Injury History
The first memory NBA fans have of Nerleans is the knee injury that had befallen him in college at Kentucky. The injury not only caused him to slide in the NBA draft – even past the Suns who selected Alex Len over Noel fifth overall – but forced him to sit out his entire would-be rookie season in Philadelphia.
The injury was a torn ACL, something that while it can be repaired and fully recovered from, it is often an injury that over time can re-occure due to the weakened structure, and thus could, at some point, tear again. A second torn ACL could not only potentially end a season, but possibly a career, something that must be taken into account for any team thinking of giving him a large contract.
The Phoenix Suns are well known to have the best medical staff in the NBA and would be the ideal location for a player with an injury history to come and prolong their career. However, an ACL isn’t like a nagging injury that has only slowed down older players. So while recent players like Shaquille O’Neal, Grant Hill, and even Steve Nash were able to prolong their careers and play very effectively in Phoenix, if Nerleans were to simply turn the wrong way on the court while coming down with a rebound, *pop*.
And there is nothing that the training staff could do to prevent that.
But even if the Suns and their training staff were to evaluate Noel’s knee and deem it structurally okay, his cost alone may be more than the franchise could bare.