In the 2013 NBA Draft, the famous parallelist Anthony Bennett was selected by the Cavaliers, and then the results are known to everyone, and the Cavaliers have fainted in the toilet. There have been many people who have played well in this draft, such as the 15th pick alphabet brother, who has become a league superstar; McCollum, who is the 10th pick, has also become the core player of the Blazers; Oladipo with the 2nd pick, as well as Adams with the 12th pick and Gobert with the 27th pick. But in this year, not only was Anthony Bennett watered, but there was also a person who should have been a champion if not injured, but now became a role player, and he was Norens Noel.
Knoll is 2.08 meters tall, weighs 103 kilograms, has an arm span of 2 meters 23, and plays as a center or big forward. In college, he was full of honors, ranking first in the United States with an average of 4.4 blocks per game in his freshman year, leading the SEC League with 9.5 rebounds per game, winning the SEC League's Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, and being named to the 2013 SEC League Best Team First Team and Best Defensive Team.
He was a big hit until a meniscus tear found him. Knoll underwent surgery decisively after the injury, was reimbursed for the season, and then attended the draft. In the draft, he was supposed to be the favorite of the title, but due to the uncertainty of the knee injury, he slipped to the sixth pick, was selected by the Pelicans and sent to the 76ers. After waiting for a year, 14 years, Knoll finally played for the 76ers, and both 76 and Knoll himself hoped that his talent could be played, but in the NBA, the most important thing is talent.
Knoll hasn't played the expected performance in the 76ers' two years. In the third year, Embiid came, and Embiid's excellent performance was in stark contrast to Noel, and the patient 76ers also sent Noel to the Dallas Mavericks.
In Dallas, facing Noel, who averaged only 4.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, Cuban once saw his potential and offered him 70 million for 4 years, but Noel was full of confidence and wanted to test the free agent market, and eventually no other team was willing to take him in, signing with the Thunder for 2 years and 4 million, with a salary of $2.03 million this season, even less than his rookie contract.
Since then, Knoll has been reduced to a role player because he has not changed his shortcomings, coupled with injuries.
Although Noel has shortcomings, but he has a basketball shooting rate of 86% this season, and has also had a wonderful performance of 9 blocks in a single game, why does such an inside beast become a role player.
This article mainly analyzes Knoel's shortcomings from the two aspects of offense and defense, to explain why such a beast-type player will become a role player.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first major drawback: lack of offensive strength</h1>
Knoll currently has 6 seasons in his career, averaging 8.7 points per game, the highest season averaging 11.1 points per game, the lowest season averaging 4.4 points per game, Noel's offensive method is mainly to eat cakes or small hookers on the inside line and grab the board for secondary offense, he has almost no ability to attack autonomously. In the game, go down through the blocking cover and then catch the ball dunk, or catch the ball in the penalty area, or grab the ball that your teammate did not shoot to score. That's almost all of Knoel's offensive methods.
From the figure, we can clearly see that Knoll's proportion of shots under the basket is as high as 62%, and if you count the two points at close range, Knoll's proportion of shots at close range is as high as 79%, that is, Noel rarely shoots from medium to long distance. For the current league, popular small-ball play, as an inside player, you must have a certain outside shooting ability, like the current league's hot Towns and Embiid and Jokic, have a good long-range shooting ability, Towns is more like a fire, each game will even shoot 7.9 three-point shots.
Knoll (left) and Embiid (right) shooting hot zone comparison
The picture above is a comparison chart of the shooting hot zone between Noel and Embiid, I believe that even if it does not explain the left and right, everyone knows that the figure on the left side that is almost all concentrated on the inside line belongs to Noel.
In the small-ball era, Knoll did not follow the trend of the league and developed outside shooting, which is one of his offensive weaknesses.
Some friends may say that people like Capela and Jordan Jr. also have no ability to attack autonomously, but they also have the main position in the current league. Since the three of them are also internal players who have no independent offensive ability and strong defense, let's compare why Capela and Jordan Jr. are the main players of the team, while Noel has become a substitute. Here we first compare the offensive aspect, and the defensive aspect is discussed in the next disadvantage.
