Whether you noticed or not, Nerlens Noel is a big part of the Knicks' success

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

In the spring of 2015, executives from the Philadelphia 76ers were reviewing some data about Nerlens Noel when they noticed something strange.

The research had been compiled by a staffer named Lance Pearson, whose job was to chart the effort of Sixers players. He’d mark down actions such as deflections, contested shots and how quickly players made it up the floor and, afterward, combine them into a score. 

On this day, Pearson was sharing a bar chart he’d compiled of Noel’s effort grades from the season. At the time, Noel — now a key member of the revived New York Knicks — was one of the Sixers’ prized prospects. He had been a high school All-American and as a freshman at Kentucky had established himself as one of the country’s premier players. But he tore his ACL midway through the season, scaring off some NBA suitors, and fell to No. 6 in the 2013 NBA Draft, where he was taken by the New Orleans Pelicans — who flipped him to the Sixers in exchange for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday. The Sixers had just hired Sam Hinkie as their GM, and the 19-year-old Noel — a 6-foot-11 pogo stick with a 7-foot-4 wingspan who could run and jump and led Division I in blocks per game — was the perfect player to help him kickstart his rebuilding "Process."

Noel spent the entire 2013-14 season rehabbing his knee, but he played 71 games and averaged nearly a double-double, along with nearly two blocks (1.9) and two steals (1.8), the following season. The numbers earned him a spot on the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team, but at times, he’d be invisible on the floor. 

That a 20-year-old would experience an up-and-down rookie campaign came as no surprise to the Sixers, nor was it something that left them overly concerned. What was strange, though, was the way Noel’s inconsistency manifested itself. 

Everyone’s effort waned throughout the course of the season — but only to a point. This would show up on Pearson's charts in typical bell curves. Some games would feature higher peaks (better average effort) and some lower valleys (worse average effort), but most players stayed within a certain range. 

Noel’s charts were different. His bell curves overlapped, with the average effort on one being incredibly high and the other being incredibly low. It was like he was two different players.

"When he was locked in, whether during a game or a workout, his ability to perform and pick things up was through the roof," said Billy Lange, a former Sixers assistant and now the head coach at St. Joseph’s. "And he had this competitive side, but some days, he wasn’t 100 percent locked in."

The question was whether Noel would ever find a way to be the high-impact version of himself every night. Also, and perhaps more importantly, would anyone notice once he did? 

On a Monday morning in early May, Noel, now 27, was in his Los Angeles hotel room recovering from the previous day’s game, where the Knicks — with whom Noel signed a one-year deal in the offseason, making them his fourth team in eight years — had knocked off the championship-caliber LA Clippers, at Staples Center no less, for their 13th win in 16 games. The streak had catapulted the Knicks up the Eastern Conference standings. Suddenly, a team that oddsmakers had determined before the year to be among the least likely to win this season’s title was not only headed for the playoffs but also in position to host a series.

Noel, reclining on a chair and wearing a maroon hoodie, was excited. "I feel like I'm spreading my wings," he told FOX Sports over Zoom. "This is kind of what I've always wanted to be. Starting center. Top-five defense. Playoff-caliber team. 4-seed."

Noel tends to speak methodically, often pausing mid-sentence to consider what words to use, sometimes repeating questions back as he ponders his answer. His voice is low and soft, and he’s got a big, white smile. It’s easy to see why teammates and coaches, both past and present, absolutely love him. 

"A cool dude," Knicks forward Julius Randle said. "Like real laid-back. Chill." 

All of which makes the way Noel plays defense that much more jarring. His style is aggressive, and his blocks — of which he had 141 this season, the NBA’s third-highest mark — are sudden and loud. They usually come late and at the rim and often at full force, like one rocket intercepting another. Sometimes they knock the rail-thin Noel (listed at 220 pounds, though that might be generous) to the ground. 

"The best part is just like meeting somebody at the rim, and you see that one, two [step] gather they take to really try to take off, that trampoline-style launch, and it's like, ‘OK, this is what they want to do. Let's go there,’" he said.

