[Anton123Participant]

I think the way the Sixers are treating Okafor is just sad. He’s nothing more than a stand-in for Embiid now, not even a sixth man.

Two days ago against Cleveland he came in, hit three straight field goals and was subbed out because Embiid had rested a little bit. How’s that got to feel? You come in get hot and dominate, and the coach just takes you out of the game. After he came back in you could see he wasn’t comfortable anymore.

I hope he gets traded, I agree Embiid is good, but at least keep Okafor in while he is hot, you can make up for it by playing Embiid more in the next quarter.

[SlickBouncePassParticipant]

 

 

 

The question is how best to utilize Okafor, not to "let him play" when he’s hot.   

coaching is the worst thing on the Sixers right now, but you have to deal with "minutes restrictions".

I hope they make smart trades, but I think once hte "minutes restrictions" are off, which is bogus because I think they should tank this year anyway (they are not making the playoffs), you have to at least see what Jah and Joel looks like on the floor together.

The Sixers are shooting themselves in the foot the way they are treating their bigman sitaution.

Look, Okafor provides you nothing on defense.  No defense, no rebounding, the points are nice, but theoretically you can sacrifice the points (rely on your guards), in exchange for a big that can defend and rebound.  i’d take the latter.  Thats why i prefer Noel.  But I think even Richuan Holmes is serviceable as a backup.

I say this because I think you can still experiement with Embiid and Oak on their minutes restrictions.  The Sixers personnel is what it is.  You don’t try to play to the "trends of the future NBA" if you drafted the bigs in the first place.  There was no need to draft Okafor, the Sixers act like it was a decision they were forced into and now they have ot figure out how to deal with their roster and the trend of the future NBA.  

 

I think Brett Brown HAS to play Embiid and Oak togehter and absolutely murder teams.  THe 5 minutes they played togehter this season their size was a throwback to a Duncan/ Robinson duo.  Cleveland with Thompson and Love would not stand a chance against Embiid and Oak once they figure it out.  Oak says he looks forward to the opportunity to play with Embiid and I hope it happens.  The only problem is Oak can’t play perimeter D, Oak can’t play D or rebound period, so you cut your losses and put Oak out there for the offensive mismatch double team, tell him to box out Tristan Thompson while Embiid is out there dominating Kevin Love’s perimeter oriented game. 

Brown has to use Oak better.  If you are going to suffer with his defense, then at least play him with another big that can rebound and guard the paint, the guy is hopeless otherwise..  I know, it didn’t work with Noel, but Embiid is not Noel.  Embiid requires his own double team and if thats hte case why not have a huge Okafor to pass the ball to who commands his own double team?!

If I was Brett Brown, once I had all my bigs and assuming we make no trades…

I’d start Simmons, Oak, and Embiid, with Sergio and Henderson.  Embiid is my first option on offense and and Oak guards the paint while Embiid floats on defense.

I’d play Noel as my backup to Embiid.  

Okafor needs to have either Noel or Holmes in the game.  When Okafor plays with those two, you make sure its understood by Noel that Okafor is the go-to offensive option.  

Noel needs to buy into the fact that he is a defender and a lob-catcher / dunker on offense.  

Okafor will never become a good rebounder and defender.  He needs to play with another big.  The problem is when Okafor gets paired with the "future" stretch 4s of Saric and Ilyasova, it is a putrid defensive team in the paint and the Sixers get killed.  This is why I’d prefer Noel to Okafor.

Okafor and a stretch 4 just doesn’t work.  Saric is too small to guard anyone, Ilyasova can’t guard anyone, and the coach is too dumb to realize he needs to use Richuan Holmes more with Okafor, and allow Okafor to spread his minutes between Embiid and Holmes.

I am confident Embiid and Holmes can rebound and defend the perimeter.

I will take Embiid + Okafor, and Holmes + Okafor all day, if it means sacrificing the quick draw 3 point shooting of Robert Covington, and putting Covington’s ass on the bench.  Much rahter take my chances with Holmes + Okafor than Covington Saric Okafor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

[SlickBouncePassParticipant]

it is embarassing that the Sixers do not have seasoned veteran big man player development guy on their staff.

