Noel reportedly turned down a deal that averaged 17.5M. His head is either way too big or he's getting some really dumb advice.
From the Mavs? Jeez...that would be the overpay of the century.
The last couple offseasons it wouldn't have been considering contracts for Mozgov, Biyambo, Mahinmi. But this offseason is for the most part a whole different story (ignore Knicks Hardaway deal). There's no reason for the Mavs to cave in. They should just dare Noel to take the qualifying offer.
See, it still would've been an overpay, same as all those deals were at the time. Teams acted like kids in a sweet store with the cap spike, spending at will. It was widely said at the time that because there was no cap smoothing, some of these teams would get found out a few years later. They did, the Lakers basically crippled their cap, as did the Knicks and Magic.
The reason that Noel can't get anything this summer is because of contracts like Mozgov clogging other teams' cap space. So he's hard done by in that regard, but anything over $10-12m for Noel is an overpay based on the value of his skillset in the modern NBA.