First of all, let's look at this table, which is Knoll's shooting percentage in various positions this season, because of the three-point shots he has shot a total of three times, hit one goal, we don't refer to it. It can be seen that in addition to the excellent shooting rate under the basket, the two-point shooting rate at close range is still qualified for an inside player, and in the two-point shooting rate at the middle and long distance, Knoll can be said to be miserable.
But let's compare the three people's shooting choices, although Noel has the highest 86% of the basket shooting rate, but the proportion of basket shots is the lowest of the three, accounting for only 61.8%, while Capela and Jordan Jr., although the basket shooting rate is not as high as Noel, but the 72% shooting rate is also very good, and the two people's basketball shooting ratio reached 76% and 83.6% respectively
Capela and Jordan Jr. know that they are not good at long-range, so they almost do not shoot on the outside, and 70% or even more than 80% of the shots are concentrated under the basket, which can ensure their efficiency.
And Knoll, he did not fully play his advantage under the basket, but also want to struggle to go to the outside shooting, if he can have a good shooting rate, of course, in line with the concept of the small ball era, but his mid- and long-range shooting rate is only 27.3% and 26.7%, not well practiced and hard to shoot, resulting in his attack is not as efficient as Capela and Jordan Jr.
In layman's terms, Noel did not have this diamond, but he also wanted to do some porcelain work, and the result was very embarrassing.
In the game we often see such a scene: Noel receives the ball in the middle distance, hesitates, and then shoots from the middle distance, accompanied by a crisp iron sound, the ball is not shot, wasting a chance.
He didn't have the ability to shoot from the outside, but he also didn't fully play to his advantage of shooting from the basket, which was Noel's second offensive weakness
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the second biggest drawback: insufficient strength</h1>
Knoll, who played center most of the time, weighed 103 kilograms, while Capela and Jordan Jr., who were close to him in height, weighed 109 kilograms and 120 kilograms respectively.
The most intuitive point brought about by the lack of weight is the lack of strength, Noel is too thin in the confrontation with other teams in the interior line, although he can rely on low weight mobility to block, but the tonnage is often at a loss in the card slot, so that the rebounding ability is weak.
Knoll averaged 6.2 rebounds per game in his career, a single-season high of 8.1 rebounds per game and a minimum of 4.2 rebounds, but considering that Noel may not play as long as his two predecessors, let's compare rebounding rates fairly.
Rebounding rate is rebounding efficiency, or rebound percentage. Records the ratio of the rebounds a player grabs while on the floor to the team's total rebounds. With this value, a player's rebounding ability can be clearly reflected.
As can be seen on the chart, Noel is far lower than the two predecessors in terms of total rebounding rate, offensive rebounding rate and defensive rebounding rate. Knoll's defensive rebounding rate is just 20 percent, 10 percent lower than Capela and as much as 14 percent lower than Jordan Jr.
Due to Knoll's lack of strength, resulting in poor confrontation, the rebounds in the backcourt are not well protected, which also means that the opponent has a greater probability of grabbing the rebound in the frontcourt. You should know that once the opponent grabs the rebound in the front court, it is equivalent to giving the opponent one more opportunity to attack.
Lack of strength, leading to weak confrontation and rebounding ability, is knor's shortcoming in defense
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Some friends may wonder why he still has the ball to play in the case of such a big shortcoming, and the team is willing to sign him.
The reason is his defensive ability: Noel has a defensive efficiency of 102 this season, ranking fifth in the league, stronger than Capela's 105 and Jordan Jr.'s 104 (the lower the defensive efficiency value, the better the defense)
And Knoll has a block rate of 6.9% this season, not only far ahead of Capela and Jordan Jr., who are known for their defense, but also ranks eighth in the league and is one of the league's top two blockers.
Noel is tall and long-armed, has excellent athleticism, and has a large defensive coverage, which can effectively influence the opponent's shooting or even block the opponent in the game. Although he has shortcomings, but because of such excellent blocking ability, he will not fall to the point of no ball.
However, because the offensive end did not fully play its own basketball advantage, the mid-range shooting was too bad, and the defensive end was insufficient and the rebounding ability was weak. So this led to Noel's transformation from a big hit to a role player.
Of course, Noel still has hope, if he can correct the two major shortcomings above, coupled with his top two blocking ability, he will definitely become a star player.