The Survey says don’t trade for Jahlil Okafor
Between the chaos that is the Chicago Bulls front office and the incredible value of Jimmy Butler, there is always some sort of dialogue about a potential trade. One of the names I’ve heard recently is Jahlil Okafor and that needs to stop.
Chicago should never trade Jimmy Butler for Jahlil Okafor.
The premise is simple. Butler is one of the best players in the NBA, probably a top five wing player in the league. Okafor is a young player, but also a throwback center that is experiencing the struggles common to young players who need to work on their game if they want to stick around in the league.
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Just to make sure I’m not completely off my rocker, I felt like this was a safe topic to crowdsource. Here is the result of that survey:
Bulls people: Would you trade Jimmy Butler & Denzel Valentine for Jahlil Okafor & 2017 Sixers 1st? This is a real argument I had to endure.
— Daniel Coughlin (@xvanwilderx) May 18, 2017
The results speak volumes and I’m thrilled to see it is an overwhelming “no.”
There are a couple of reasons that people might want to talk about this trade. The first is that they don’t value Jimmy appropriately. It doesn’t mean much to them that the Bulls are a bottom ten team in the league without him. They also seemed unfazed by the idea that Butler made an All-NBA team. I’m not surprised that fans of other teams like the Boston Celtics might view him this way. A lot of that sentiment probably has more to do with the fact that they don’t want their team to trade valued assets to acquire Butler more than that they actual do not believe Butler is very good.
The other reason is that people dramatically overvalue Okafor. He has done almost nothing to this point in his career that rates as a positive, on or off the court. There is probably a lingering contingent of Derrick Rose-era Chicago fans that still want to pretend that the Bulls are Rose’s team and not Butler’s squad. Good luck convincing those people to step into the light of day. Another reason that some people might be pro Okafor – he’s a Chicago man.
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The Bulls had a native son in Rose. The more aggressive parts of the fan base have also begun plotting for the arrival of both Jabari Parker and Anthony Davis. There is a lot of pride in Chicago basketball and the fans love to cheer for their own. I like that. But that is not a good reason to trade for Jahlil.
Michael Whitlow dove into several trade options for Butler over the past few days after the NBA draft lottery was completed. Now that we know the order of picking for teams, we have a much clearer picture. The dream trade option with Boston is dead. It’s particularly unlikely that the Los Angeles Lakers are an option. Next up, Philadelphia.
If the Sixers and Bulls were to get together for a trade, Okafor could be a piece. It wouldn’t be surprising for Gar Forman to do exactly that kind of thing. However, you don’t trade Butler for that. In fact, you also don’t trade Robin Lopez for that. It might surprise some, but Lopez is close to the kind of player that it looks like Okafor might become in a good-case scenario. He also has trade value that shouldn’t be wasted on a risky young player in Philly who has yet to emerge a starter-type talent.