Trading for Jahlil Okafor

[The Rondo Show]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

[LooseCannon]

I don't see why the 76ers would do it, but if he were available, I'd be more interested in Dario Saric than Okafor.  Maybe Ainge should inquire to see if the new regime values Saric less than Hinkie did.

[CoachBo]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

I completely agree with you. I want Ingram, but if we pick 3 or lower this is the direction to take. We already have 70 guards on this roster, and if you believe the hyperbole on this board every single one of them is a star because Ainge never, ever misses on a draft pick.

The one place I disagree with you is the rotting corpse of Bender. He is NEVER going to be a useful NBA player, and if Ainge burns a lottery pick on that scrub, I will be here calling for his job.

There is a boatload of wrong in this thread about Okafor. His feet are NOT slow. They are more than adequate to teach him how to rotate in the Celtics' defensive system. He is never going to be all-defense, but he can be an above average defender on a good basketball team as he matures.

Ainge was on the money to kick the tires on this one at the trade deadline, and if the pick falls to 3 or below he should actively pursue this.

[The Rondo Show]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

I completely agree with you. I want Ingram, but if we pick 3 or lower this is the direction to take. We already have 70 guards on this roster, and if you believe the hyperbole on this board every single one of them is a star because Ainge never, ever misses on a draft pick.

The one place I disagree with you is the rotting corpse of Bender. He is NEVER going to be a useful NBA player, and if Ainge burns a lottery pick on that scrub, I will be here calling for his job.

There is a boatload of wrong in this thread about Okafor. His feet are NOT slow. They are more than adequate to teach him how to rotate in the Celtics' defensive system. He is never going to be all-defense, but he can be an above average defender on a good basketball team as he matures.

Ainge was on the money to kick the tires on this one at the trade deadline, and if the pick falls to 3 or below he should actively pursue this.

Yup. A lot of people clearly didn't spend much time watching him this year – which is fair since nobody should watch the Sixers that much.

[LarBrd33]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

I completely agree with you. I want Ingram, but if we pick 3 or lower this is the direction to take. We already have 70 guards on this roster, and if you believe the hyperbole on this board every single one of them is a star because Ainge never, ever misses on a draft pick.

The one place I disagree with you is the rotting corpse of Bender. He is NEVER going to be a useful NBA player, and if Ainge burns a lottery pick on that scrub, I will be here calling for his job.

There is a boatload of wrong in this thread about Okafor. His feet are NOT slow. They are more than adequate to teach him how to rotate in the Celtics' defensive system. He is never going to be all-defense, but he can be an above average defender on a good basketball team as he matures.

Ainge was on the money to kick the tires on this one at the trade deadline, and if the pick falls to 3 or below he should actively pursue this.

Yup. A lot of people clearly didn't spend much time watching him this year – which is fair since nobody should watch the Sixers that much.

People just auto-hate anything Philly related on this forum.  Okafor is a stud prospect.  A year ago people were still debating if he should go 1st over Towns.  PHilly was a mess this season.  No doubt about that, but Okafor had a solid rookie campaign all things considered.  His floor seems to be Al Jefferson.  I'm not sure why people think a 20 year old kid coming off a rookie season averaging 17.5 points, 7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks with 50% shooting is a finished product.  He's got room to grow.  We're in the 2nd season of 22 year old Marcus Smart shooting below 40% and most of us still think the kid has untapped potential.  Aside from the jersey color, why doe someone like Smart get the benefit of the doubt, but a guy like Okafor is seen as incapable of improving?  Makes no sense.

There's a chance Okafor ends up better than anyone in this entire draft. 

[chambers]

I like Okafur, but I don't think he'd  be a target for us right now.
I'd say he may be used in a 3 team trade to get us an experienced veteran star with Philly getting our pick or something.
That being said, if for some strange reason we decided to acquire Okafur I'd be fine with it - especially if our pick is #3 or worse.

[crimson_stallion]

First of all I don't see any trade not including the pick making any sense for Philly.  Unless you are suggesting we trade Marcus smart or Avery Bradley in a package, no collection of late 1sts is going to entice that team.  They can get better offers elsewhere

As far as whether or not we should do it... Really the discussion should be less about Okafor's red flags and more about how Okafor compares to our options with the pick.  If Ainge feels okafor is a better bet than whatever is available to us, he will make the move.  Much 2006 when he surveyed our options with the 7th pick and decided he'd rather gamble on Sebastian telfair.

