One of the names thrown around in trade speculation this season is Jahlil Okafor. With the emergence of Joel Embiid after two years of sitting out, Okafor has become expendable for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Okafor’s trade process has not been handled gracefully by the Sixers. He was reportedly on the verge of being traded and thus benched by the team. Reports emerged later that the 76ers had actually benched Okafor in order to ramp up the interest in trading for him around the league.
As it stands, Okafor is still with the team only one and a half days before the trade deadline. But according to NBA.com’s David Aldridge, that won’t be the case for long (h/t CSN Philly):
Appearing on NBA TV Tuesday night, NBA.com’s David Aldridge said Okafor “will get moved by Thursday.”
Aldridge, who said the Sixers have “a lot of offers to sift through,” mentioned the Pacers and Kings as potential landing spots. Following the DeMarcus Cousins trade, Sacramento is left with Kosta Koufos and Willie Cauley-Stein, who aren’t offensive bigs. Koufos is averaging 6.1 points in 57 games this season, while Cauley-Stein is scoring 5.8 per game in his second NBA season.
This could again be a case of increasing Okafor’s likely plummetted trade value. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that Jahlil is traded by Thursday; the 76ers simply have too many bigs in need of playing time and he’s the odd man out.
As for the Kings, they are fresh off trading DeMarcus Cousins and unleashing a full rebuild. They have been rumored to want to trade the likes of Darren Collison. Perhaps there is a trade here that makes sense for both sides as the 76ers need a point guard and the Kings need anything.
The Pacers and Mavericks are also rumored destinations.
