Nerlens Noel will be available against the Thunder

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle announced yesterday that Nerlens Noel will be available tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Per Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News:

Noel hasn’t played in a game since November 22. After two weeks of DNP-CDs, a much-discussed hot dog, and some press conferences that doubled as performance art, the team announced that he would have surgery on his thumb and offered no timetable for his return. If you need a refresher on all of the Mavericks-Noel weirdness that has transpired since the offseason, we’ve got you covered here.

Before being benched for, depending on who you asked, either poor effort in practice or tanking, Noel was having a fairly productive season. He was playing just 12.5 minutes per game after 18 games, but was averaging 11.5 points on 52.8 percent shooting, along with 11.7 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and (unfortunately) five fouls per 36 minutes.

Given the speculation around Noel’s future with the team, it’ll be interesting to see whether he makes it onto the court tonight.