You never know how it might work out.  But there's some major positives to Okafor.  He's coming off a rookie season where he nearly averaged 20 and 10.  Luckily there are some guards at the top of the draft that Philly might have interest in, but keep in mind they might already have two picks on the top 5.   They'd have to really love this draft to move a solid prospect like Okafor for another guy at the top of what is being called a pretty weak draft.

Come on man - you know I respect your views, but you cannot go around saying Okafor "nearly averaged 20 and 10". 

The guy averaged 17 and 7 (which is quite a long way from 17 and 7) on just over 14 field goal attempts as the first (and pretty much only) option on a historically bad team.

You're talking about it as if seeing somebody average 17 and 7 on a bad team somehow suggests said player is a surefire future star, and yet:

* Michael Carter Williams averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 reb and 6.3 assists for Philly in his rookie year

* Tyreke Evans averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists on a terrible Kings team in his rookie year

* Lamar Odom averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists on a terrible Clippers team as a rookie

Other then MCW, those guys are good NBA players.  But none of those guys ever became stars.

Moral of the story is that you need to be weary of looking too far into the stats players put up when they are playing their rookie years on really, really bad teams.  When you play on a bad team, then you usually end up surrounded by really crappy players.  Because you are surrounded by really crappy teammates, you tend to get free reign to throw up stupid amounts of shots to your hearts content.  Because you tend to throw up stupid amounts of shots, your scoring numbers tend to get highly exaggerated - and when you eventually find yourself moving to a team that has more depth, your touches go down and your scoring rate drops off significantly.

There is a reason why KG, Ray and Pierce all had their scoring numbers drop off significantly when they joined forces in 2008.  There is a reason why Kevin Love and Chris Bosh both had their scoring numbers drop dramatically when they joined Lebron 'superfriend' teams.  The more talent you have around you, the more the ball tends to get shared around, and the lower your scoring tends to be.  The less talent you have around you, the more the team needs to depend on your scoring, the more shot attempts you get, the higher your scoring figures end up.

Averaging 17 and 7 just isn't THAT impressive for a a top 5 draft pick player on a historically bad them that is famously lacking scoring talent. 

Also, to anybody who tried to argue that Okafor isn't slow - don't make me laugh.  I've watched the guy play and he makes Sully look like the flash.  He's one of the slowest < 20 year old NBA players that I have ever seen. 

The guy is hot garbage, made to look more impressive then he is by juxtaposition him alongside a bunch of piles of cow dung. 

Ok, so I exaggerate a little - the guy has some definite talent and will probably become a pretty good starter in the NBA.  But anybody expecting him to become a perennial all star or a franchise player - I suggest you abandon those dreams before you get brought down by a wave of disappointment.  Okafor will never be that guy, and there are a number of guys in the top 5 or 6 of this year's draft that look to far significantly greater all-star potential then Okafor does.

Anybody considering trading legitimate assets of value for Okafor - I suggest you give up on it and just trade for Kevin Love instead.  I'm not a huge fan of his game, but he is about 2x better a player then Okafor will ever be.

[crimson_stallion]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

I completely agree with you. I want Ingram, but if we pick 3 or lower this is the direction to take. We already have 70 guards on this roster, and if you believe the hyperbole on this board every single one of them is a star because Ainge never, ever misses on a draft pick.

The one place I disagree with you is the rotting corpse of Bender. He is NEVER going to be a useful NBA player, and if Ainge burns a lottery pick on that scrub, I will be here calling for his job.

There is a boatload of wrong in this thread about Okafor. His feet are NOT slow. They are more than adequate to teach him how to rotate in the Celtics' defensive system. He is never going to be all-defense, but he can be an above average defender on a good basketball team as he matures.

Ainge was on the money to kick the tires on this one at the trade deadline, and if the pick falls to 3 or below he should actively pursue this.

Yup. A lot of people clearly didn't spend much time watching him this year – which is fair since nobody should watch the Sixers that much.

