Dario Saric

Nerlens Noel Play Part II: Ten Minutes Against Phoenix Suns

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:57 p.m. ET

Fansided, Bret Stuter/FanSided via The Sixer Sense

With recent drama highlighting Nerlens Noel playing time, we now have a series covering that topic. As Part II of the series, Nerlens Noel Playing Time

The playing time of Nerlens Noel has made the headlines on several occasions. In fact, the playing time of Nerlens Noel has entered the national debate. And so, that same topic deserves it’s very own Sixer Sense series. In part two: we examine ten playing minutes Noel earned against the Phoenix Suns

Philadelphia 76ers Nerlens Noel made headlines over his frustation on lack of playing time. In fact, he’s made it a point to make headlines on several occasions. But the fracas truly started when he had just eight minutes in the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Nerlens Noel sounds off after the 76ers’ loss to the Lakers and he only plays eight minutes. Video – via @ESPN App https://t.co/1usV3x8bZD

— 🗣 (@DJ5__) December 17, 2016

In fact, the drama is so intense that rookie center Joel Embiid made it a point to speak up on the topic. In Embiid’s compromise, he suggested the team examine both combinations of Embiid/Okafor as well as Embiid/Noel before making a decision for the future.

Run The Numbers

And so, we ran the numbers. Since this is Nerlens Noel’s contract year, we estimated he had just 431 minutes of playing time before the trade deadline. Of course, that assumed he had 15 minutes per game to average on this four game road trip.

He earned ten minutes. He’s already down to 426 minutes. And that’s not a good thing. But he did play nearly two minutes with Joel Embiid.

Tonight’s 21-point effort was a season-high for Sergio Rodriguez. 3rd-highest career total. Embiid-Noel lasted 1:47, and Sixers were +2.

— Brian Seltzer (@brianseltzer) December 24, 2016

Breakdown

For the game, Noel managed to top the stats with three steals for the Philadelphia 76ers. But in his ten minutes of playing time, he scored four points, pulled in one rebound, dished out one assist, got one block, shot one for one from the floor (100 percent) and two of four from the foul line (50 percent).

Noel’s ten minutes was the least amount of playing time by any 76ers player who saw court time. In fact, it was half of the playing time of Jahlil Okafor. In Okafor’s 20 minutes, he scored just six points on three of four shooting (75 percent) from the floor, pulled down four rebounds, handed out one assist, and blocked one shot.

Mudslide

The mechanics of giving both Noel and Okafor looks has impacted others in the line up as well. Ersan Ilyasova and Dario Saric are both coming off the bench, and Saric is getting looks at small forward. With Stauskas out, Thompson is getting a look at the shooting guard role as well.

In the end, the entire roster is getting the shake up to squeeze enough playing time out for the three centers. While it may be a necessary evil, let’s hope it’s very short-lived.