The Philadelphia 76ers are talking primarily to the Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans, but Keith Smith predicts a mystery team may be involved.
The Philadelphia 76ers have set themselves up to be the center of attention over the opening days of this week. On Saturday, it was reported by multiple outlets that the Sixers sat Jahlil Okafor because they wanted to ensure he wouldn’t get injured before a possible trade to another team.
The Sixers confirmed these rumors after the game, something they have not explicitly done in the past. This was indicative that a trade was almost certain.
To make things more obvious, the Sixers did not bring Okafor to Charlotte for their win Monday night against the Charlotte Hornets, despite the fact that no developments occurred on Monday in regards to Okfaor’s trade status.
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The Sixers have one more game before the All-Star break on Wednesday. It’s on the road, so again, don’t expect Okafor to be in town against the Boston Celtics.
The two rumored teams to be talking with the Sixers most have been the New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls. Both seem to have a heavy amount of interest in Jahlil. New Orleans looks to change their game plan up a bit and run Anthony Davis in a new way, and Chicago is Okafor’s hometown.
Both locales seem to want to use Okafor to help their playoff push.
Keith Smith Tweeted out on Monday that — despite the obvious names at the top of the list — he feels like the waiting indicates that a mystery team could be involved.
CHI and NOP still seem to be at the top of the list. But gut feeling tells me some mystery team is involved with how things are dragging out https://t.co/jRT44yROFl
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) February 14, 2017
While this is Smith’s opinion and far from hard reporting (something he has been great at the past few days), Smith has been more immersed in this Okafor/Sixers situation than just about any other reporter out there. Smith has followed more or less every move that has been leaked to reporters regarding Okafor, so his senses are probably better than anyone else’s.
The Sixers are now unlikely to deal with the Portland Trail Blazers or the Denver Nuggets despite their interest at one point due to a trade between those teams on Sunday. That leaves 25 other teams that are a possibility for Okafor to land on if we’re talking “mystery teams.”
Monday passing with no trade certainly was weird, so Smith’s assumption here that a different team that’s not been brought up by reporters yet seems to fit correctly. The Sixers explicitly said that Okfaor was likely to be on the move, so it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll back down on that.
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The Sixers, although things have seemed urgent and then not so much, may drag this out to the All-Star break if they have to. Team president and general manager Bryan Colangelo has been patient, likely to a fault, in waiting for good value.