Ironically, Sam Hinkie’s 'Process', and all of the compulsory ugliness and philosophical disputes it carried with it, might have been Nerlens Noel’s fault.

Philadelphia wasn’t all that bad during the 12-13 season; the season before they drafted Noel, the season before Hinkie took over as general manager. The 76ers finished with a record of 34-48 that year. They had a young stud in Jrue Holiday, a still-serviceable Evan Turner, and a quickly developing core contributor in Thad Young. They were by no means good, but they also didn’t seem a breath away from historically bad.

Hinkie’s first move was to trade Holiday to New Orleans for the right to draft Noel. It was a defensible move in the moment. Noel had come off a Kentucky season in which he might have blocked a shot of every amateur athlete in the country. He averaged 4.4 blocks per game in one year as a Wildcat and blocked 12 shots in a game against Ole Miss.

But Noel was coming off of a torn ACL and ended up missing the entire 13-14 season. With fellow rookie Michael Carter-Williams turning out to be not much more than an inefficient stat-stuffer, the Sixers season turned into a disastrous 19-63. Hinkie proceeded to leverage the patience he was granted as a result of Noel’s injury into what we came to know as The Process.

Now Hinkie’s gone, and the fruits of experiment are ready to debut. The results of those losing seasons are a crop of promising young players drafted to replace Noel, who has never been given a real platform or environment to be utilized.

Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Dario Saric all have ceilings maximized by the fact that we’ve never been able to see them play an NBA game. It will be difficult to get them all on the floor at the same time, let alone find minutes for Noel and Jahlil Okafor.

Noel’s status is basically unproven trade bait on a team with an imbalanced roster. Lost in all of this, though, is that all of the tantalizing traits that Noel showcased in the first three months of 2013 are still there. They haven’t been debunked. And at 22 years old, the proper context to perceive the current iteration of Nerlens Noel is as a four-year college player with extreme NBA-readiness.

Noel’s timing on blocked shots is still an inherent talent that exceeds almost everyone in the NBA. His 1.7 blocks per game could increase dramatically with some semblance of average defenders around him, and he gets steals that could spark opportunities for good transition teams. He’s put on 20 pounds since entering the league and can still live out a Ben Wallace-lite career on a team that needs what he offers. Actually all teams need what he has to some degree. Noel can be a game changer on defense and a key component on offense as a rolling big man and transition finisher.

When Ish Smith, a penetrating point guard, joined the Sixers around Christmas last season it was an offensive spark for Noel. For a month long stretch the duo had the highest and most prolific alley-oop conversion rate in the NBA. Smith is certainly a speedster (and to his credit, he ranks pretty high on a list of Sixers that suited up during the Hinkie tenure), but if Noel can become a greater offensive threat playing with Ish Smith imagine how many guards he could thrive alongside.

A penetrating guard with a deadly three-point shot like Dame Lillard would love to have someone like Noel to play with. The young wings in Phoenix would too, and the Suns need the defensive protection as well. We’re likely about to see a breakout season for Clint Capella in Houston, and you can be sure that Noel would thrive playing a two-man game and setting picks for James Harden.  

Noel would be the best defensive player on the Sixers if given the opportunity to play alongside any of their first-year big men. And he’d fit alongside any one of them because his roles include providing defensive protection for his teammates and capitalizing off of their playmaking.

That versatility is why so many teams could benefit from the Sixers’ likely eagerness to trade him. He can play alongside another big as long as that big has shooting range out to at least 12 feet. Or he can be the lone big man in a small ball unit that needs to be able to close out on three point shooters.

Brett Brown and Noel were like co-prisoners keeping each other sane during The Process. Brown’s a smart basketball coach and was surely mentoring and preparing Noel for a time when his games would actually matter, even if he’s in a different uniform when that time comes. Noel will be approaching restricted free agency next season, so if he does move teams he’ll have every incentive to quickly prove that he has plenty of value to provide.