By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
We are eight days away from the first Philadelphia 76ers preseason game for the 2016-17 season and the team is headed to training camp this week at Stockton College with three centers. This summer, we've heard from Jahlil Okafor and even Joel Embiid about the upcoming season, but nothing from Nerlens Noel until Sunday night, when the third-year center spoke to Keith Pompey of Philly.com.
While Noel loves the city of Philadelphia and his teammates, he is not a fan of the Sixers holding on to three starting centers and would like a better view of what his future holds, whether it be in Philly or elsewhere.
"I think it's just silly . . . this situation that we are in now with three starting centers," Noel said on the eve of the Sixers' media day. "With the departure of [former general manager and president] Sam Hinkie, I would have figured that management would be able to get something done this summer."
The Sixers declined to comment on the matter.
"I think something needs to happen," Noel said.
So is he demanding to be traded?
Noel will most likely become a reserve center to Joel Embiid, who the Sixers think will be a force in this league if he stays healthy. Noel said that he's not asking to be traded or demanding that the Sixers trade someone else. He just wants them to hurry up and do the inevitable.
"I feel like it definitely needs to be figured out," he said. "I think at the end of the day, again, you have three starting-caliber centers. And it's just not going to work to anybody's advantage having that on the same team. That's how I'm looking at it. I'm not opposed to anything, but things need to be situated."
Noel, 22, was acquired by the Sixers in a 2013 draft night trade with the Pelicans that sent Jrue Holiday to the Pelicans. After sitting out his first year with an injury, Noel showed the city of Philadelphia his defensive ability and how he fit in the fast break pace that they wanted to run. Although his offensive game still needs work, there's no doubting his skills on the defensive end. Currently, only Hollis Thompson and Noel remain from the 2013-14 season. The former Kentucky Wildcat said that if he remains here, the center logjam won't affect his performance.
"I'm here to do my job and play as hard as I can play for the city of Philadelphia," Noel said. "I've always loved the fans from the jump. It's probably one of the realest cities in the country with just genuine passion and love for the sport."
"We've gone from zero and we are not at 100," Noel said. "We went from zero and things are still building here. . . . I think I sacrificed a lot. And at this point, there's really not too much that I'm capable of sacrificing."
Noel is in the final year of his four-year rookie deal and the Sixers have until October 31 to extend his contract or he'll become a restricted free agent after the season. That means that Philadelphia would have the opportunity to match any offer that Noel would receive in free agency. Over the summer, there had been plenty of stories revolving around trades of Noel and Okafor, but none of them came to fruition and Bryan Colangelo denied aggressively shopping either of the two.
"The notion that we were out shopping any of them or aggressively pushing to make a deal was not the case, but we certainly listened because people thought we were in a corner. We've never felt like we're in that corner…we feel that we have three talented players that we're going to let work itself out and they're going to compete for time, we're going to see who's healthy and play those people.
Last season, the Sixers experimented with Noel at power forward, but it wasn't successful. Okafor also played the four, but both players were much more effective at the center position. Now, with three centers in addition to Ben Simmons and Dario Saric, who could play a lot of power forward, even more time will be split.
The Sixers are holding media day on Monday, so we could hear more on the situation from Noel and other players on the team. Whether this situation is resolved during the season or afterwards, one thing is for sure, Nerlens Noel wants playing time to show other teams what he's capable of. Looks like he'll have to compete for that right.
