https://theathletic.com/36873/2017/02/0 ... franchise/
Bulls interested in Jahlil Okafor? Why a trade makes no sense for beleaguered franchise
by Stephen Noh, Fri, February 3rd
Veteran teams that are experiencing disappointing seasons usually find themselves in the middle of trade rumors.
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It’s been known for a while that the Sixers have been looking to move one of their frontcourt players. They have a logjam at the position with the development of franchise superstar center Joel Embiid. Fellow centers Nerlens Noel, Richaun Holmes, and Okafor have all been starved for minutes at various points throughout the season, and it’s devolving into an untenable situation for the team.
Okafor has scoring talent — He averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds in his rookie campaign last year. He’s down to 11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds this season, but he’s also playing seven less minutes per game. The question about his game is whether he can play defense even close to an NBA level.
The NBA is trending away from players like Okafor, and his future role might look something like how the Oklahoma City Thunder use center Enes Kanter — as a scoring specialist off the bench where his bad defense won’t kill you and his offense will be maximized against weaker competition.
Okafor can’t spread the floor at all, and that’s a big problem too for teams that want to make the shift towards more modern basketball. Forget about 3-pointers, where he’s only made one in his entire career. Okafor doesn’t even really shoot from outside of 16 feet. Only seven percent of his shots have come past that distance, and he will almost surely clog the paint. He also doesn’t rate very well in many advanced statistics.
Still, he is a legitimate low-post scoring option and was drafted third overall in the 2015 draft. He’s still also only in the second year of a team-friendly, rookie-scale contract that will keep him underpaid and under team control for the foreseeable future.
Okafor could theoretically help the Bulls, but at what price?
The Bulls absolutely should not give up anything of value for him. The Sixers would presumably want picks to keep facilitating their rebuild, and the Bulls would be insane to offer any. The Bulls’ veterans wouldn’t really help the Sixers in their current developmental window either. It would be tough to work out a trade that suited both teams. If the Bulls were willing to move on from Nikola Mirotic, Bobby Portis, or Denzel Valentine, maybe the Sixers could take one of them on. Another idea would be to add a third team that could balance out both teams’ assets more easily.
Goodwill’s report then that the Bulls are more interested than the Sixers makes sense given that the Bulls probably aren’t capable or willing to part with anything the Sixers are dying for. Goodwill writes:
"""So far, there’s more interest on the Bulls’ side than the 76ers’ side, according to sources, but the Bulls are interested in Okafor’s services. Because salaries have to match and Okafor is on a rookie-scale deal, one wonders how it can work if the 76ers aren’t enamored with some of the Bulls’ young players who’ve yet to fully blossom. The Bulls could conceivably open up talks to a third team if need be, considering it isn’t likely they’d want to part with any future first-round picks as they’re still deciding how they are to proceed with franchise direction in the next couple seasons."""
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Setting aside the potential price, there are other troubling aspects of this trade. There were plenty of jokes on Twitter about how Okafor would compound the problems that the Bulls already have.
https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/827390613351862273
The Bulls have been suffering all season because management constructed a team with no regards to fit or players that suit coach Fred Hoiberg’s preferred offensive style. Okafor would add another log to the Bulls’ dumpster fire of a roster construction plan. He works almost exclusively in the paint and isn’t the type of high motor transition player that Hoiberg generally likes working with.
sounds like a bulls thing to do... especially if they can pull it off for cheap. and the funny part about all this is when this dude is writing about how the bulls are loading up with players who arent "suited to hoiberg's style" i can't help but sit here and think "the mayor ain't too long for this job... look at how well things turned out for our last 'mayor for life' over the last ~5-10yrs =P
