Atlantic Notes: Noel, Embiid, Celtics, Biyombo

Sixers coach Brett Brown met with Nerlens Noel today in the wake of his comments about the team’s logjam in the frontcourt, writes Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly. Now that Noel, Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor are healthy, Brown faces a challenge in finding enough playing time to satisfy all three. Noel lashed out after seeing just eight minutes of action in Friday’s game with the Lakers. The coach said Noel displayed “tremendous maturity” and “a lot of class” in today’s discussion. “He’s highly competitive, he’s in a very unusual situation,” Brown said. “The fact that it came out as soon as it did caught me off guard. We’ve discussed it and I’ll be surprised if everybody’s not seeing how we all need to handle this better going forward.”

There’s more news from the Atlantic Division:

• Embiid is angry about the Sixers‘ blowout loss in an ESPN game Friday and talked about the need to “change the culture” in Philadelphia, Camerato relays in a separate story. “The last national televised game we had, it was the same thing,” Embiid said. “I don’t know if it was the pressure of that or if it’s just, I don’t really know, but that’s the second game in a row we weren’t focused, especially on the bigger stage.”
• Noel, not DeMarcus Cousins, is the big man the Celtics ought to pursue in trade, argues A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE. Noel would be the rim protector that Boston needs, Blakely states, and an unidentified assistant GM told him that Noel’s complaints are understandable given the abundance of young big men in Philadelphia. Cousins, on the other hand, has a short temper and a history of trouble and wouldn’t be a good fit with the current Celtics roster, according to the writer.
• Magic center Bismack Biyombo has great memories of the single season he spent with the Raptors, relays Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Biyombo helped Toronto advance to the Eastern Conference finals last season before a signing a four-year $72MM deal with Orlando in July. The 6’9″ center, who will face his former team for the first time Sunday night, said he was exchanging messages with Kyle Lowry DeMar DeRozan and other teammates all the way up to the start of free agency. “The expectation that everybody [had] was that I was going back there,” Biyombo said. “I had conversations with teammates before free agency was open. An hour before free agency was open I was still talking to all my teammates. Ten minutes before free agency opened they were still talking to me. So the expectations was high. But in the end, it was tough.”