Sixers go big again, selecting Okafor in the draft
NEW YORK - Say what you will about Sam Hinkie, the 76ers general manager never diverted from his plan. Hinkie always said he would select the best available player in the NBA draft regardless of his position. So when the Los Angeles Lakers passed on Duke's Jahlil Okafor at No. 2, the Sixers added another towering post player.
NEW YORK - Say what you will about Sam Hinkie, the 76ers general manager never diverted from his plan.
Hinkie always said he would select the best available player in the NBA draft regardless of his position. So when the Los Angeles Lakers passed on Duke's Jahlil Okafor at No. 2, the Sixers added another towering post player.
They selected the 6-foot-11, 275-pound Okafor third overall on Thursday night at the Barclays Center. The Sixers were expected to take Ohio State guard D'Angelo Russell in that spot. But Russell was snatched up by the Los Angeles Lakers, who many thought would draft Okafor.
The Chicago native became the Sixers' third center acquired in the first round in as many seasons.
They picked up Nerlens Noel from the New Orleans Pelicans in a draft-day trade for former NBA all-star point guard Jrue Holiday in 2013. Last summer, they picked Joel Embiid with the third overall pick.
Noel was moved to power forward late last season. Embiid missed what would have been his rookie season after undergoing surgery last June to repair a stress fracture in his right foot. His immediate future is unknown after he recently experienced a setback in healing.
For the Sixers, this draft was mostly about acquiring frontcourt players.
In the second round, the team selected Spanish power forward Guillermo Hernangomez (35th pick), Bowling Green power forward Richaun Holmes (37th), North Carolina swingman J.P Tokoto (58) and Serbian power forward Luka Mitrovic (60th).
There were unconfirmed reports that the Sixers were going to trade Hernangomez to the Knicks for cash. He won't play in the NBA this season.
But this draft was all about Okafor, who could be looked upon as insurance, assuming Embiid's foot problem is serious.
Things will be crowded if Embiid is healthy. Okafor and Embiid both demand the ball on the block. And Noel also would like to get some touches.
How will the Sixers make this work?
"I don't know, it's not my job to figure out," said Okafor, a good friend of Embiid's and an acquaintance of Noel's. "I'll just go there and work as hard as I can."
His new teammates do not seem concerned about the overcrowded frontcourt, which could include Dario Saric in 2016-17.
Embiid posted on Twitter: "Ay my boy is in Philly with me." Isaiah Canaan tweeted, "Welcome to Phila Big Fella." Robert Covington tweeted, "Welcome @JahlilOkafor my fellow chitown native."
"I'm excited," Okafor said. "I'm very excited. I ran into Jerami Grant as I was walking back here. He said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' That's somebody I played with on Team USA a few years ago. Joel Embiid texted me last night and said, 'See you in Philly.' He kind of jinxed me.
"It's a great feeling. I know some of those guys already. So I'm excited."
Okafor met Embiid on a recruiting trip to Kansas when Okafor was a senior at Chicago's Whitney Young High School. Embiid was a standout freshman for the Jayhawks.
"He's a funny guy," Okafor said.
Instead of going to Kansas, Okafor became a consensus all-American who helped lead Duke to its fifth NCAA title last season. The 19-year-old averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds and made 66 percent of his shots. He's the first freshman in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named the league's player of the year.
"I've always won," said Okafor, who led Whitney Young to the Illinois High School Class 4A state championship as a senior. "I love winning. That's what I'm all about.
"So I'm excited to go down to Philadelphia and kind of rebuild. And hopefully, I can turn the organization around."
As of Wednesday night, he was expected to take his talent to the Lakers. He didn't even work out for the Sixers. Meanwhile, the buzz around the league since April was that the Sixers had targeted Russell. It appeared Wednesday that he would fall in their lap.
"I'm still in shock," Russell said of being drafted by the Lakers. "I mean, you only can go by the rumors months ago that - what everybody was saying was going to happen.
"But dreams do come true, and life is not fair for people that don't agree with the decision that the [Lakers] front office made. But I'm here, and I'm ready to make an impact right away."
Russell was asked if he was pleased to avoid the Sixers' rebuilding process.
"Not at all," he said.
Why not?
"This is like a recruitment process all over again," he said. "I definitely want to give them a praise for even taking the chance to look at me. If I would have landed in Philly, It would have been a blessing."
@PompeyOnSixers