76ers playing Noel at PF to prepare for potential Embiid pairing

He's spent most of his rookie season playing David Robinson, now it's time to see if Nerlens Noel has a little Tim Duncan to his game.

Those are unfair and ridiculous comparisons to place upon a rookie, but the Philadelphia 76ers are hoping their young pair of bigs can be analogous to the successful San Antonio Spurs frontcourt duo from nearly two decades ago. While Joel Embiid almost surely won't play this season, the Sixers have begun playing Noel more minutes at power forward in anticipation.

"For the next nine games I want to try playing him off of five men," Sixers head coach Brett Brown said Sunday. "I am trying to look at him when it ultimately is going to be he and Joel."

Noel and Embiid seemed somewhat of an unlikely pair when the Sixers drafted Embiid in June with a best-value-available approach. That's hard to fault, and Noel's freshman campaign has been at least a little encouraging that the two may eventually be able to play side-by-side, at least on defense.

The biggest adjustment for Noel at the four will be chasing perimeter-oriented power forwards around, something that's a poor use of his developing rim-protecting skills in the short-term but a necessary trial in the long run. Offensively, Philly isn't particularly adept at spacing the floor or scoring, and so it's unlikely to hurt much.

It's difficult to draw a line between power forward and center, but Basketball Reference estimates that Noel's played just six percent of his minutes at the four so far. It will be interesting to see how Noel responds and whether he can continue his season-long improvements, gains that have him in the Rookie of the Year discussion.

The 20-year-old is averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.9 blocks and stands to be the only player other than – you guessed it – Robinson to average 9-8-1.5-1.5-1.5 as a rookie.