Noel might not be the first person you think of when thinking about the Knicks' sudden and shocking rejuvenation — there’s Randle and in-season acquisition Derrick Rose and, of course head coach Tom Thibodeau — but consider this: Noel started 41 games, he was the backline of the NBA’s fourth-rated defense, and opponents shot just 51.7% against him at the rim, one of the league’s top marks. (For comparison: that number was 54.7% for Joel Embiid.)

"He makes up for so many things for us," Randle said. "We’re allowed to take chances and make mistakes because we know we have Nerlens back there because he covers up so many things for us. His defensive presence is really special, and what he brings to our team is really special." 

Noel has unquestionably been a big part of the Knicks' success and a prime example of everything the new front office, led by former agent-turned-team-president Leon Rose, has done right. Growth, Rose & Co. have recognized, isn’t always linear. Sometimes players need the right people to give them the right chance at the right time.

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In the summer of 2018 — just five years after he was drafted sixth overall — Noel arrived in Oklahoma City, perhaps not a broken man but certainly a fallen one. He’d become a punchline, the player detractors of "The Process" would eagerly point to as an example of its failings, the former five-star prospect known most for having to settle for a minimum contract just one year after rejecting a $70 million offer.  

Some of it was of his own doing. Punctuality had been a particular problem for Noel in Philadelphia, and he struggled to adjust to life as a secondary player on the offensive side of the court. But for a teenager who, in the words of his former high school coach, Marcus O’Neill, "was used to everyone in his world ingratiating themselves to him," the Sixers turned out to be an awful landing spot. The roster was bereft of veteran mentors and loaded with young centers such as Embiid and Jahlil Okafor, creating a logjam. 

Then, less than three years into Noel’s career, the Sixers replaced Hinkie with Bryan Colangelo, a GM who was eager to put his imprint on the team and trash Hinkie whenever possible. It didn’t matter that Noel had improved. Colangelo would often tell colleagues that he wasn’t a fan of Noel’s and that he never would have drafted him.  

I asked Noel how he looks back at his time with the Sixers. He was diplomatic at first, saying that he was appreciative of the opportunity. Then I relayed what Jerami Grant, who played with Noel in Philadelphia and Oklahoma City, told me in a phone interview: "Nerlens is smart. He knows when people are bulls---ting him." 

Noel burst out laughing. "Yeah, I mean, I was in a position where I wanted to really come into this game and, you know, really put my imprint on it, and when they’re stockpiling at that one spot, it’s definitely hard," he said. "But it taught me a lot about perseverance." 

In February 2017, Colangelo shipped Noel to the Dallas Mavericks, where his play plummeted. He’d miss defensive rotations, leap out of position while swiping for steals and hack everything in sight. He fell out of favor with the coaching staff, and his reputation across the league was shattered, especially after reports emerged that he had rejected a four-year, $70 million extension (Noel declined to comment on that deal). Words such as soft, lazy and inconsistent were thrown around. 

"That stuff bothered me for a while," Noel said. "I feel like some of it was unwarranted. If you sat down in a room with me for, like, five or 10 minutes, you’re not really going to think I’m an asshole or an unintelligent person." 

Many Sixers staffers who were around Noel agree. "He was not by any means a bad guy or a negative character guy," one said. "He was just a little immature."

The following summer, with his options limited, Noel inked a one-year minimum deal with the Thunder, which included a player option for a second season. Soon after signing, Noel met with members of the coaching staff. They told him that if he curbed his aggression and focused on being an elite role player, not only could he thrive on the court but also, eventually, he’d get paid. On defense, they wanted him to leave some steals on the table and stay home at the rim. On offense, they wanted him to be a rim-runner and lob-catcher.

