NBA Rumors: Chicago Bulls Want Jahlil Okafor Persist

NBA Rumors: The Chicago Bulls Continue to surface as suitors for Jahlil Okafor

Some NBA Rumors are wishful thinking. Some NBA  rumors are the whispers from the infamous “league sources”. Sometimes an NBA Rumor has a little of both, and it’s that persistent resurfacing, like air bubbles to the water surface of a lake, that indicates there might be something more to this.

Such are the NBA rumors of the Chicago Bulls and their interest in Jahlil Okafor.

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We have covered these rumors before, but at the time it was a Derrick Rose for Nerlens Noel as a salary dump trade by the Bulls, which became a salary offloading of some $30 Million by the Bulls.  Since those rumors surfaced, the Bulls eventually did move Rose, but to the New York Knicks for Robin Lopez, Jerian Grant and Jose Calderon in the trade. The Knicks will also receive Justin Holiday and a 2017 second-round pick.

Without Rose, the Bulls are moving to become a much younger team this season. While they did load two veterans for the back court in Rajon Rondo and Dwayne Wade, the Bulls front office is aware that the name of the game is getting younger. As ESPN’s Nick Friedell covered in an article on June 28, 2016, the Chicago Bulls GM Gar Forman said as much:

"“We had a great run for 10 years,” Forman said at the end of the news conference to introduce first-round draft pick Denzel Valentine. “The last decade, we’ve got the best record in the Eastern Conference. We’ve put together a group that we thought was highly competitive and probably had a chance to get to a championship level. The injuries obviously derailed us quite a bit, especially the last few years. And then last year there were just so many of them. But we’ve got to put this back together now, going younger, more athletic and building it back up moving into the future.”"

So we have a team trying to get younger, while the Philadelphia 76ers are on record trying to get older.  That in itself makes this pair an fertile ground for trade speculation.  Josh Wilson noticed that logic in a recent article where he proposed a package of Okafor, shooting guard Nik Stauskas, or others in an effort to pry Jimmy Butler from the Chicago Bulls.

And it should have ended there.  But the Chicao Bulls have resurfaced as suitors for Jahlil Okafor once more.  First it was a July 19, 2016 article by Arvin Matthew in MorningNewsUSA which cited that the Chicago Bulls were ready to part ways with both small forward Doug McDermott and rookie shooting guard Denzel Valentine in an effort to secure Jahlil Okafor from the Philadelphia 76ers.    That story appears to be simply a bump of a “thinking out loud” article from The Ringer’s Jonathon Tjarks, who listed a series of five destinations for Jahlil Okafor on July 15.

Finally, it all was repeated once more by Parentheld’s Sue Flay, who added that the team could consider the trade a win win in the exchange.

In each of these scenarios, there has been no confirmation of interest by the Chicago Bulls Or are they?

This rumor which involves both the Chicago Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers will simply not go away.  It’s been a constant buzz in the background.  So far, we’ve seen that the noise about Derrick Rose did land his elsewhere.   The only speed-bump in the road to moving Jahlil Okafor has been the paltry offers the 76ers have gotten in return.

But this scenario of Valentine and McDermott seem to offer some fair value for the young Chicago-native center.  And it’s the persistence of this talk, with nobody shooting it down, which suggests that this is a live discussion on the down-low to avoid complications with players if it doesn’t pan out.

So far, the only other rumors in existence appear to presume the Philadelphia 76ers are simply so desperate to move one of their centers that they will take practically a six pack of beer and a bag of pretzels for the opportunity to make a trade for the sake of trading someone.

With Denzel Valentine’s summer league performance catching the eyes of many NBA GMs, and with a solid small forward coming in off the bench in Doug McDermott, the Bulls have a package of talented shooters to offer the Sixers.  Have the Philadelphia 76ers avoided addressing the small forward position due to a deal in the works? If this rumors pans out, it would answer a great deal of open questions that hang over the off-season right now.

Next: What Should The Philadelphia 76ers Do With Their Big Men?

While we have no confirmation at this late stage of the trading season that these talks have occured, by now we should have heard some level of denial that they had not.  Added to the evidence is the fact that neither team fan base has raised objections.  In fact, many see the rumored deal as a win-win.

Jahlil Okafor is a true NBA center with tremendous upside, he simply needs the right environment.  While that environment could be the Philadelphia 76ers, the team has an emerging talented center in Joel Embiid who may very well be a franchise-caliber player.   And so, to maintain his playing minutes, it would be a good time to place Okafor into a situation where his skills can shine.

Chicago may be the place, and this may be the occasion to do so.  It’s worth keeping an eye on.