You think with Embiid, Okafor, Noel, Holmes all with 3 years experience or less, you’d have Kareem Abdul Jabbar or Hakeem Olajuwon or Patrick Ewing in here to be your development coach at 10 million a year if you are Josh Harris.  "Don’t do anything, just spend 2 years here and coach these guys to glory".  I guarantee you even Shaq could inspire these guys to do big things.  Where is our big man player development guy?

Where is the Sixers NBA veteran presence.  I see James Posey and Tyronn Lue on CLEVELAND, I see Patrick Ewing get all excited about how Embiid could be the greatest big in the game…..and yet we have no veteran coaches with NBA playing experience for these guys to look up to?!?!

Its ridiculous.  Reggie Miller saw 10 minutes of the Sixers and how they play their offense (guard oriented, stretch 4s), and said that Embiid "needs to touch the ball every possession".  I’ve been pulling out hairs for this all year.  Its about time we bring in someone like Reggie Miller (who I love on TV but who also has a great understanding of the game)….Steve Kerr worked out really well, I want Reggie Miller in here as our coach.  Anyone is better than Brown.  

We’ve had 2 NBA vet big men coaches and both skipped town for other opportunities, why is that?

 

 

 

 

 

  

[Mr. 19134Participant]

 They do and they signed Brand to do that last year. All theyre big men r playing great and r productive n keep getting better for a reason

[JordanC20Participant]

 Okafor will be fine he’s a talented player that will find a good fit somewhere

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

Drafting okafor was always just part of "the process" for philly. It was obvious that they were counting on getting Russell and only took him because the Lakers didn’t cooperate. He was never really part of their long-term plans and now that embiid is healthy it makes zero sense to have him on the roster. You can’t play them together and embiid is the far superior talent.

I know Philly doesn’t want to sell low on a top 3 pick but I think they need to bite the bullet and make a move soon. Hopefully they can fetch a solid wing or pg in a deal. The longer they marginalize okafor the more his trade value is going to decrease.

[SlickBouncePassParticipant]

how was it part of "the process" when you had Mudiay and Porzingis available for the taking, both better options than Okafor.  Hell, Devon Booker was a better in retrospect!!

Why do you say they "can’t play together" when you haent’ seen it on the floor.  Embiid can guard 4s and can rebound MUCH better than Saric and Ilyasova, and he can shoot as well as them.  I’d rather have Noel as my backup and I think Saric and Ilyasova play better with Noel.  The defensive upside is way greater than the offensive upside of Okafor…see the plus minus.  

Propose a trade for Okafor….I’ve already proposed Aminu plus a pick for Okafor.  

Its easy to just say "they can’t play together" and "they had to draft him as part of the process"….I’m just asking you to think about their decision.

Why did we draft Okafor?  Why are we insisting Okafor is a Center and we need to play a stretch 4 that can’t defend with him?  We are not the Warriors!!

 

 

 

 

  

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 Sixers drafted okafor because he was who they deemed to be the best available player at the time (no one was seriously considering porzingis at the time). It was in line with their thinking to acquire the most talent possible regardless of fit and worry about how it would actually work out on the floor. mudiay and booker would have both been better fits but the sixers considered okafor the best player available (as did almost everyone else at the time).

I believe the sixers knew that they could not play okafor with embiid and noel long-term but with embiid out for the year they figured that they could give okafor big mins as a rookie, let him put up big numbers and hopefully trade him in the offseason for a nice return. However, I don’t think he was as impressive as they figured he would be both on or off the court and with the current direction the league is trending, they didn’t get the type of offers they were counting on. So they kind of got stuck with him heading into this season (which wasn’t necessarily a terrible thing considering the health of embiid was still very much a question mark).

As for playing them together, I just don’t see how it would work. Both need to play the center position to be most effective. You don’t want either chasing around stretch fours on the perimeter. Embiid has shown a surprising outside touch so far but you don’t want him playing exclusively on the perimeter and okafor operates best in a system where the floor is spaced so he can go one on one down low and force teams to double team. Adding Simmons to the mix makes okafor even more irrelevant and less useful. Embiid and Simmons are clearly the players that franchise should be looking to build around and I don’t see how okafor would fit those plans. 