Initially, Noel was unsure. "I was like, ‘Come on, you’re trying to change my game and to slow me down.' But then you start seeing results. You're not in foul trouble. You see you can't block every shot. You can’t go for a steal and put your teammates out of position. Sometimes you’ve got to just stay there with your head straight, and it's a cat-and-mouse game that can be just as effective, and you see how it all transpires into winning." 

The coaching staff loved working with him. His issues with punctuality disappeared. As the season progressed he found a middle ground between his desire to play defense aggressively and his team’s need for him to man its backline. Noel averaged only 15.7 minutes but appeared in 77 games for a team that won 49, posting a then-career-best block rate and limiting opponents to 51.3% shooting at the rim, a jump of 10 percentage points from the previous season. He declined his player option after the season, assuming he’d fetch a bigger deal. None came. He was forced to re-sign with the Thunder, again for the minimum.

Thunder executives were surprised. Noel was hurt.  

"That was beyond frustrating," he said. "I put in the work and had that sort of season, and it still produced the same level contract? I didn’t really understand that. But I guess I needed to get rid of the stigma."

The Knicks had very specific goals entering the 2020 offseason. They wanted to add talent and win more games than the paltry 21 they recorded the season before, and they talked a lot about changing the "culture." But they wanted to do all that while maintaining cap flexibility for the future and holding on to all their draft picks. That meant finding value where others didn’t see it, and it didn’t take long for Noel, who had a second straight efficient season with the Thunder, to become a target. 

Noel said Leon Rose reached out to him directly. The Knicks were offering a one-year deal, but it was worth $5 million, more than he had made the previous two years combined. He liked that New York had hired Kenny Payne, a former Kentucky assistant, and that he could join Randle, a fellow former Wildcat. "I had a personal relationship with Leon already, and it felt comfortable and like the Knicks were going to be family-oriented," Noel said. "I was fully on board."

He entered training camp as the backup to starting center Mitchell Robinson, a 23-year-old shot-blocking ace — though one whose decision to skip the team’s voluntary minicamp in September had irked the new regime, according to league sources — and Thibodeau then built a defensive scheme around his centers. The Knicks would be aggressive on the ball and aggressive with their help and let Robinson and Noel clean up. It was everything Noel had wanted. Not only had he found a home, but he’d also found a team willing to trust and empower him.

He played well as a reserve and "was always engaged and working hard," said Mike Woodson, a Knicks assistant who left the team in March to become the head coach at Indiana University. Then, in February, Robinson fractured his hand, elevating Noel into the starting lineup. Around that time, Payne pulled him aside. "This is your opportunity," he told him.

Noel, not caring that his usage rate had plummeted to one of the lowest marks in the league, seized it. The Knicks went 25-16 in games he started, and while their defense was statistically better with him off the floor, those numbers correct themselves in the minutes Noel played without struggling point guard Elfrid Payton. Noel blocked more shots per 100 possessions than ever before, and his foul rate was the lowest it has been since 2016. 

"I feel like I can truly show my value and show that I can be a big part of winning basketball," Noel said. "I’ve been able to show the impact I can have on the game, and it doesn’t matter if I’m taking two shots or 10." Sure, he admitted, he’d like to be more involved in the offense in future seasons, and staffers from both the Sixers and Thunder said he’s actually an adept passer. But in the meantime, Noel is thrilled in his current role. 

"Nerlens is one of those players where once he’s comfortable, his play follows," Grant said. "He just needed a spot where he could fit in." Lange, the former Sixers assistant, said watching Noel this season has reminded him of Noel’s rookie year, when then-Phoenix Suns point guard Eric Bledsoe said during a radio interview that Kentucky, his Alma mater, could defeat a then-0-10 Sixers team. 

Two days later, the Suns came to Philadelphia, and before the game, Lange found Noel in the trainer’s room, silent and simmering. On the Suns’ first possession, Noel met Bledsoe at the rim and smacked him down to the floor, picking up a flagrant foul. The Sixers lost by 26, but the moment stuck with Lange.

"He always had that in him," Lange said. "And that’s what you’re seeing now every night." 

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.