Re-Signing Center Nerlens Noel Considered Top Priority For Mavericks In NBA Offseason

The Dallas Mavericks are coming off a disappointing season. Mark Cuban’s team failed to make the NBA playoffs and are seeing superstar Dirk Nowitzki’s career nearing its end. Although a new era is on the horizon, the team does have some talented young players to build around like Nerlens Noel.

According to longtime Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, re-signing Noel this summer will be a high priority for Dallas, via Dwain Price of Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

“Noel is going to be a guy that we’ve got to get signed,” Carlisle said. “He’s an exciting young talent and I do think he can expand his game, but we’ve got to be careful about doing too much too soon.

“So much of the success in this league is really geared toward a group of guys being tied together in the locker room and having a set of definable skills. We want there to be an element of positive predictability within the team so that everybody knows what everybody can do.”

Noel is a restricted free agent this summer meaning he can receive offers from other teams that the Mavericks will have to match in order to retain him. Apparently, Carlisle seems convinced the team needs to hold onto Noel potentially making it difficult to lure the Kentucky product away from Dallas.

The 23-year-old Noel played in only 22 games for the Mavericks after being acquired by the team in a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers for Andrew Bogut and Justin Anderson. Noel averaged 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 57.5 percent from the floor.