While free agency proved pretty slow for the New York Knicks, the franchise has garnered a solid rotational player in Nerlens Noel.
Noel, who had played for the Oklahoma City Thunder for the past two seasons, was a key contributor coming off the bench, supporting Steven Adams. In the 61 games Noel played last season, he averaged 7.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, with a playing time of 18.5 minutes per game.
This signing is also interesting because Noel, who is 26, played at the University of Kentucky in his freshman year, which is where current Knicks assistant manager Kenny Payne was an assistant to John Calipari. Payne was heavily credited for the development of all Kentucky players, especially the big men.
With Noel now here, this can only mean Mitchell Robinson will finally be placed as the starting center.
The new regime appears to be very confident with Robinson as a building block, along with RJ Barrett and new draftee Obi Toppin.
Robinson went off the bench for most of his first two seasons. In the 127 games he played, he only started 26. While some will say that getting off the bench was good for Robinson, as he had a bad habit of committing too many fouls and has raw talent, others feel Robinson’s potential was too much. high to come off the bench, especially last season.
But with two years of NBA experience under his belt, Robinson should now be more comfortable and polished as an NBA starter. And since Tom Thibodeau is now here as manager, it will be very interesting to see Robinson’s impact on the defensive side.