Sixers’ Noel benefits from missing his ‘rookie’ season

Meanwhile, back in the real world …

Noel didn’t play last season, his regularly scheduled initiation to the pros, but he did travel with the Philadelphia 76ers to adjust to the road routine, attended practices and film sessions to get a running start for when he could play, and he spent hours with coach Brett Brown, the Philadelphia assistants and in an NBA weight program. They talked nutrition and opponents to emulate.

He is no rookie. Noel has ruled on that.

But Noel is technically a rookie because he didn’t play a game for the 76ers last season. He spent it recovering from a knee injury suffered in his one-and-done campaign at Kentucky, months before Philly got him with the sixth pick in the 2013 Draft as part of a trade with New Orleans. He is a candidate for Rookie of the Year, arguably the leading challenger to Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins for the top spot, and bound for All-Star weekend in New York for the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge on the basis of the first half of this season.

How much 2013-14 as a redshirt rookie is helping now is, of course, impossible to quantify. The Noel who left Kentucky was regarded by some front offices as a game-changer on defense, so maybe leading all rookies in blocks, steals and rebounds heading into Wednesday’s games would have happened anyway. Maybe he would have been 10th in the league in blocks, regardless of experience, as a true first-year player from the 2014 Draft.

There is this, though: The 19-year-old Noel in the 2013 Draft needed to get stronger, weighing 206 pounds. The 20-year-old Noel weighs 217 pounds as the calendar turned to 2015, he said, still more the bulk of a wing than a power forward-center but a move over time in the right direction. That’s the extra season before he took the court.

“It does in some ways,” Noel said when asked if a season off, even an injured season, helps now. “Just being able to see it first-hand and understand the NBA lifestyle of being on the road. Like I’ve said many times, there’s no better teacher than experience. That’s what I’m going through right now, realizing really what it takes to be a good player in this league. I’m definitely putting the work in. I just need to stay patient.”

Griffin at least got to play with the Clippers in the 2009 preseason, before being diagnosed in late-October with a broken left knee cap that would sideline him up to six weeks, until setbacks ultimately led to surgery in January 2010 that ended his regular season before it started. He returned for 2010-11, played all 82 games and became the easy choice for Rookie of the Year after a second training camp. Or Rookie of the Year*.

In Robinson’s case, he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1987, became the No. 1 pick and then spent the next two seasons fulfilling a military commitment. He joined the Spurs in 1989-90 as a 24-year-old and immediately averaged 24.3 ppg and 12 rpg as the first installment of a Hall of Fame career. Another easy win for Rookie of the Year in a first campaign when he would have been more mature physically than other newbies but had the disadvantage of mostly being away from basketball.

Now Noel has the benefit of being a rookie but not being a rookie.

“He made strides all over the place,” said Brown, the 76ers coach. “To be able personally to sit with him and talk about everything, from diet to recovery toTim Duncan to pre-game workout to a weight room to holding your follow-through — I really enjoyed personally my time with him one-on-one last year. I have a soft spot for him. I think down deep he’s got a good heart. He ticks deeper than people understand. All those things educationally, to be able to sit with him and show him and talk to him, incrementally he’s learned.

“It’s still coming along slow. Everybody wants to see it a heck of a lot quicker maybe at times than it has come out, but you can see with his ability to block a shot and his bounce to his game that the intellect side and the poise side of it, as that matures too, I think that there’s something special in there.”

What was that about Duncan, again, coach?

“Tim Duncan just in regards to a post player. His moves, the poise, how deliberate he is, how he sees the floor. Nerlens wants to play fast. All young guys want to play fast. I think that if they can slow it down a lot in their mind, clearer reads, cleaner decisions can be made. When I reference Timmy, I reference just the poise and the understanding. And he doesn’t mind playing slow. The game unfolds and the game tells you what’s available.”

Noel was able to start learning that part in 2013-14, his head start in the redshirt season. He also got bigger and stronger. He learned the routine of travel and the NBA calendar. In some ways, it helped him be better now, Noel has been the first to admit. He knows that much as a rookie.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him  and follow him on .

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