NBA
Nerlens Noel Signs A Deal With The Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder have got themselves a quality backup center in Nerlens Noel. They no longer will need Jerami Grant or Patrick Patterson to play as the backup five. Noel is a good defensive player who will fit in well with the Thunder.
This is a two year deal with a player option for the second season. It is a minimum deal which does not count towards the MLE which keeps them with that to use on another free agent this offseason.
Free agent Nerlens Noel has agreed to a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 2, 2018
Why Does This Deal Make Sense?
This deal makes sense for a lot of reasons. From Nerlens perspective, it keeps him with the flexibility to possibly try and get a bigger contract next offseason. While this also gives him a chance to prove himself on a good basketball team that is looking to contend for a title.
The Thunder being able to get a quality player like Noel for the minimum is huge for this team trying to build a more competitive team for this season. They still have the MLE to use on a different player for this upcoming season.
They have the core of this team locked up for the next couple years so they need to just start building a squad around those guys. Guys like Nerlens Noel will fit in great with the likes of Russ and George. He won’t play alongside Adams very much but he will provide the same impact that Adams does for the second unit.
OKC has some other moves that they need to make in order to be a contender but they’ve had a great offseason so far. If they can continue to fill out the squad with players like Noel they will be a very good basketball team.
Credit: Chris Kern