People just auto-hate anything Philly related on this forum.  Okafor is a stud prospect.  A year ago people were still debating if he should go 1st over Towns.  PHilly was a mess this season.  No doubt about that, but Okafor had a solid rookie campaign all things considered.  His floor seems to be Al Jefferson.  I'm not sure why people think a 20 year old kid coming off a rookie season averaging 17.5 points, 7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks with 50% shooting is a finished product.  He's got room to grow.  We're in the 2nd season of 22 year old Marcus Smart shooting below 40% and most of us still think the kid has untapped potential.  Aside from the jersey color, why doe someone like Smart get the benefit of the doubt, but a guy like Okafor is seen as incapable of improving?  Makes no sense.

There's a chance Okafor ends up better than anyone in this entire draft.

His floor is not Al Jefferson.  Jefferson is more like his ceiling, since his skill/talent set is too outright limited for him to ever become any more then that.

Also I do not 'autohate' anything Philly.  I actually like Noel.  I don't fool myself into thinking he'll ever be a franchise player or a big star, but I like the skills he brings and I think he could be a nice fit as a role player for this team.

Okafor I want nothing to do with.  He is a a one dimensional guy who's limitations outweight his talents something like 3-to-1.  That's even before you get into his personality issues.   

[LarBrd33]

First of all I don't see any trade not including the pick making any sense for Philly.  Unless you are suggesting we trade Marcus smart or Avery Bradley in a package, no collection of late 1sts is going to entice that team.  They can get better offers elsewhere

As far as whether or not we should do it... Really the discussion should be less about Okafor's red flags and more about how Okafor compares to our options with the pick.  If Ainge feels okafor is a better bet than whatever is available to us, he will make the move.  Much 2006 when he surveyed our options with the 7th pick and decided he'd rather gamble on Sebastian telfair.

You never know how it might work out.  But there's some major positives to Okafor.  He's coming off a rookie season where he nearly averaged 20 and 10.  Luckily there are some guards at the top of the draft that Philly might have interest in, but keep in mind they might already have two picks on the top 5.   They'd have to really love this draft to move a solid prospect like Okafor for another guy at the top of what is being called a pretty weak draft.

Come on man - you know I respect your views, but you cannot go around saying Okafor "nearly averaged 20 and 10". 

The guy averaged 17 and 7 (which is quite a long way from 17 and 7) on just over 14 field goal attempts as the first (and pretty much only) option on a historically bad team.

You're talking about it as if seeing somebody average 17 and 7 on a bad team somehow suggests said player is a surefire future star, and yet:

* Michael Carter Williams averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 reb and 6.3 assists for Philly in his rookie year

* Tyreke Evans averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists on a terrible Kings team in his rookie year

* Lamar Odom averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists on a terrible Clippers team as a rookie

Other then MCW, those guys are good NBA players.  But none of those guys ever became stars.

Moral of the story is that you need to be weary of looking too far into the stats players put up when they are playing their rookie years on really, really bad teams.  When you play on a bad team, then you usually end up surrounded by really crappy players.  Because you are surrounded by really crappy teammates, you tend to get free reign to throw up stupid amounts of shots to your hearts content.  Because you tend to throw up stupid amounts of shots, your scoring numbers tend to get highly exaggerated - and when you eventually find yourself moving to a team that has more depth, your touches go down and your scoring rate drops off significantly.

There is a reason why KG, Ray and Pierce all had their scoring numbers drop off significantly when they joined forces in 2008.  There is a reason why Kevin Love and Chris Bosh both had their scoring numbers drop dramatically when they joined Lebron 'superfriend' teams.  The more talent you have around you, the more the ball tends to get shared around, and the lower your scoring tends to be.  The less talent you have around you, the more the team needs to depend on your scoring, the more shot attempts you get, the higher your scoring figures end up.

Averaging 17 and 7 just isn't THAT impressive for a a top 5 draft pick player on a historically bad them that is famously lacking scoring talent. 

Also, to anybody who tried to argue that Okafor isn't slow - don't make me laugh.  I've watched the guy play and he makes Sully look like the flash.  He's one of the slowest < 20 year old NBA players that I have ever seen. 

The guy is hot garbage, made to look more impressive then he is by juxtaposition him alongside a bunch of piles of cow dung. 

Ok, so I exaggerate a little - the guy has some definite talent and will probably become a pretty good starter in the NBA.  But anybody expecting him to become a perennial all star or a franchise player - I suggest you abandon those dreams before you get brought down by a wave of disappointment.  Okafor will never be that guy, and there are a number of guys in the top 5 or 6 of this year's draft that look to far significantly greater all-star potential then Okafor does.

