Sixerscan wrote:His scoring hasn't regressed as much as his usage has regressed, which is something people thought would happen as the team improved. Among the many okafor projection mistakes people made last summer, one of the biggest ones was the assumption that okafor would get to play with better teammates without having to sacrifice any possessions to those better teammates.
I don't think that he has regressed either. He is just behind a much better player.
As has been the case with Noel and Okafor since the point when Embiid was drafted, if they can't play a legitimate amount of time at the 4 then they have no future on the sixers, unless they are only going to be 15 minutes a game back ups.
I think that BOTH players are better than 15 mpg backups, and therefore can only survive on the Sixers if they can play with Embiid.
That was my calculus at least between when Embiid and Simmons were drafted. Once Simmons was drafted then it became even LESS likely for them to survive on the Sixers because now there were TWO franchise talents that need to be complimented, and Simmons is likely to play a lot at the 4.
So the most likely outcome of this situation long term is that they will BOTH need to be traded. The problem is that Noel's contract forces us to decide what to do quickly. For the longest while I was more optimistic about Okafor than Noel, but I have since changed my mind, at it isn't because of disappointment with Okafor, or strong play from Noel. It is because the only center on the team that REALLY matters, seems to be inhibited by Okafor on offense, and defense, and that sort of crosses Okafor off of the list for me.
If Noel does the same thing then he will be crossed off the list as well.
