http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/12/02/nerlens-noel-on-prior-criticism-of-76ers-i-dont-think-the-rosters-changed/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Sounds like Noel still wants out as much as he did in training camp, and the rotation is even murkier now with the addition of Ilyasova and Embiid and Okafor approaching full-time minutes.
Obviously he wants out. Unfortunately if Philly doesn't get an offer they find acceptable, there's no incentive to trade him. Noel can help the team in a limited role. It sounds like Noel understands that and is willing to do what he can to be the best Nerlens Noel he can be under the circumstances.
“I put myself in a different place with all these things,” Noel said. “Do what you can control. That’s what I give power to, is what I can really control. I think right now I’m in a good place mentally, I think my body feels great and I just want to get back to playing basketball and let things take care of themselves.
I'm interested to see what he looks like next to Embiid.
Also, sounds like the plan is for Ben Simmons to play point guard when he gets back. Not point forward... point guard:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/sixers/Sixers-view-Simmons-as-their-point-guard-when-ready-to-play.html
"When he’s ready to go to the court, my intention is to give him the ball and let him be the point guard,” Brown said. “That’s the plan."
...
“Everyone gets all twisted on what their version of a point guard is," Brown told NBA.com at the time. "When I say 'point guard' I mean point guard. You've got the ball. You could call him Isiah Thomas, the old Isiah Thomas of my generation. You could call him Chris Paul. I mean point guard point guard. Not Draymond Green. Not LeBron [James]. Not Lamar Odom. That's a point forward."
With Ben Simmons as their phenom point guard and Embiid as their phenom big, I imagine if they do move one of Okafor or Noel they'll be looking for shooters who can play off ball.
Yeah, you can repeat it all you want, but Simmons will never, ever play or be a point guard. It's a point forward, no matter what BS your Sixers fan boys tell you.
That's just not how it works. You are defined a position by who you guard. He can barely guard guys his size, and he still regularly was burned by them. How the hell would he guard literally any PG in the league??
He'll handle the ball a lot, just like Lebron. But that doesn't make him a "point guard."
You are not defined a position by who you guard. When Bradley started being the primary defender, he generally guarded PGs while Rondo guarded SGs or even SFs. That did not make Bradley the team's point guard. The point guard is the primary ball handler who runs a team's offense. Offensively Simmons will be playing at the top of the key, where PGs reside, to maximize his excellent court vision and passing.
As for Simmons defending PGs, apparently that's what Brown is looking at. My guess is that it will be situational. He will have a big advantage having Embiid in the paint.
Brett Brown said Wednesday that he plans to give Ben Simmons the ball as the point guard once the 76ers' point guard is ready to play. Brown went another step Thursday, when he added that he'll have the 6-foot-10 Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick in June's draft, defend point guards, too. "I think he can," Brown said after Thursday's practice.
That is absolutely how positions are defined for the larger groups of guards, forwards, and centers. Of course, there are special situations where certain special matchups dictate otherwise, and it's not something that is meant to specify between point/shooting guards, small/power forwards, etc. However, generally if you're guarding a guard, you're a guard and so on and so forth.
He's a point forward - simple as that, just like Lebron, Griffin, etc. He's not going to be a fixture at the one spot, plain and simple.
And what Brown is saying is total hyperbole and, as you said, almost certainly situational, just like Lebron and other point forwards. If he's truly going to play him at the "point guard" position, then that means he'd put out some sort of starting lineup of Simmons, Bayless, Covington, Saric, and Embiid, and Simmons would be guarding guards full-time, such as IT/Bradley, Lowry/Derozan, Rondo/Wade, Kemba/Batum, Rose/Lee, Jackson/KCP, etc., etc.
Does that really sound like a sound strategy? No, because it's not. Simmons can barely guard other bigs, not even well at that, so how in the world would he chase around guards full time?