Should Philadelphia 76ers Flip Noel With Okafor?

Nov 6, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward

Kevin Love

(0) fights for a rebound with Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor (8) and forward Nerlens Noel (4) during the second quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

A Tall Oak Tree

Jahlil Okafor has sat out the past two games with a knee injury.  In those two games, the Sixers have been very competitive – defeating a Phoenix Suns team on the road and losing in the last seconds to a Utah Jazz team in Utah.  In the two games, center Nerlens Noel averaged 16 points per game on 87.5% accuracy from the floor,  3.5 blocks per game, and 8.5 rebounds per game.  Even his steals per game have improved greatly to 2.5 steals per game.  Small sample, but great numbers. Okafor in comparison averages 17.6 PPG on 45.8% accuracy, 1.3 BPG, 7.9 RPG, with just .3 SPG. This is not to say Jahlil Okafor should be benched. He’s earned minutes on this or any other NBA team. It’s just that the team may need to be more creative to get meaningful minutes for both players on this team. Can Okafor make the transition? On offense, Okafor could be more suited for the PF spot than Noel. Okafor has a much better shooting touch, face-up game, and post-game. Noel’s bread and butter shots are putbacks and alley oops, both better from close range to the rim. It just so happens that is the same neighborhood where his elite rim protection thrives as well. You would be wise to point out the counter-argument, how Okafor does not have much lateral quickness and will get burned repeatedly by small-ball PF’s. ALSO ON SIXER SENSE: Potential Realized With Philadelphia 76ers 2016 Lineup But a small ball PF will not score nowhere near as effectively on Okafor with Noel sitting back at the rim ready to reject the shot. Okafor would play well on them in the post on the other side of the court. Regardless of getting past Jahlil, and no matter how many times they do so, their efforts around the Oak will place them in the vicinity of Noel at the rim. The Dallas Mavericks run slow-footed Dirk Nowitzki from the four and have for many years.  The team, and Nowitzki, have played well.   Eventually, the team will have a new and even more athletic player to factor into the mix when Joel Embiid gets healthy.  At that point, can the Sixers work three big men into meaningful minutes from the same team?  2016 is less than a year away.  The questions about that team need to be answered now by this team.

I think Brown knows that and will experiment more with this roster.  The greatest discoveries in history happened by experimentation of curious minds.