I haven’t watched a single second of the Mavs this season because fuck basketball, but this is too bizarre of a Dallas story to completely ignore…  During halftime of last Saturday’s game, Nerlens Noel barged into the media room and got himself a hot dog.  He said he needed energy for the second half, but he was actually in the midst of his 4th straight DNP (6 straight now).

While clearly some NBA passive aggressive drama queen shit, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Nerlens Noel here.  Five months ago, this dude was one of the more intriguing RFAs and had a guaranteed $70M offer on the table.  He rejected it, got negotiated down to a lowball $4.1M qualifying offer, and now has zero playing time.  Brutal stuff.

Maybe he’s a fraud and the rumblings about his work ethic are true.  If so, why the original $70M offer?  Maybe they knew he would turn that down and secretly hoped another team plucked him with a max.  Okay, I can see that, but now that it didn’t happen, why are we giving up completely on him?

We’re a last place rebuilding team.  The only purpose of the season is to get lottery balls and evaluate/develop talent.  Noel has always been hyped as one of the better defensive big man prospects in the game.  Some 31 year old named Salah Mejri is playing ahead of him, and that makes no sense at all.

Carlisle says he’s not earning any minutes.  Okay, culture and accountability are important I guess.  But why not at least give him garbage time minutes to prove his worth?  Why literally zero playing time?  The whole situation seems sketchy as hell.

Maybe he’s a prick to Dirk.  If so, then yeah I agree with the Mavs here fuck him.