The Philadelphia 76ers have elected not to pick up Jahlil Okafor’s fourth-year option, making him an unrestricted free agent in 2018:
Jahlil Okafor's fourth-year option will not be picked up by the #Sixers, according to a team source.
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 31, 2017
Jahlil Okafor's tenure with #Sixers will end following this season. Source confirms the team will not pick up his fourth-year option.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 31, 2017
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out, this will allow the 76ers to create $6.3 million in cap space.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Okafor could still be traded:
Philadelphia had been exploring trade possibilities with Jahlil Okafor until declining option today. He could still be moved this season. https://t.co/ofC5KpG6l8
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 31, 2017
Per ESPN, Okafor is the first third overall pick ever not to have his fourth-year option picked up, and the third top-three pick not to (Anthony Bennett, Hasheem Thabeet).
The 76ers announced that they did pick up options on Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Justin Anderson.
For his career, Okafor has averaged 14.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game on 51.1 percent shooting. A traditional post-up big, Okafor’s game doesn’t quite fit the modern NBA, as he doesn’t provide much spacing and isn’t a great rim protector.
