First of all I don't see any trade not including the pick making any sense for Philly. Unless you are suggesting we trade Marcus smart or Avery Bradley in a package, no collection of late 1sts is going to entice that team. They can get better offers elsewhere
As far as whether or not we should do it... Really the discussion should be less about Okafor's red flags and more about how Okafor compares to our options with the pick. If Ainge feels okafor is a better bet than whatever is available to us, he will make the move. Much 2006 when he surveyed our options with the 7th pick and decided he'd rather gamble on Sebastian telfair.
You never know how it might work out. But there's some major positives to Okafor. He's coming off a rookie season where he nearly averaged 20 and 10. Luckily there are some guards at the top of the draft that Philly might have interest in, but keep in mind they might already have two picks on the top 5. They'd have to really love this draft to move a solid prospect like Okafor for another guy at the top of what is being called a pretty weak draft.
Come on man - you know I respect your views, but you cannot go around saying Okafor "nearly averaged 20 and 10".
The guy averaged 17 and 7 (which is quite a long way from 17 and 7) on just over 14 field goal attempts as the first (and pretty much only) option on a historically bad team.
You're talking about it as if seeing somebody average 17 and 7 on a bad team somehow suggests said player is a surefire future star, and yet:
* Michael Carter Williams averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 reb and 6.3 assists for Philly in his rookie year
* Tyreke Evans averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists on a terrible Kings team in his rookie year
* Lamar Odom averaged 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists on a terrible Clippers team as a rookie
Other then MCW, those guys are good NBA players. But none of those guys ever became stars.
Moral of the story is that you need to be weary of looking too far into the stats players put up when they are playing their rookie years on really, really bad teams. When you play on a bad team, then you usually end up surrounded by really crappy players. Because you are surrounded by really crappy teammates, you tend to get free reign to throw up stupid amounts of shots to your hearts content. Because you tend to throw up stupid amounts of shots, your scoring numbers tend to get highly exaggerated - and when you eventually find yourself moving to a team that has more depth, your touches go down and your scoring rate drops off significantly.
There is a reason why KG, Ray and Pierce all had their scoring numbers drop off significantly when they joined forces in 2008. There is a reason why Kevin Love and Chris Bosh both had their scoring numbers drop dramatically when they joined Lebron 'superfriend' teams. The more talent you have around you, the more the ball tends to get shared around, and the lower your scoring tends to be. The less talent you have around you, the more the team needs to depend on your scoring, the more shot attempts you get, the higher your scoring figures end up.
Averaging 17 and 7 just isn't THAT impressive for a a top 5 draft pick player on a historically bad them that is famously lacking scoring talent.
Also, to anybody who tried to argue that Okafor isn't slow - don't make me laugh. I've watched the guy play and he makes Sully look like the flash. He's one of the slowest < 20 year old NBA players that I have ever seen.
The guy is hot garbage, made to look more impressive then he is by juxtaposition him alongside a bunch of piles of cow dung.
Ok, so I exaggerate a little - the guy has some definite talent and will probably become a pretty good starter in the NBA. But anybody expecting him to become a perennial all star or a franchise player - I suggest you abandon those dreams before you get brought down by a wave of disappointment. Okafor will never be that guy, and there are a number of guys in the top 5 or 6 of this year's draft that look to far significantly greater all-star potential then Okafor does.
Anybody considering trading legitimate assets of value for Okafor - I suggest you give up on it and just trade for Kevin Love instead. I'm not a huge fan of his game, but he is about 2x better a player then Okafor will ever be.