Jahlil Okafor would have been viewed as a very valuable young asset in the NBA 10 to 20 years ago, but these days he is buried at the bench and difficult to move.
The No. 3 pick of the 2015 NBA Draft is currently projected to be the third string center for the 76ers behind Joel Embiid and Richaun Holmes and will struggle to find rotational minutes at all.
Because of this, 76ers Head Coach Brett Brown openly remarked on Wednesday that the 76ers are looking around the league to see what they can get in return for Okafor.
Brown said Sixers will check with the rest of the league to see what's out there for Jahlil Okafor
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) September 20, 2017
Regardless of his skill set and his style of play not being valued in the current NBA, the fact that a 21-year-old big man that was drafted No. 3 just two years ago and averaged 17 points and seven rebounds his rookie season could essentially be un-tradeable is pretty insane.
Okafor has a good back to the basket game and has the potential and chops to be a really good passer out of the post, but that aspect of the game is all but dead in the current NBA. A front court player that doesn’t protect the rim, needs touches in the post to be effective offensively and doesn’t even have a consistent jump shot out to 17 feet is really hard to incorporate into the flow of the game in 2017.
There is one team who has expressed interest in Okafor in the past and it would be worth taking a shot on him if the price is almost non-existent and that is the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are in full rebuild mode and need skill players and taking a chance on Okafor growing into a more dependable NBA player with his skills is worth the minimal risk at this point.