Anybody considering trading legitimate assets of value for Okafor - I suggest you give up on it and just trade for Kevin Love instead.  I'm not a huge fan of his game, but he is about 2x better a player then Okafor will ever be.

Neat.  Nice list of random basketball players who had nice rookie seasons.  You could easily come up with a random list of hall of famers who had worse rookie seasons than Okafor.

But fwiw, the guys you listed all played more minutes.  More minutes = more stats.  Tyreke Evans averaged 37.2 minutes as a rookie, for instance. 

Okafor averaged 30.  Adjust his minutes to 37.2 and he put up 21.7 points and 8.7 rebounds. 

Not bad for a rookie center.  Anyone who has watched him play can see he's a gifted offensive player. 

It's pretty straight forward.  Okafor might end up better than anyone in this draft.  If Ainge decides Okafor is better than any option we have and he can grab Okafor, he'll do it.  Whether or not Philly will go for it is another question entirely.  As we've discussed before, Boston tried getting Okafor at the deadline for a package built around the Brooklyn pick and Philly turned them down. 

And yeah... Okafor was pretty impressive for a rookie.  When's the last time Boston had a rookie average 17.7 points, 7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks with 51% shooting in 30mpg?

Okafor as a rookie was pretty similar to Al Jefferson in his 4th season when he was 3 years older than Okafor. 

Who knows what we'll get with our draft pick.  Maybe the kid will be a bum.  It's pretty clear Okafor can play.

[Celtics4ever]

And yeah... Okafor was pretty impressive for a rookie.  When's the last time Boston had a rookie average 17.7 points, 7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks with 51% shooting in 30mpg?

Okafor as a rookie was pretty similar to Al Jefferson in his 4th season when he was 3 years older than Okafor.

Sadly, their D is the same too.

[CoachBo]

First of all I don't see any trade not including the pick making any sense for Philly.  Unless you are suggesting we trade Marcus smart or Avery Bradley in a package, no collection of late 1sts is going to entice that team.  They can get better offers elsewhere

As far as whether or not we should do it... Really the discussion should be less about Okafor's red flags and more about how Okafor compares to our options with the pick.  If Ainge feels okafor is a better bet than whatever is available to us, he will make the move.  Much 2006 when he surveyed our options with the 7th pick and decided he'd rather gamble on Sebastian telfair.

You never know how it might work out.  But there's some major positives to Okafor.  He's coming off a rookie season where he nearly averaged 20 and 10.  Luckily there are some guards at the top of the draft that Philly might have interest in, but keep in mind they might already have two picks on the top 5.   They'd have to really love this draft to move a solid prospect like Okafor for another guy at the top of what is being called a pretty weak draft.

Come on man - you know I respect your views, but you cannot go around saying Okafor "nearly averaged 20 and 10". 

The guy averaged 17 and 7 (which is quite a long way from 17 and 7) on just over 14 field goal attempts as the first (and pretty much only) option on a historically bad team.

You're talking about it as if seeing somebody average 17 and 7 on a bad team somehow suggests said player is a surefire future star, and yet:

* Michael Carter Williams averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 reb and 6.3 assists for Philly in his rookie year

* Tyreke Evans averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists on a terrible Kings team in his rookie year

* Lamar Odom averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists on a terrible Clippers team as a rookie

Other then MCW, those guys are good NBA players.  But none of those guys ever became stars.

Moral of the story is that you need to be weary of looking too far into the stats players put up when they are playing their rookie years on really, really bad teams.  When you play on a bad team, then you usually end up surrounded by really crappy players.  Because you are surrounded by really crappy teammates, you tend to get free reign to throw up stupid amounts of shots to your hearts content.  Because you tend to throw up stupid amounts of shots, your scoring numbers tend to get highly exaggerated - and when you eventually find yourself moving to a team that has more depth, your touches go down and your scoring rate drops off significantly.

There is a reason why KG, Ray and Pierce all had their scoring numbers drop off significantly when they joined forces in 2008.  There is a reason why Kevin Love and Chris Bosh both had their scoring numbers drop dramatically when they joined Lebron 'superfriend' teams.  The more talent you have around you, the more the ball tends to get shared around, and the lower your scoring tends to be.  The less talent you have around you, the more the team needs to depend on your scoring, the more shot attempts you get, the higher your scoring figures end up.

