Sixers GM: ‘We’re trying to determine if [Nerlens Noel] is a fit for this roster’

The Sixers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo talked to media Monday afternoon and addressed questions about the future of the franchise, of the upcoming trade deadline and the NerlensNoel controversy.

Via Bucks Country Courier’s Tom Moore, the de facto GM said on Nerlens Noel’s assignment to the bench, that “we’re trying to determine if [Noel] is a fit for this roster.”

“This is not a benching,” Colangelo said of Noel, who recently returned to the active roster after offseason surgery.”It’s a realization we have a lot of talent on this team.”

Colangelo stepped back head coach Brett Brown’s statement that Noel wouldn’t be in the Sixers center rotation (along with Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor and Rashaun Holmes), saying that the “logjam” at center is to blame and that the coach did not mean that Noel would not play.

Noel was not given a contract extension and will become a restricted free agent at season’s end — if he is still in Philadelphia.

Is Noel the leading candidate to be traded before the February deadline?

“I know there’s considerable interest [from other teams], but there’s also trepidation due to the lack of a body of work,” Colangelo told Moore.

Colangelo went on to say that he would be willing both to wait out the entire season without making a single trade — or to take on salary (the Sixers have considerable room under the cap) if a trade makes sense for Philly.

The Sixers suit up next on Tuesday when they host Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans.