Okafor wants out, but Brown won’t budge on rotation
PHILADELPHIA » It has been over for a while. It will not be resolved. And Brett Brown will not be apologetic for the way it is ending.
Jahlil Okafor’s 76ers career will end at the conclusion of this season, and perhaps even earlier. That was clear when the Sixers did not pick up his fourth-year contract option. That was underlined Wednesday when Okafor publicly campaigned for a buyout or a trade.
While it is possible that the organization can accommodate its 2015 first-round draft choice, it is just as likely that he will spend the rest of the season deep on Brown’s center depth chart behind Joel Embiid, Amir Johnson and, soon Richaun Holmes.
“There’s a part of it from a human side that I understand,” Brown said before the Sixers’ 119109 victory Wednesday over the Atlanta Hawks. “And I look at it with a few different vision lines. When I look at Jahlil, I am trying to help him move forward, whether that’s here or someplace else. I’m trying to make sure we are giving him our best effort coaching him and getting him lifting and paying attention and getting shots and playing basketball, although I am not playing him.
“We are taking this environment and keeping him positive and moving forward and developing. He and I talk frequently.”
Just the same, Brown has no evident interest in playing Okafor in meaningful moments. Why? “I think when I look at Joel Embiid, we can sort of end the conversation,” Brown said. “Joel is going to play the lion’s share of the minutes. The conversation is about Amir, I suppose. And right now, I have decided for defensive reasons and veteran reasons to go with Amir. At times there is a small-ball game where we will play Dario Saric at the five. And we’re going to blink and Richaun Holmes is going to be in this situation in a few days or a week. That is coming.
“For me, that’s how I see it. And it is my job, as a coach, to make those decisions.”
One decision the Sixers seemed to make last season was to move Okafor at the trade deadline. Brown let it out Wednesday that he believed Okafor had been “traded” at that time, taking the issue from speculation to real.
At a shoot-around Wednesday morning in Camden, Okafor told reporters that he is ready to go.
“Honestly, I did not want them to pick up my option,” he said. “This is my life. This is my career, and I’m not getting an opportunity here, which is fine. The team looks great and I’m not a part of that. I want the team to do great things, but at the same time I want to play.”
*** About T.J. McConnell, Ben Simmons said it best: “We play a similar type of game. He’s just smaller than me.”
They are OK shooters, remarkable passers and mesmerizing finishers in traffic. And Brown is finding ways to use them together, particularly in the tough part of games.
“We have to learn to play off of each other, and I think we are starting to do that,” McConnell said. “When I am at the one, he moves over to the four. And when he is at the one, I move to the two. It just kind of happens. You just go out and run the play that’s called and just get to the right spot. When you get the ball, you just have to make a play and see what happens from there.”
*** Robert Covington led the Sixers with 22 points on 7-for-15 shooting Wednesday night. In the third quarter, he was treated for a hyper-flexion of his right knee, but he returned to the game.
“My knee is good,” he said afterward. “Slight tweak. Nothing major.”
The *** minutes restrictions
on Joel Embiid have quietly gone away. Wednesday, the center played 30 minutes and 15 second, including nine minutes of the fourth quarter, when he shot 5-for-8 for 11 points.
“You have to keep feeding beast,” Covington said. “So just kept going to him.”
Embiid had 21 points, and six assists.
“And what I go to right away,” Brown said, “is that he only had two turnovers.” 12 the we
rebounds *** Simmons finished an assist short of a triple-double, collecting 19 points, nine assists.
“That’s a good stat line, but I’d rather have the win,” he said. “The triple-double would have been nice. That’s on me, though. I made a few mistakes.”
*** NOTES » With their first home victory of the season, the Sixers settled in at 4-4 … Justin Anderson, Furkan Korkmaz, Nik Stauskas and Okafor did not play … Holmes (wrist) and Markelle Fultz (shoulder) were unavailable … The Indiana Pacers will visit Friday night at 7. 13 rebounds and