What Philadelphia Really Wants
Among Bulls Twitter and the basketball blogger realms, there isn’t any real excitement or interest in adding Okafor. Like it was mentioned earlier, Okafor has a huge amount of untapped potential, but isn’t better than Chicago’s incumbent, Lopez. He’s also not more attractive than Felicio in literally any measure of basketball players aside from his offensive contributions. Felicio does a better job in every other area of the game based on what limited information we have available to evaluate both players.
This is yet another reason why the trade probably doesn’t happen. Not only does another center not fit with the plan for the Bulls, there just aren’t enough pieces for both sides. Well, that’s not completely true.
Chicago might want Okafor and another player like Nik Stauskas, but Philly is asking for too much. Not just of the Bulls, but of the entire league. The rumored deals with New Orleans seem to center around both players and picks. The picks being talked about are first-round picks. The Sixers seem bent on getting more picks for the 2017 draft, looking for that last foundational piece – a generational guard.
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Chicago is doing too well for their first-round pick to be worth anything. Gar Forman has also traded away a handful of upcoming picks and botched the last several seasons worth of picks. In short, the Bulls can’t afford to give away even a middling first-round pick. They desperately need to hit on some draft picks because they’ve messed everything up by signing both Rondo and Wade, opting to battle for a playoff spot that means nothing to the fans or the future success of the franchise.
If Chicago did cough up their 2017 first-round pick and the top 10-protected Sacramento Kings pick, plus another future pick, Forman will have dealt away all of the team’s picks and returned nothing for an unproven player that could end up being nothing more than the infamous backup center who pushed Felicio out of town.
The trade just doesn’t look good for either side and it isn’t a win-win. If these two teams improbably executing a deal, someone is going to be a big loser. Let’s hope it isn’t the Bulls.