Exactly. The only reason we're hearing anything about Okafor is the possibility of him being traded cheap. Philly really wants to trade Okafor for a guy like Jamal Murray or Deangelo Russell. I don't think they're going to find anything like that available right now. But they've got time on their side with Okafor. He's just entering his second session. So they could play his trade value up this coming session. I can't see them folding on last year's #3 pick and trading him away for bench vets. Not at this time anyways. A future lottery pick so they can basically reset from drafting him? Yes. Yes. But Bev and a future first might be enough for Noel. Might. Or it could set off a bidding war for him. Because multiple teams want Noel including us, Boston and Chicago. Take out Okafor and insert Noel. Noel is the ideal big man fit for what we want to do here. Not Okafor. D'antoni is not going to slow it down and run post ups for fancy footwork bigs. We can dream about it and cross our fingers about getting a young stud to develop. And with a different coach at a different time it could be possible. Okafor may be the best post up big to come into the league since Hakeem. He's got more post up game than Shaq had. But we're not in that era and we don't have that type of coach. The ONLY reason we would acquire Okafor would be to acquire him as an asset to trade for somebody else we really want. In this era with this coach we want a long center who can fly up and down the court, can lock down the defensive paint, and will run pick and roll without looking to post up, and has the potential to step out and shoot a jumper when necessary. We are looking for that big that can either finish on the roll or can pop outside and give Harden maximum space to work with. None of that fits Okafor. None. Codman, no disrespect to you, I know you're hearing talk of Okafor. And I appreciate all info you bring us. But we have to understand who we are right now. And interpret rumors appropriately. For Okafor to be our target center of the now and future would have to follow MDA undergoing a lobotomy. Nerlens Noel is our target. Okafor is simply misdirection or an attempt to acquire him cheap to flip him somewhere else for something we want more. We may not be able to acquire Noel. But thats who MDA wants.
I have to think Colangelo would take Beverley for sure, not as sure about KJ since they have Stauskas and they're going after Waiters and Crabbe...anyway, i think we should try to get a decent/good pick with Trevor, Brewer, fillers and trade that to the Sixers along with Pat, asking Covington too if possible, i don't think he'll get much playing time there anyway with Simmons, Saric and Grant... Minnie gets: Ariza, Brewer, KJ from Houston Phila gets: 1st from Minnie, Beverley, 2nd rounder from Houston Houston gets: Rubio, Pekovic, Okafor/Noel, Covington At this point i think this wouldn't be bad for us but, is this doable? Can we trust Covington to be our starting 3?
The story I heard was that Okafor was the odd man out up in Philly. I've secretly wanted Morey to make a play for him but we don't have much to offer Philly so our getting him is somewhat unrealistic. I think he'd be perfect in MDA's offense at the 5 spot.
I don't know, probably this has no legs, but it looks like Thibs wants veterans there, and Ariza fits that situation like a glove, they want Rubio and Pekovic out, Rubio has more value than Trevor obviously, but if you give them another rotation player, one/two fillers and you take back Pekovic may be enough (imo it should), also Rubio has basically no market today, only the Kings can still trade for him if they want him. On the Sixers side again, i think a decent pick from Minnie and a good and cheap fit for them like Beverley can be a decent package for one of their three centers, add a couple of sweeteners and maybe they can also throw in Covington since he's basically their third/fourth sf... Again, i dont' know if/how this makes sense, but to me it doesn't seem that bad for them too.
dont see why they would. the only position he can play is C and they have chosen who they want to be that guy. might as well try to get something out of him instead of rotting on the bench
But why does he have to rot on the bench, he can play. Plus Embiid has shown to be injury prone, might as well keep him and let him grow with that young nucleus
yeah we see that as far as him being injury prone but philly sees it differently. they're fully committed to him or atleast are shown to be. at the same time okafor hasn't exactly been healthy himself play when? okafor has shown not to be happy off the bench in limited minutes. its gotten that bad in philly I believe bc it seems they even like holmes more than okafor now.
True he was a bit of a malcontent at times list season but I think the incessant trade rumors had a bit to do with that. But when both healthy Okafor and Embiid spell each other quite nicely with Embiid being the far superior athlete but Okafor has more refined skills, seems like they'd be great to watch in practice. I hope he lands in a good situation, hasn't had a fair shake there at all, wish we had room for him here cause he can shoot the three and has some of the smoothest post moves I've seen in a while. I wonder what a year with LeBron would do to his game
tough to get a read on Okafor. yea he has some post skills, something that the league is obviously lacking but is he good enough to where he can contribute on a nightly basis with that and still hold the C position down for a team for W's. Also what part of the pecking order is he on a winning team
On a good team he's the tenth option but the sixers aren't a good team, not yet anyway. On the sixers he should be sixth/seventh in the rotation. But **** b**** boy and the warriors just won a ship with Javale McGee, anything is possible
Okafor is a prehistoric post-up big who has very little value...he is atrocious defensively I wonder what Philly could get for him.
I think Okafor has a good chance to end up being some sort of sixth man like other old school bigs like Monroe, Kanter, Z.Bo...Philly btw just signed Amir, and they already played Holmes at center last season, i don't expect that to change at this point since the 4 spot is going to be fully filled by Saric, Simmons and maybe Covington so, they're are also probably looking to trade him cause they just don't want to pay him when he'll expire, the fact that he has still a couple of years in rookie scale may be interesting enough for some bad/desperate team like the Bulls or Sacramento to bite, even though i'm not sure at this point...
It's not that he can't learn to play defense, I think it's just the first part alone. He's a dinosaur player who would have been great in another era. A bigger less polished Emeka Okafor who you could certainly teach to play defense, but what's the point when he's relatively unathletic with not much jumping ability and has based his offensive game on the post-up? These days teams just want a brainless mute in the middle with wingspans approximating 10ft who will roll to the damn basket and let the boys who can score three points call the shots.
Jahlil to the New York Knicks (they get a young player that's developing) Melo to the Rockets (obviously wanted) Anderson to the Sixers (they get a shooter to give Embiid more space) The expirings have to go to the Knicks to make it work, I believe. It worked on trade machine. Either way, I think the Sixers need more shooting. They certainly go some in the offseason, but they could still use another shooter. I think another shooter gets them in the playoffs.
Sixers could use some more shooting, but they won't take Anderson...they're planning to preserve their cap space for next offseason...they were only willing to give out 1 year deals this offseason for that very reason that space will be very valuable for them next summer since not many teams will have cap space
