Apparently the Bulls won’t stop until they’ve acquired all of the NBA’s former Chicago high school stars.
Reports early Tuesday morning indicate that the Bulls may be interested in free agent center Jahlil Okaforhttps://t.co/qTt8YqtRJn
— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) July 17, 2018
While the return of Simeon grad Jabari Parker brings actual promise, the same cannot be said about the Okafor, a Whitney Young product.
Okafor was the #1 recruit of his high school class and the best player for Duke’s 2015 national championship team as a freshman. The sky was the limit for the big man entering the NBA after Philly drafted him with the #3 overall pick.
After a somewhat promising rookie year in which he averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds over 30 minutes a game, Okafor has completely fallen off the map, primarily due to off the court immaturity issues and his complete unwillingness to adapt to today’s style of basketball.
A black hole in the post and an utterly incapable defender, Okafor was a healthy scratch 32 times(!) his second season in Philly, and The 76ers finally gave up on him just two games into last season, trading him to Brooklyn.
He saw action in only 26 games for the Nets last season, where many of the same problems that plagued him in Philly lingered.
Still, he’s just 22 and whenever a player that young, who was drafted as high as he was, remains available, there will be interest.
Okafor would be the Bulls fifth center, but Wendell Carter Jr. is the only one that they have longterm hopes for. Still, they’d have to be pretty damn sure they have the infrastructure in place to turn his career around. And even if they do, what do they gain by changing his career around? A backup center in an era where starting centers sometimes play less than 20 minutes a night?
It’s a shame that Okafor’s career has played out the way it has, but he’s also not the Bulls’ problem They shouldn’t go out of their way to make him so.