 

 

[Hype Machine]

Philly blew it. Everyone else got good players in that draft.

[binetParticipant]

 It still was a terrible idea to draft Okafor that day unless they were able to trade him on draft night. I think the best "process" idea was to trade the pick immediately to a team like Boston who would probably have been ready to give more than a BKN pick for that pick, which would have been great return and a reasonable thing to do when you already have Embiid and Embiid’s insurance on your roster.

 

 

[EndlessknightParticipant]

The Sixers did seriously consider Porzingas but his agent refused the teams request for a workout.

[binetParticipant]

 Jahlil is terrible this season but a lot is due to Brett Brown. 

I still think his talent is elite and that he could even turn into an ok defender if well coached. The situation he is in with two other centers allegedly better than him and a coach that is in love with Embiid and already was last year and just does not care about him is just not good for him.

Jahlil is still young and has room to improve, he clearly is not coached right by the 76ers. The most flagrant tell is him on media day saying he was in better shape with added weight. Being obese is clearly not the solution for him and he needs to be coached the other direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[negguaryParticipant]

ha! You must not watch any sixers games because embid is clearly far better and years ahead of oak with being off for two years, rusty on 24 minutes restriction and still figuring the game out!  

[binetParticipant]

 I am not talking about Embiid’s immense talent. He is great and ostensibly better than Okafor despite showing his inexperience with ugly turnovers and missplays quite often (which should disappear very fast, hopefully).

Just that the 76ers are not treating Okafor the right way. The guy is obese and they advised him to gain weight over the summer: seriously? It’s not even his fault right now if he can’t defend.

 

 

[ReekoParticipant]

 He gives no effort on defense, he’s averaging less than 4 boards a game and he sets some of the worst picks in the league.  He’s got some great hands and footwork around the basket, that is literally all he brings to the table is the ability to score in the post.  Dude is Andrea Bargnani with better post moves and no three point shot.

[D7H7NParticipant]

 Okafor is just like Enes Kanter. He’s better off coming the bench because he’s only talented on offense.

[Mr. 19134Participant]

Theyre handling Okafor fine whose coming off surgery.  He was on a minute restriction and is still getting back into 100 game shape.  Hes also playing much better team basketball and Brown is teaching him how to get points within the flow of the offense. His defense is actually even getting a little better. 

 

 

The big difference between Okafor and guys like kanter and Jefferson is Jah is much more nimble and half a foot longer so his potential to get better on d is promising

[HitsterParticipant]

 The minute restrictions that Oak and Embiid are under are really tying Coach Brown’s hands at seeing if they can work together especially with Noel out.

The idea of adding veterans into a high draft heavy team is always an interesting one. Teams like Philly and T-Wolves (who are further along the process) have a window of a couple of years where they can pay big money to players before 2nd contracts on the younger guys kick in. The money from those teams are as good as from any other team and it’s surprising that more guys don’t go to those sorts of teams. Not everyone can chase a ring, the top guys want to and top supporting guys do so teams need to look down a level or sign a guy who already has a title. Also the issue is are these guys going to be key rotational players or there as a locker room leader/mentor guy who doesn’t play much.

Good point about the 76ers getting in a recognised big man coach. Apart from the names listed above – Lionel Hollins is currently available and has often been described as a good big man coach, so they could do worse than give him a call.

 

 

[Hype Machine]

 Everyone thats hating on Okafor right now is just putting a thin retread on a set of Hype Machines old tires. 

I’ve been laughing at old fashioned Americans for 24 mths cos of their insistence that Okafor is a bigtime prospect.

 

He was the prototype All American prospect from the last 3 years. Had the best youth development the American system could provide. And hes so out of touch with the modern game that its like hes been coached by 70yo’s his whole life.

If you want to see youth development, have a look at the modern games international bigmen are bringing to the table. 

Gimme Thon Maker any day.

 

[EndlessknightParticipant]

You do realize that KAT was also a product of the same youth system?

[Author]

Posts