After failing to get Kevin Durant after he chose the Golden State Warriors, the Boston Celtics are said to be looking to sign Jahlil Okafor from the Philadelphia 76ers. However, the Celtics are said to be going about this cautiously because of the details of the possible deal.
According to CBS Sports, while the Celtics may be wokring hard to acquire Okafor, the team still needs to protect its top-tier picks for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and there is a danger of losing Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas for Okafor, as well as Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart.
NBA insiders also agree that Okafor should only be a Plan B, and not an immediate trade concern. The Celtics Blog quotes one league official who stated, "[Okafor] would help Boston, obviously, tut it's clear that Boston isn't looking to just add a player who can make them better. They're looking for a guy who can come in and make an immediate impact in a really, really big way. Okafor's good, but I don't think he's that kind of guy for that team."
There may be some truth to this, since this may be the sentiment of the Celtics in trying to acquire Durant. Prior to deciding to play for the Warriors, the Boston Celtics is one of six teams that sent Durant sign up deals when the NBA star went into free agency earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the loss of Durant to the Warriors is still not sitting well with some players. Jae Crowder told ESPN, "We played him clips from both games and told him basically the scouting report of how we guarded Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] -- our entire game plan, basically. That's what made me mad. We f---ing told him everything we do to beat these guys, and we beat them, and he went and joined them."
However, it still remains to be seen if Okafor will join the Celtics, since recent reports say that a chance for a deal with the Sixers player is minimal.
