Will Jahlil Okafor be with the Philadelphia 76ers for long?
The question has now been thrown in the rumor mill and tied up, of course, with the spate of off-court issues that have involved the National Basketball Association (NBA) rookie.
Okafor has proven to be one of the best offensive playing rookies but his tenure in Philadelphia is something that comes with close scrutiny. The Sixers have a loaded frontline with Nerlens Noel and possibly Joel Embiid next year, meaning his talents could eventually go to waste.
Some believe that his outside distractions (i.e. bar brawls and gun-toted incidents) are a sign that he may want to be playing somewhere else. They are seen as frustrations on his part as he is unable to hook on with a team that rewards him for his efforts by at least having more wins than losses.
Such was expected from the Sixers when he first landed there. The only thing he could get was perhaps playing time which would work to his benefit since other teams would take notice. But now, being on the worst team in the NBA to date, Okafor may have realized that this is not the team for him.
The Sixers have been known to house and then trade their young guns to other teams before. Some call it tanking and well, get money out of it in the process. It seemed that the Sixers had the tools to get rid of that tag but unfortunately, their lack of focus on other key areas made their formidable frontline futile.
With that said, it won't be surprising if Okafor is moved somewhere in the future. He could end up with the Los Angeles Lakers who could yet again dispose of some aging big men.
If that happens, it could be ironic since the Lakers had a golden chance to snag him at the NBA draft but opted to take in D'Angelo Russell. Teams who could be interested as well are the ones struggling right now and plagued with injuries such as the Charlotte Hornets or maybe even the Chicago Bulls who are looking to get younger.
