We’re 15 games or so into the NBA season and Jahlil Okafor’s and D’Angelo Russell’s careers, so why not talk about swapping them? Sam Hinkie is trade happy (actually not, but that’s his image) and Russell is barely being used by glorified babysitter Byron Scott. So, could it happen? Chad Ford seems to think it should:

chadford

In Ford’s piece for ESPN Insider – along with Kevin Pelton – he says a deal could help both teams. He starts out praising Okafor:

He’s already been pretty dominant as a 19-year-old. No one in the NBA is taking more shots within nine feet of the basket than Okafor. And just two centers (DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond) are taking (and making) more shots within five feet of the basket.

He’s a low-post monster — not only with his back to the basket, but also taking his guy off the dribble from the top of the elbow. And as far as his scoring goes, he’s averaging more PPG than any other rookie center in the past 20 years. While he could be more efficient, overall he’s been very, very good for a rookie …

Sixers head coach Brett Brown recently said that he’s considering moving Okafor to power forward and Nerlens Noel to center for defensive reasons. That raises a larger question for me. There was a healthy dose of skepticism from NBA teams about pairing Okafor and Noel in the frontcourt together.

Okafor and Noel together has been a problem. This isn’t good:

But does that mean the Sixers would be better off with the underused and thus far underperforming D’Angelo Russell?

So if Hinkie felt that he could get a player or asset more valuable than Okafor, like he did when he shipped away Michael Carter-Williams one year removed from winning Rookie of the Year, I don’t think he’d hesitate.

And there might be a team or two out there where Okafor fits better. I especially wonder about the Lakers. D’Angelo Russell has been a tough fit in LA. The Lakers flipped from Okafor to Russell the night of the draft. Would the two teams consider swapping the two players? That would effectively be a draft-night trade, a few months later.

It would be another bold move by Hinkie to participate in any Okafor trade. But given his history, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

Ford himself loves going back and changing his draft rankings, so it makes sense he’d want Hinkie to join in on the fun.


Look, Noel and Okafor playing together has been a mess. But swapping a potential-generational post-savant for an unproven point guard simply because he doesn’t mesh with your possible defensive-savant this early is a little nuts.* I’m not saying Hinkie isn’t a little nuts, but helping out the Lakers when your top asset right now is their top-3 protected pick for next year’s draft might be shooting yourself in the dunking through your legs and re-injuring your foot. Many process-trusters – who can talk themselves into anything – wanted Russell pre-draft. A lot of this was because people assumed Okafor was going number two and they also assumed Embiid would be playing this season. Plus, the idea of adding a point guard to go with their PF and C (at the time) has this glimmer of things coming together, the plane landing sooner, a real staring-five being solidified. But that’s not how this is going. Does that mean Hinkie should trade Okafor because the Sixers already have a possible center in Noel, to get a PG or SG or SF? No. Teams aren’t built one position at a time to fill the starting five, at least not through the draft. Completing this trade, and essentially saying “Oh man, we wish we had that number two pick instead of number three and we’ll happily go back in time to change that” doesn’t make any sense. Not yet. Unless the Lakers would need a player like Okafor to get them out of that top-3 spot and more or less guarantee the Sixers two top-five picks this year.

Trying to think like Hinkie is exhausting, but it’s easier when you just think like the stereotypical, man-behind-the-calculator, trade-happy nerd.

*T.J. McConnell, the current nobody playing point, is averaging 7ppg/6apg/5rpg. He is not the solution at point guard.

[Insider transcription from r/Sixers]