but in terms of the back-up potential we have behind a star player... Davion/Monk/Jones/Ellis is about as good as you'll find in the NBA. Like, I think we'd win more games if Fox went down for a month than if Domas went down for a month, just based on the strength of our back-ups at those positions. And if we're planning for worst case scenarios, I'd rather cover the back-up C slot, by far our worst position on the team last year than pick up a Jordan Ford type, who probably wouldn't see a ton of run, even if Fox did go down to injury.
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But three of the four can make the team - and one of them (McGee) is already signed to a guaranteed contract. Now, if you're talking about competing for a "rotation" spot - I concur. The way I see it, Len, McGee, and Noel are all competing for the backup center role, and secondarily, spot minutes based on matchups. I remain extremely curious about what both McGee and Noel can do. Len is our rock - Literally a highway cement partition when setting screens. The man sets walls.
