It's Time For The Sixers To Set Jahlil Okafor Free So The League Can Find Out He Stinks
The league wide pity-party for Jahlil Okafor continued yesterday, as the embattled Sixers center whined to Woj about his position-less position in Philadelphia. The money-shot quote of the article was Jahlil saying “This really sucks. I want to play ball.” You can almost hear his lip quiver through your computer screen, and when it gets framed like a caged bird who just wants to soar, it starts to sound pretty sympathetic. But there’s a reason he’s not playing.
I’m sure that every backup in any league craves playing time. But for some reason when Jah says “I weally wanna pway”, it becomes a story. Never was it so clear as last week when Warriors players posed with Jah’s dad in his “Free Jah” tee shirt.
Or the Sixers faithful who clamored for the former number 3 overall pick.
There’s a problem though. HE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE PLAYING. And it’s not just because the majestic Joel Embiid is starting in front of him. In the modern age of basketball, especially within the Sixers organization, position-less basketball has been stressed more than anything. If Jah were good enough to be seeing the floor, he would be playing.
Look at New Orleans for example.
DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis (both 7 footers, both lottery picks) can co-exist on the court and prosper. Don’t you think the Sixers would love for that to be a possibility? To have their own version of that, but with actual wings and guards? They don’t have that, not only because Jah can’t play with Embiid. He can’t play with anyone.
Nothing illustrated this more than the Sixers signing of Amir Johnson in the off season. Johnson is very much the anti-Okafor, where Jah rolled out of bed for a 17 and 7 rookie stat sheet, Ahmir can go entire games with negligible contributions to the stat sheet. But Johnson, offers what Jah can’t; he doesn’t need the ball to be effective on offense, he plays active defense, and he’s a veteran presence who knows his place on the the team.
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And saying Jah can’t ball isn’t saying he can’t score. He can play some one on one. But for every dunk he had on a Rudy Gobert:
There were five possessions where he played sub-standard defense:
Last season, the world wanted the basketball liberation of Nerlens Noel. Then they bitched when he went to Dallas for a package they felt to be below market value. Now, months later, Justin Anderson’s value to the Sixers isn’t much less than Noel’s value on the Mavs and we got an extra second rounder in the mix.
Jah’s purported value started at multiple first rounders (HA!), then dipped to a late first, then went to multiple seconds, and now sits at simply a second rounder. Any second rounder. Teams around the league will trade second rounders for nothing. Literally. The Sixers had about a dozen second rounders in last year’s draft, and by the end of the night they were giving them away for whatever cash rival GMs had on them at the moment. If Okafor were anywhere near as valuable as his liberation-front suggests, there would be someone willing to give up a pick.
Ship Jah off to Charlotte and let him share time with Dwight. Send him out to Phoenix and let him build with their core. Trade him to San Antonio, give him the blessing of learning under Pop. What do all these teams have in common? They all project to have selections in the last 10 picks of the second round of the 2018 draft. Because if we can’t get between the 51st and 60th pick in next draft, then the rest of the NBA knows what most of Philadelphia has already learned.
That Jah can’t play in today’s NBA.