With the Brett Brown era officially beginning on Saturday when the Philadelphia 76ers open training camp at St. Joseph’s University, the front office had some in-house business they had to take care of first.
It was announced today by the team that first round picks Michael Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel were officially signed. The terms of the players’ contracts were not released by the team. This was pretty much the last pieces that needed to fall in place for the Sixers as Brett Brown is building his coaching staff.
This Sixers’ season will be an interesting one because Michael Carter-Williams is a rookie point guard that will be starting game one of the regular season versus the Miami Heat on October 30th. That will be a big test for the young point guard going against Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole. But expect Carter-Williams to be more of a scorer than Jrue Holiday as he showed in the Orlando Pro Summer League.
In the Orlando Pro Summer League, Carter-Williams averaged 14 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals. Those are the kind of numbers I can see him putting up in the regular season. In terms of the Summer League, he had one breakout game and that was the first game against the Houston Rockets. In that game, Carter-Williams scored 26 points, had eight assists and seven rebounds but what stood out was the nine turnovers. Veteran teams will feast on his turnovers and turn them into points.
But I expect Carter-Williams’ shooting to get better especially at the three point line. He shot 15 percent from the three point line and 27.1 percent from the field. Those numbers will have to get better and it will since it’s an 82 game season.
For Nerlens Noel, nobody is expecting him to be ready to start season and hopefully will be ready by Christmas. If you remember Noel is coming off of a torn ACL that he suffered at the University of Kentucky so the Sixers are being very careful with him. Whenever Noel plays, he will bring immediate impact to the defensive side of the ball. At Kentucky, Noel averaged 9.9 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per game. That aspect of his game will make the Sixers a way better defensive team in which they had trouble with when Doug Collins was the head coach.
His offensive game is a work in progress but at Kentucky he scored 10.5 points per game, so there is potential but it just needs to be polished. These two rookies have the right coach in Brett Brown; he is a teacher and developer. He worked with the likes of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in San Antonio, so I have all the faith in the world that he can make Michael Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel something special.