Sixers' Colangelo: Evaluation is paramount

Jerry Colangelo's mandate was simple when he joined the 76ers earlier this season: Look things over and set things right.

So the architect of those great Phoenix Suns teams tinkered a bit. He traded for Ish Smith's leadership and signed Elton Brand's experience.

Now, it seems, Colangelo is content to let the trade deadline slip by and allow Sam Hinkie's plan of acquiring assets to play out. Don't look for a roster makeover at the Feb. 18 deadline, Colangelo said Tuesday. He wants to let the dust settle on what Hinkie has already done, evaluate the results and start fresh in the offseason.

"I'm interested to see how guys play now until the end of the season," said Colangelo, who received a three-year deal in December to become the Sixers chairman of basketball operations. "People like to talk about here's the trade deadline. That's going to come and that's going to go.

"We still have to play X number of games before the end of the season. That's all part of the analysis in terms of what we do relative to the draft, free agency and other options at the end of the year."

By now, most are aware that the Sixers' end-of-the-season decisions are likely to focus on their crowded center position.

The Sixers hope that Joel Embiid, taken third overall in 2014, will finally make his NBA debut next season.

The 7-foot-2, 265-pounder had bone graft surgery to repair the navicular bone in his right foot in August. He will miss the entire season. He missed what would have been his rookie season after surgery in June 2014 to repair a stress fracture in the same bone.

Meanwhile, rookie center Jahlil Okafor and second-year center Nerlens Noel have shown that they can't play together. The Sixers had hoped that moving Noel to power forward alongside Okafor would give them a dominant front court of 6-foot-11 players.

But Noel has shown he is better suited to play center, and the team has been successful with him at the position.

Okafor, meanwhile, averages a team-best 17.3 points but is often on the bench late in competitive games.

Similar players as well, Okafor and Embiid are an unlikely pairing. Both are liabilities guarding power forwards and chasing stretch fours in the perimeter. So the belief is that the Sixers may try to move Okafor this summer if Embiid is healthy. If he isn't, they may have to decide between Okafor and Noel.

"As you go forward and try to analyze this thing, what's the best combination?" Colangelo said. "Who complements one another? How do you surround the player? You know you look at Okafor. You look at what he can do and his deficiencies, how do you surround him to protect him? You see how that all plays out."

Colangelo, the Hall of Famer who resides in the Phoenix area, acknowledged that his visit here was regarding the future of the team. He arrived in New York on Thursday and remained through the weekend to meet with Sixers co-managing owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer. He had breakfast with Sixers season-ticket holders in Philly on Monday morning. Then he had lunch with folks at Toyota, a corporate partner. He finished the day at an event for season-ticket holders at the National Constitution Center.

Colangelo attended a meeting Tuesday morning, along with general manager Hinkie and coach Brett Brown, to identify potential trades and free-agent targets for the next five years. Then he and Hinkie watched practice and chatted with Brown afterward. Colangelo was scheduled to fly back to Phoenix on Tuesday.

"In terms of trades, we're not actively out looking there to make a trade," he said of the deadline. "But you always have to be open. Things happen usually right around all-star break."

There will be plenty of discussions among league executives while teams are on break from Feb. 12-17.

"It may lead to nothing," Colangelo said. "And I think right now, were kind of content to say there are too many question marks about certain players' health and so forth that you to be very careful. You have to be very selective. Timing is everything."

But there's a sense that something will happen eventually.

"No one likes a revolving door," Hinkie said. "But at the same time, our job is to build a team that can compete deep into May or June. That will require lots of tough decisions, probably more to come."

kpompey@phillynews.com

@PompeyOnSixers

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