Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Okafor left behind as trade winds blow
PHILADELPHIA >> The 76ers took a two-game winning streak to Charlotte Sunday. They did not take Jahlil Okafor.
With Brett Brown saying that “trade rumors” convinced him to bench the second-year center Saturday in a 117-109 victory over the Miami Heat, it grew unlikely that Okafor would play for the Sixers again. The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 23.
The Sixers will visit the 24-30 Hornets Monday night at 7. With Joel Embiid having missed 12 of the last 13 games with a complicated knee injury and unlikely to play, that will leave Nerlens Noel as the starting center, backed up by Richaun Holmes.
The Noel-Holmes combo proved effective against dangerous Heat center Hassan Whiteside, limiting him to two offensive rebounds.
Noel scored 19 points and was a plus-17 against Miami. Holmes provided six points, helping to snap the Heat’s 13-game winning streak.
Though rumors involving Okafor were strong enough Saturday for Brown to have told his centers of his plan before the game, no trade occurred, and nor did one happen Sunday. The Sixers had a 3:30 p.m. charter flight to North Carolina, and Okafor was not on it, the club confirmed. Brown is likely to keep Okafor bottled until the Sixers can make a deal and unclog their crowded center depth chart.
“More information is always available,” the head coach said. “You wake up and something happens. You learn that sometimes things don’t happen. So you feel like it’s still fluid. But if you see me not playing him, that’s probably going to be the reason.”
Brown long has appreciated Okafor’s natural scoring ability, which helped him land on the 2016 NBA All-Rookie team. But his defensive lapses and inability to seamlessly move to a forward position made him expendable on a team deep at center.
At least until Embiid returns, and he has missed the last nine games, that will make Noel the No. 1 center.
“I didn’t know about it until about 15, 20 minutes before the game,” Noel said Saturday. “But whatever they want me to do, I will do it. If that means 30-plus minutes, that’s what I will do.”
On a natural level, he is grateful for the opportunity.
“Human nature,” he said. “When you know that you are the primary, you are just playing. If you make a mistake, you’ll fix it. You’ll get that opportunity to do something the next time down. My mindset is to be a game-changer and do change as much as possible to help my team win.”
The Sixers have discussed Okafor with numerous teams, and they have been willing to streamline their center situation as early as last summer. New Orleans, Chicago and Portland have been mentioned prominently in the rumors. The Pelicans are interested in supplementing Anthony Davis with Okafor in an effort to squeeze into the Western Conference playoffs.
The Sixers will play Charlotte, then will visit Boston Wednesday in their last game before the Feb. 17-19 All-Star Weekend. Their next game will not be until Feb. 24, when the Wizards visit, after the trade deadline.
The Sixers lost in Charlotte, 109-93, in November, when neither Embiid nor Noel played. Holmes started and scored 11 points. They defeated the Hornets, 10293, in January, Embiid scoring 24 points. Okafor did not play.
After winning, 112-111, in Orlando Thursday, the Sixers defeated the Heat, then took Sunday off. Okafor was gone from the locker room Saturday before the press was permitted into the room.