Nerlens Noel signs with Kings; 4 former 'Cats now in Sacramento

Go ahead and place an order for those Sacramento Kings jerseys, BBN. Kentucky’s favorite NBA team just added another former Wildcat.

On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that free agent center Nerlens Noel has agreed to a one-year contract with Sacramento worth $3.1 million. Noel, who played at Kentucky for one season in 2012-13 before going No. 6 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, will join a Kings roster that already features three one-time ‘Cats in De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Trey Lyles. All three were key pieces in the Kings making the 2023 NBA Playoffs, the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 2006, with Fox making his first-ever All-Star Game appearance along the way.

Noel played just 17 games in 2022-23 across two teams — 14 with the Detroit Pistons before getting waived and then picked up for three more games on a 10-day deal with the Brooklyn Nets. In total, he averaged 2.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game throughout the season.

Free agent C Nerlens Noel has agreed on a one-year, $3.1M deal with the Sacramento Kings, his agent @georgelangberg of GSL Sports Group tells ESPN. Noel gives the Kings a defensive presence in the frontline rotation.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 18, 2023

Only 29 years old, Noel’s professional career has been on the decline over the last couple of seasons. After sitting out the entirety of his rookie season due to an ACL injury he suffered during the middle of his one season at Kentucky, he became a fixture for the Philadelphia 76ers and the franchise’s “Process” model of tanking for better picks. In those two seasons, Noel averaged 10.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.7 blocks across 30.1 minutes per outing while shooting 49 percent from the field.

But ever since then, he’s struggled to find a steady home. The 6-foot-11 big man was traded to the Dallas Mavericks during the middle of the 2016-17 season and would later infamously turn down a multi-year, $70 million contract from the franchise on the advice of his then-agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, before signing the smaller qualifying offer of $4.1 million for the 2017-18 season in hopes of an even larger payday.

That move did not ultimately pay off for Noel, who has never signed a deal worth more than $10 million per season. He left Dallas for a two-year stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder (2018-20) and then signed a one-year deal with the New York Knicks in 2020. The Knicks would resign him the following offseason to a three-year, $32 million deal, but appeared in just 25 games in the first year of that deal before injuries sidelined him the rest of the season.

The Knicks would trade him in the offseason of 2022 to the Pistons, which bought out the remainder of his contract the following February and subsequently waived him. Now, Noel will have a chance to rebuild his career with the Kings, where he should expect to fight with 7-footer Alex Len for backup center minutes.

During his lone season at Kentucky, Noel was the one piece that held a mediocre squad together. UK was coming off a national championship the year prior, but could never repeat that magic the following season with a subpar roster and a lack of star power.

Noel tore his ACL in mid-February of 2013, but still wound up winning the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year and even made First-Team All-SEC. He averaged 10.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 2.1 steals, and 4.4 blocks in 31.9 minutes per game for the Wildcats on 59 percent shooting. Kentucky was 17-6 prior to his injury but finished the season 21-12 with a first-round NIT exit.