Are the Philadelphia 76ers Shopping Jahlil Okafor?

Are the Philadelphia 76ers shopping around their potential Rookie of the Year center Jahlil Okafor?

The Philadelphia 76ers are known for making big moves at the trade deadlines. Last season, they traded away what looked like could be a future point guard of the team, Michael Carter-Williams in a trade that brought them draft picks and sent Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks.

This season, the Sixers started off deadline week quietly, but the murmurs are beginning to change to spoken sentences, and those may soon turn to broadcasted thoughts. It looked like the Sixers were going to play hands-off on any players, and only deal for assets, if they were to deal at all.

At the Sixers first practice in an entire week since the All-Star break caused them to take some time off, Nerlens Noel, center, said he didn’t expect any shaking up to the roster to happen. But, he then alluded to the fact that the front office has been quite unpredictable in the past, saying “I know Sam and Jerry are working for the betterment of the team.”

But not so fast, Nerlens. The Sixers were rumored later in the evening to be gauging interest in their potential Rookie of the Year center Jahlil Okafor around the league, to see what they could possibly get for him.

All of Wednesday there were talks from multiple outlets of the Sixers taking calls for Okafor, which was expected by most. When you have a player leading all rookies in scoring per game, you’re going to at least get calls inquiring about him. But the Sixers “gauging interest” in Okafor may be a bit different.

As some have speculated, this could mean that the Sixers are looking towards the offseason and what teams will give up for him this summer, and not looking to move him at the deadline. They may find that the interest that they do gauge is too low to be worth it for them to move him.

Okafor so far this season is averaging 17.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. His impact on games has been massive, and he has shown signs of being the league’s “next best thing” or at the very least the “next best thing” for the Sixers.

Although this probably doesn’t play too much of a role in the general managing side of running a basketball team, it would be a massive blow to the team’s marketing if Okafor were to leave. They have plastered Okafor’s jersey and face all over the Wells Fargo Center, and have a lot of money put into him as a selling point.

Next: Iman Shumpert to the Sixers?

Okafor has largely been overshadowed this season by the great play from Karl Anthony-Towns (the likely Rookie of the Year award winner) and the good play and charisma of New York Knicks’ center Kristaps Porzingis. Still, there’s tons of teams that should be interested in Okafor if he is, in fact, on the market.