Atlanta Hawks: 8 Free Agents in Playoffs Hawks Could Sign in Offseason
By Chris Guest
Nerlens Noel
The Oklahoma City Thunder are locked in a tight battle with the Portland Trail Blazers in the 3-6 matchup in the Western Conference, and its stable of stars, led by Russell Westbrook and Paul George will be looking to erase an early one-game deficit against the third-seeded Blazers.
Though Enes Kanter played for the Thunder for years and OKC head coach Billy Donovan famously claimed that Kanter “couldn’t be played,” in the playoffs, Kanter had a strong game for Portland in the first game of this series.
Another player that had a strong for the Thunder was erstwhile Process-era Philadelphia 76er Nerlens Noel.
We have previously expressed the idea that Nerlens would make for a terrific fit on the Atlanta Hawks as a rim-enforcing big man that could help smooth over the eminently rough edges of this young Hawks team on the defensive end.
Noel, who played 99 percent of his minutes at the five this year, ranks second among both power forwards and centers in ESPN’s defensive real plus/minus at 3.79. He trails only Ed Davis at the four and Rudy Gobert at the five.
This season, Noel became only the second player in NBA history to produce a block rate above 7.5 percent, a steal rate above 2.5 percent and a true shooting percentage over 60 percent. The other was Luca Nogueira last season with the Raptors last season, but Noel played 600 minutes more than the ground-bound Bebe.
After just turning 25, Noel would make for a terrific fit on the Atlanta Hawks as a rim-protector and rim-runner at the five – with far more athleticism than pending free agent Dewayne Dedmon and the incumbent Alex Len.