www.cbssports.com/nba/news/brett-brown-76ers-exploring-trade-market-for-jahlil-okafor-to-see-whats-out-there/
While it is not uncommon for teams to explore trade value for players, they are not usually so upfront and honest about it. This is true considering that the player in question was the third pick in the 2015 Draft and has only played two seasons in the NBA. In addition to that, he is only 21 years old. There is a big problem with Jahlil Okafor though and that is that he plays in the wrong era for his skill set. He is a low post scorer and there are just not a lot of them out there these days due to the style in which the majority of teams play. This does not mean that Okafor is not a good player, it just means that his strengths do not fit what teams want to do and his weaknesses hurt the teams he plays for in dealing with teams that have embraced the pace and space strategy.
Jahlil Okafor had a good rookie season for the Sixers. He played for one of the worst teams in the history of the NBA winning only 10 games in his rookie season. Okafor missed 29 of those games, but in the games he played he put up some good numbers averaging 17 points and 7 rebounds per game in 30 minutes each game. He shot over 50% from the field and it looked as if he could be a go to scorer in the post. Last season was not great for Okafor, he again missed quite a few games and his minutes, scoring, and rebounding all went down. In his time though he proved to be just as efficient. Using Basketball Reference's amazing player season finder tool, he is one of four big men that were able to average over 10 points in less than 23 minutes per game while shooting over 50% (you can see the table at bkref.com/pi/shareit/lCexd). The other three were Jusuf Nurkic (counting his time in Denver and Portland together), Enes Kanter, and Greg Monroe. While none of those players are going to be transformational, they can help your team win by providing good minutes and scoring off the bench. They are also all players that score well in the paint, but maybe do not play the greatest defense or protect the rim that well. Despite that, Okafor is a valuable player.
In looking at his individual playtype statistics from Synergy you can get a good idea of how good he is as a scorer. In isolation, Okafor rated out well and they accounted for 20% of his possessions. He ranked in the 75th percentile in the NBA, which is pretty good and even shot 52% in isolation situations. Okafor can score if given the opportunities. As a post up threat, Okafor got a lot of his possessions in the post and he took advantage. He is one of only 16 players that averaged at least post up possessions per game. He scored 0.86 points per possession and given the chance to be surrounded by more shooting that number could go up. Joel Embiid, who is the reason the Sixers are so willing to part with Okafor, was not much better of a post up threat than Okafor. The difference though is in what they can do. Embiid can do a lot of things offensively and defensively that Okafor cannot.
Defensively, Okafor is not great. He is a step or two slow and he has a hard time protecting the rim. As a post up defender, Okafor gave up 0.97 points per possession, which put him in the 33rd percentile of the league. He fared even worse in isolation situations, giving up 1.00 point per possession, which put him in the 25th percentile of the league. There is hope for Jahlil Okafor and it should be found in Greg Monroe. Monroe came into the league with a similar skill set to Okafor and struggled to play on winning teams. If you look at his yearly totals, as his minutes went down his efficiency has gone up and he reached the playoffs for the first time in his career as a 6th man for the Bucks. He provides a low post threat for them off the bench and gives great effort defensively even though he possesses the same weaknesses as Okafor. Okafor is never going to be an elite defender, but a lot of defense is effort. If he can play decent defense for 20 minutes in addition to being a low post load for other teams to handle with their stretch fives, he has a place with a good team. I think he could be valuable to the Sixers, but it appears that they will trade him. I would not, I think he has a chance to be a great bench player for a good team.