[dbaumParticipant]

Do you believe Nerlens Noel is worthy of being selected first overall in this upcoming NBA Draft? Will he be the same type of player after recovering from a torn ACL? What are your thoughts?

[JordoParticipant]

Plenty of guys have come back from ACL tears. He’s 18. I’m confident he can get back to being where he was. If not better since he’ll be able to add a lot of muscle to his frame.

[DlesnieParticipant]

Him going first depends on the team. Charlotte, Phoenix, Cleveland, and Washington should take him first but Orlando, Sacramento, and Detroit should look in another direction. I think he will be just fine coming back after the ACL injury, he is young and he will get most of the next year to focus completely on rehabilitation. I think he’ll be a very good pro. I don’t see a single player in this draft being and star but he’ll be as good as anyone else coming out this year.

[SeattleSuperChronicsParticipant]

You couldn’t be more backwards about the teams that would and wouldn’t pick him. The bobcats shouldn’t touch this dude with a 10ft pole. He can only play d and has no offensive skills other than being athletic. The bobcats need scoring. I can’t see Orlando or the kings picking him because their teams d does not exist. Demarcus cousins and nerlens would a force.

[DlesnieParticipant]

False. The Bobcats need rebounding and defense just as much as they need offense so they need best player available. Nerlens Noel is the best player available. A team that only has 2 bigs with a PER above 10 need anyone who can fill up a hole in the paint. Gerald Henderson is perfectly capable of filling a temporary scoring role until they draft a scorer next year. The other three teams I listed that would take Nerlens Noel have nobody of worth or youth in the paint, and Washington and Cleveland have their guards of the future situation completely mapped out. Phoenix should take anyone because their whole roster is worthless, just less worthless as a whole than Charlotte’s.

Orlando has a bright future already, and the brightest of the group being Vucevic, their center. What they need more than anything else is a floor general to build around. Sacramento and Detroit have bigs but they both lack anyone worth anything aside from that.

The only team I have trouble deciding on is New Orleans, they need a center to put next to Anthony Davis, but those two players are too similar defensively for it to make much sense to me.

[SeattleSuperChronicsParticipant]

Gerald Henderson is far from perfectly capable.

[DlesnieParticipant]

He is a temporary bandage. If you had to say who was the best of the frequent starters Henderson, Biyombo, and Mullens it isn’t even close who is the best current player of the bunch. If you say otherwise you don’t really watch Charlotte Bobcats games. Henderson shouldn’t be starting, but we have much more pressing needs.

[fastdanParticipant]

If Charlotte takes Noel, that’s 3 of their last 4 lottery picks on taking guys with little to no offense. It’s not like Kemba Walker is Allen Iverson. This team will never progress if they just keep banking on getting their number one option in next year’s draft. They’ve been doing that for years.

[fcb206Participant]

I’m not a huge fan of Noel, but this draft doesn’t have a clear cut number one pick. My favorite prospect in this draft is Marcus Smart, but even he has flaws and work to do. The draft is always a gamble, and Noel has as much upside as anyone, the red flags for me are his makeup and physique. He definitely has the physical tools to develop a more sophisticated offensive game, but whether that happens hinges on his work ethic. definitely a game changer on the defensive end, and having a dominant interior rim protector is a huge key to success. Wing scorers are a lot easier to find, so for most teams I’d recommend Noel as the pick, with the exception of Detroit, they seem pretty set with Monroe and Drummond.

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