Averaging 17 and 7 just isn't THAT impressive for a a top 5 draft pick player on a historically bad them that is famously lacking scoring talent. 

Also, to anybody who tried to argue that Okafor isn't slow - don't make me laugh.  I've watched the guy play and he makes Sully look like the flash.  He's one of the slowest < 20 year old NBA players that I have ever seen. 

The guy is hot garbage, made to look more impressive then he is by juxtaposition him alongside a bunch of piles of cow dung. 

Ok, so I exaggerate a little - the guy has some definite talent and will probably become a pretty good starter in the NBA.  But anybody expecting him to become a perennial all star or a franchise player - I suggest you abandon those dreams before you get brought down by a wave of disappointment.  Okafor will never be that guy, and there are a number of guys in the top 5 or 6 of this year's draft that look to far significantly greater all-star potential then Okafor does.

Anybody considering trading legitimate assets of value for Okafor - I suggest you give up on it and just trade for Kevin Love instead.  I'm not a huge fan of his game, but he is about 2x better a player then Okafor will ever be.

No, you exaggerate a lot. And you are dead wrong about Okafor.

[dannyboy35]

He's not my first choice but he's extremely talented on offense. It's good to know we have many options.

[ssspence]

I have < zero interest in JO. I pray the Cs don't trade for him.

[The Rondo Show]

Said this in another thread and I stick by it:



That's not the shot chart of someone who can only play inside. At 20-years-old, he's undeniably an offensive prodigy. Here's a taste of his abilities - a career high 31 against Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnwVCBkeEg

He's unstoppable one-on-one and should command a double-team most times he touches the ball. That in itself is extremely valuable -- especially since Boston can surround him with shooters like IT, Bradley, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. He averaged 20 pts on 63% FG after the all star break. Again, he's 20.

There's no doubt he needs to improve his defense. He often shows little-to-no interest on that end, which is definitely disconcerting.

However, his nightmare supporting cast in Philly doesn't help. Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Nik Stauskas, etc have no hope of containing penetration. Jah is a bit of a sitting duck there.

Boston -- with so many elite perimeter defenders -- is one of few teams who can hide him in my opinion.

If we don't land a potential star, i.e. Simmons, Ingram or Bender, we should go all in on Jah. Given we'd probably need to add a sweetener, but the deal is a no-brainer for Philly if Dunn or Murray is on the board.

I completely agree with you. I want Ingram, but if we pick 3 or lower this is the direction to take. We already have 70 guards on this roster, and if you believe the hyperbole on this board every single one of them is a star because Ainge never, ever misses on a draft pick.

The one place I disagree with you is the rotting corpse of Bender. He is NEVER going to be a useful NBA player, and if Ainge burns a lottery pick on that scrub, I will be here calling for his job.

There is a boatload of wrong in this thread about Okafor. His feet are NOT slow. They are more than adequate to teach him how to rotate in the Celtics' defensive system. He is never going to be all-defense, but he can be an above average defender on a good basketball team as he matures.

Ainge was on the money to kick the tires on this one at the trade deadline, and if the pick falls to 3 or below he should actively pursue this.

Yup. A lot of people clearly didn't spend much time watching him this year – which is fair since nobody should watch the Sixers that much.

People just auto-hate anything Philly related on this forum.  Okafor is a stud prospect.  A year ago people were still debating if he should go 1st over Towns.  PHilly was a mess this season.  No doubt about that, but Okafor had a solid rookie campaign all things considered.  His floor seems to be Al Jefferson.  I'm not sure why people think a 20 year old kid coming off a rookie season averaging 17.5 points, 7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks with 50% shooting is a finished product.  He's got room to grow.  We're in the 2nd season of 22 year old Marcus Smart shooting below 40% and most of us still think the kid has untapped potential.  Aside from the jersey color, why doe someone like Smart get the benefit of the doubt, but a guy like Okafor is seen as incapable of improving?  Makes no sense.

There's a chance Okafor ends up better than anyone in this entire draft.

You articulated what I was going for very well. I agree with everything – though to your last point, I think there's almost no chance he's better than KAT.

[PhoSita]

What I don't understand is why people look at what he did in Philly and assume it has anything to do with what he'd look like on a decent well-coached team.