New York Knicks: 5 players who are trending up/down heading into 2022

New York Knicks players trending DOWN: Nerlens Noel

What a lost season it has been for Nerlens Noel so far.

Now there is reason to believe that Nerlens Noel’s invisibility on the court isn’t all in his control. Noel has been dealing with a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup at times.

Currently, Noel entered COVID health and safety protocols just 6 days ago.

Noel has also had a well-documented off-the-court lawsuit with NBA super-agent Rich Paul dating back to the beginning of the offseason, and you have to wonder if all of these external issues have piled up and affected his performance.

No one expects Noel to be a key player, but last season he had proved to be a valuable defensive presence who could step up in a limited role. He ended up playing significant minutes when Mitchell Robinson was injured.

Noel led the entire NBA in defensive box plus /minus last season, and his defensive metrics have fallen off of a cliff this year.

Without his defense, it’s really hard to see how effective Nerlens Noel is on the court. It feels as though backups Taj Gibson and Jericho Sims have had even more to offer than Noel this season.

We’ll see if the veteran big man can start to recapture some of the magic from last season because right now, he hasn’t proven anything to show that he deserves to be getting any kind of significant playing time.