Nerlens Noel NBA Free Agency Reality Check
For every NBA player that hits his gold mine in free agency and gets paid far beyond their value. There is a another player that gets a reality check and finds out that he isn’t as highly valued as he was led to believe by his circle of agents, friends, family and other confidants. This off seasons reality check victim is Nerlens Noel. The 6’11” athletic forward has found his career at an early crossroads. As one of the founding components of the 76ers “The Process”. Noel drafted by the New Orlean Pelicans in 2014 and then traded to Philadelphia for Jrue Holiday. But injuries, bad timing, poor fit along with questionable management has seen The Nerlen Wall shipped to Dallas this past season in his 2nd trade in 4 years.
With his rookie deal expiring Noel entered the summer as a restricted free agent and anticipated fielding multiple max or near max offers for the Mavs to match and there for securing his financial future for the next 3-5 years. But the aforementioned circumstances have conspired against him along with the dual edged sword that is restricted free agency. There were no notable offers for the Dallas Mavericks to match. Not willing to bid against themselves the Mavs came in with an offer in the 17mil per year range. Not at all impressed with the offer and expecting something closer to 20 mil per. Noel canned his agent and joined Rich Paul of Klutch Sports and then signed the 1 year qualifying offer.
Rich Paul Negotiations are notorious for being extremely public and generally drawn out to extreme lengths. Also Noel’s injury history makes signing the qualifying offer of 4.1 mil something of a risk as well. Its true that at the end of the coming season he will become a full unrestricted free agent meaning that the Mavs will not have the right of first refusal in next summer’s negotiations. If Noel has a great season it could get expensive for the Mavericks to retain him. On the flip side if he is again hampered by injuries. His “potential” alone may not be enough to get him the kind of payday he is looking for. At the end of the day he feels that doubling down on himself paired with Rich Paul’s hardline negotiating tactics get him where he wants to be financially. Hopefully things will work out for the best for all parties involved.
