Brown: Noel, Embiid To Play Together More
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Nerlens Noel is getting more minutes and the Sixers are winning more games.
And over the last two games, one win and one loss, fellow big man Jahlil Okafor has not seen any action.
Amid continuous Noel trade rumors, head coach Brett Brown says he wants to see more of Noel with rookie of the year favorite and potential all-star center Joel "The Process" Embiid.
"We have three five men, trying to cram three into 48 minutes is close to cruel," Brown told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "I think everybody hurts if you just piecemeal little windows of time. We've experimented trying to play some bigs together. I want to continue to try to look at Nerlens and Joel more than we have. With Jahlil, you just remind him to stay ready and stay conditioned. And I feel like the human side of it almost trumps the playing side of it, when I talk to Jahlil. His heart is in the right place, he's a wonderful teammate -- I mean look at what he's been doing on the bench since he has not been playing, he's been great."
Listen: Brett Brown on the 94WIP Morning Show
The Sixers are 3-2 in their last five games. Over that span, Noel has recorded seven steals and four blocks, averaging about 20 minutes per game. Philly has the top defensive rating in the east since December 1st, 10 days before Noel made his season debut after returning from a knee injury.
Cataldi asked if it's fair to say that the combo of Noel and Embiid works better than the combo of Okafor and Embiid.
"On first glance I think that's true, Angelo," Brown admitted. "I feel like the body of work to truly judge it is marginal right now. I think that we have seen quite a bit of Joel and Jahlil, we have not seen enough of Nerlens and Joel together. We will."
Related: Nerlens Noel On Standing Ovation From Fans: 'I Got The Chills'
Embiid, on the other hand, continues his dominant season on the court -- averaging 19.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game -- while lighting up the headlines off-the-court -- with playoff comments and celebrity Instagram battles.
"He is [better than I expected]," Brown said. "I think the thing that has caught me most off guard is the spirit in sort of which he does thing on the court. He's always been a big personality and there is a swagger that I think he brings to the city of Philadelphia and on the court, there's a toughness that he shows on the court. Seven-foot-two, flying into the crowd to try to save a loose ball when sometimes the games are almost too far gone.
"Or in heat of the moment plays. We see him trail in, make a three-point shot at seven-foot-two. You see him sort of over power somebody and has like a Shaquille O'Neal type dunk. You see him be almost an eighty-percent free-throw shooter. So like the package has caught me off guard in totality, especially given the fact that he really hasn't played much basketball and he certainly hasn't played much NBA basketball."
The Process, both figuratively and literally, is finally starting to pay off.
"I think in Joel Embiid, you're seeing something that reflects some of the reasons why we went through the pain that we did. But long way to go Angelo, so far so good though."
