The Sixer Sense
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Bryan Colangelo Not as Foolish as We Think?

By Josh Wilson

Mar 11, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (center) battles Philadelphia 76ers forward Robert Covington (left) and forward Richaun Holmes (22) for positioning on a free throw during the fourth quarter at Staples Center. The Clippers won 112-110. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 11, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (center) battles Philadelphia 76ers forward Robert Covington (left) and forward Richaun Holmes (22) for positioning on a free throw during the fourth quarter at Staples Center. The Clippers won 112-110. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Philadelphia 76ers president and general manager Bryan Colangelo has made some questionable calls lately, but he might not be as foolish as we think.

Listen, I believe as much as the next guy that Bryan Colangelo deserves a lot of criticism right now. He has done little to nothing to improve the standing of the Philadelphia 76ers since being named president and general manager about a year ago, and has failed immensely over the past few weeks.

When Colangelo was brought on, one of the key things he was supposed to do was to mend the relationship between the management and the media. Subsequently, the fans and general public were supposed to know more about the team’s day-to-day operations, because the Sixers media would be the middle man between the management group and the fans.

But something changed. Colangelo, despite claims that he would be open and honest with the media, has met rarely with the media, and has been less than honest with the media, being called on his lies and bluffs on multiple occasions.

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The latest thing he failed to do was trade Jahlil Okafor. Okafor has been on the trading block for weeks, and two weekends ago, it seemed as if a trade of him was imminent. The team that the Sixers appeared to be closest with was the New Orleans Pelicans. After sitting Okafor — and the team admitting that they sat him because of trade talks — the team brought him back, signifying that things had fallen off with the Pelicans.

The Pelicans later found another, better big man in DeMarcus Cousins.

Fans pointed to Colangelo and blamed him for not trading Okafor.

He deserves the blame on that, but only if trading Okafor was actually a crime at this point. And was it?

There’s two schools of thought, the way I see it.

Trade him now

The school of thought behind trading Okafor now is simple — the team needs to clear this logjam. The logjam created by Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, and Jahlil Okafor (and we could throw Richaun Holmes in there as well) is the core of the so-called losing culture that has been cursing the Sixers locker room.

Everything bad this season comes from that logjam, at least that’s how it feels.

So why wait on moving him now? The way it appears, his value will never be higher, despite how low he is. The team compromises their success by playing Okafor and showing him off, and it seems like the more they play him, the more he disappoints and hurts his value even more.

So why wait? Why risk more losing? Get rid of Okafor now. That’s the thought.

Must Read: How Should the Sixers Approach the Deadline

Trade him now, but only if there’s value

The other idea, and the one that Colangelo has run with, is to hold onto Okafor until his value is back up. The weird thing about player values is that they go up and down all the time. So while the trajectory of Okafor’s value seems negative overall, there’s a fair chance it could go up at some point. There’s also a fair chance it could be higher than we think, even right now.

You see, we live in an era where a narrative can be driven so hard that it seems like a concrete reality. I would argue that our perception of Jahlil Okafor has been pushed so negatively by a vast majority of opinion leaders around the Sixers that we have started to believe (and say) he’s a legitimately bad NBA talent, and a legitimately bad player all around.

I’m not saying that’s the wrong take. It very well could be the right one.

But when we’re so secluded in our Sixers world, we forget that other fans might have a different perception of this player. We forget that he has been put in an awful position and has been asked to succeed. Remember when firing Brett Brown was a narrative early this season? Brown, too, was given an impossible task. Win with a roster that was made to lose.

Okafor has been asked to play with players that never in a million years will fit his play style. But why are we so convinced that he’s awful?

The narrative that Okafor will never be valuable is frustrating, and I think we may have this idea planted in our heads that his value is nothing after the trade deadline. We think if this deal doesn’t happen by the deadline, then that’s it, and we might as well waive the guy.

That’s a short term view, and one that I admit, I have fallen into accepting. Until just recently, I was accepting the narrative that the only value around Okafor is at the deadline, but the deadline is not the only time that teams get squeamish, and not the only time teams make a quick decision to better their team. The NBA Draft is a good time to trade players as well. And with the season having past at that point, teams may be much more willing to look at what players they will lose in free agency, and see that Okafor fits with their team. A world of options could open this offseason.

What happens if the Sixers don’t trade Okafor at the deadline? They lose all their remaining 26 games? Tough, but not the end of the world. It’s weird how, in one year, everyone who wanted to lose as many games as possible is now hung up on trading a player to make 26 games more pleasant, without considering that the value on that player could be higher in just a few months.

All I’m saying is maybe we should wait until after the draft to call it quits on finding good value for Okafor.

Next: Is Magic Going to Look to Trade for Okafor?

Yeah, getting the logjam over now would be really, really nice. It would allow the Sixers to phase into a new chapter of sorts. Let’s remember what Hinkie left us with when he resigned, though. He prided himself on having the longest view in the room. Maybe Colangelo is remembering that and trying to have a long view with Okafor.

If that’s his basis for turning down bad values for Okafor, then maybe we can accept it and be somewhat okay with it.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint.