We'll start with news about the player who is actually on the Sixers roster right now.
Nerlens Noel Closing in on 100%?
It has been 14 months since we last witnessed Nerlens Noel play in a basketball game. It's been a long wait but some optimistic news has been coming out lately. First it was reported that Nerlens said he feels "about 80%." Then yesterday Noel addressed the media for the first time since media day before the season.
One of the knocks on Noel before the season was that he wouldn't be able to bang with NBA centers in the post because he was too scrawny. It appears that this shortcoming has been addressed. When reporters asked what Noel felt his biggest improvement this year was Noel was quoted in saying "I most definitely think getting stronger -- I've been in the weight room consistently." It's true that with all this time off not playing basketball, Noel has had a chance to sculpt his body to be even more NBA-ready. This wasn't even the most eye-popping news of the day however, as Noel also claimed that he has increased his vertical leap by 3 inches (!!!) since suffering a torn ACL in February of 2013. If true, this would mean the athletic big man has an even higher range in which he will be able to block shots and rebound.
When asked what the difference between Noel's shot blocking ability as compared to his own, teammate Jarvis Varnado said "I mean, he gets up really high when he's blocking shots, higher than me..." Based on what we've seen from vines by the Big Seltzer Water himself, he ain't lying…
Before his infamous knee injury, Noel was touted as one of, if not THE most athletic player in the 2013 Draft. He was at least the most athletic big man. It seems that the general feeling from the Sixers' organization is that Nerlens will not play this year and honestly, what's the point? No sense in risking an Andrew Bynum sequel when there's absolutely nothing to play for.
I cannot even express how encouraging it is to hear how much Nerlens has been able to improve even while he hasn't been able to take the court. It's a testament to how tremendous this coaching staff is.
Hail Hinkie.
Embiid Declares
While he initially denied reports in late March that he was ready to declare for the NBA draft, it seems the lure of money has snatched another one up from the college ranks.
At 3:00 pm EST today, Joel Embiid of the University of Kansas held a press conference in which he declared that he will forego his three remaining years of NCAA eligibility for the NBA draft. While similar to Noel in it that he is the consensus best big man in the draft class, Embiid also has similar injury questions surrounding him. Embiid has been suffering from a lingering back injury that kept him out of the Kansas' final regular season games and ALL of the NCAA tournament. Embiid is a projected top-3 pick in this year's draft and is seen as one of the best center prospects in a long time. Some have even compared him to NBA career points leader Kareem Abdul-Jabaar. The other two in this draft's "big three" are basketball demigod Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker. Parker is the only one of the three who has yet to declare for the draft, but hopefully for the Sixers' sake, news of Embiid declaring will help ease Parker into declaring as well.
The 2014 draft will be one of the most important parts of the Sixers' rebuild and they will need all the firepower they can to help them reload.
No comments:
Post a Comment