Who Has More Trade Value for the Sixers, Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor?

The Sixers’ offseason began with a report that the team would be gauging interest around the league and trading either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor. The person who reported it first was ESPN NBA Insider, Chad Ford. Ford’s one of the more respectable insiders of the league and normally doesn’t just throw shit to the wall to see if it sticks.

There’s been plenty of other reports this offseason regarding Dario Saric, Joel Embiid and what Bryan Colangelo may do to tinker the lineup, but nothing has really come of it all just yet. So when we hear something on Noel or Okafor, we’re quick to pay attention.

Ford joined 97.5 The Fanatic with Joe DeCamara yesterday afternoon to discuss the possibilities of the Sixers trading Noel or Okafor and the fact that Sam Hinkie may have overestimated Okafor’s net value when drafting him third overall last year. It doesn’t sound good. [H/T to Liberty Ballers]

I think that the Sixers and I both believed that the most valuable asset they had other than the No. 1 pick was [Jahlil] Okafor. I think that now, several weeks of gauging that interest around the league has led them to the conclusion that he might not be as valuable as they once thought. I think they went into the process asking the question, ‘Would we trade for the No. 3 pick, or the No. 4 pick or the No. 5 pick for a guy like Okafor, would that be good value for us?’ And I think they’ve walked out of that scenario saying, ‘We don’t think we can actually get that for Okafor right now.’
 
I think that’s less an indictment on Okafor than it is a realization that center has become a little bit like a running back in the NFL… Especially the sort of player Okafor is, which is a back to the basket, below the rim, not particularly athletic, not going to stretch the floor, doesn’t necessarily play defense big man. That just doesn’t fit the schemes that most NBA coaches are after, including I think the 76ers. So I think there was a major miscalculation on the part of Sam Hinkie when he selected him at [three].
 
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[Nerlens] Noel might actually end up having more trade value because he does some things in the modern NBA, his ability to defend multiple positions, his shot-blocking, his ability to finish on the break, that make him perhaps a more attractive option right now. They’re exploring that as well, but it’s not easy to necessarily move either of those guys right now and get the sort of value that Philadelphia wants, which I think what they want is a top five or six pick in this draft, or a young point guard, or a young two guard that can really shoot the basketball to pair on the floor with Ben Simmons.

Ford makes sense here and his synopsis on Noel’s game is pretty spot-on. A lot of Sixers fans I’ve talked to would rather part with Okafor than Noel, so maybe a majority of the fans agree with Ford. And maybe that’s why the Sixers overestimated Okafor’s worth… because they actually don’t want to get rid of Noel.

Stay tuned. You can listen to the entire Ford interview with DeCamara here.

Do you agree with Ford?