Okafor might not be ready to run

IF THERE IS one thing 76ers fans are used to, it's having their centers' arrival delayed. From Andrew Bynum to Nerlens Noel to Joel Embiid, and now Jahlil Okafor?

Bynum never took the court after a blockbuster trade in the summer of 2012, Noel was shut down his first season while recovering from a knee injury and Embiid will miss his second straight season due to a fractured bone in his foot. And while Okafor isn't sidelined with a serious injury as the three big men before him were, it doesn't appear that he'll enter the season at 100 percent.

The hope all along for coach Brett Brown was to have the third overall pick in good enough shape to be ready for the season-opener on Oct. 28 in Boston. Recently, Brown said he'd like to have Okafor playing about 32 minutes a game. But a sore right knee has sidelined him for close to a week, thus putting him behind as far as on-court fitness is concerned and definitely delaying the 32-minute runs his coach was hoping for.

Okafor did work out on his own yesterday during the team's practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, but that didn't include any full-court activity. It is unknown whether the center will be ready for Friday's preseason home game against the Washington Wizards, or when he could be at full strength.

"It's not fair to him, it's not fair to put him in that situation (to be fully ready by opening night)," said Brown. "The end game, I hope, will be about 32 minutes, maybe even more. But it's really based on his fitness. He has no right to come out and be fit right from this injury. So I have to be smart with the minutes I give him. That is the end game that I hope to get to, 32 minutes. It's going to be based on if you can go hard for four eight-minute stretches. If you can go for four eights, then that's a good thing."

The Sixers seem committed to not pushing their big men into a hasty return from injury, no matter how minor, and Okafor insisted on Tuesday that his knee problem was minor. Perhaps the knee is too sore for him to perform at full strength. Or maybe Brown and the rest of the organization wasn't satisified with Okafor's fitness and they are using some extra time to get him where they want him to be fitness-wise.

On another front, Noel, who has been out since Thursday with contusions to his knee and back, did practice yesterday and seems to be ready to go. Brown said the second-year big man will play Friday against Washington.

Having both of his big men together isn't a luxury Brown has been afforded much during this preseason.

"I think he arrived good. He arrived good," said Brown of Okafor's fitness for training camp. "I feel like the knowledge of what great is going to be is the education that we have to help him and teach him. He's been tremendously set back now. He was moving, he was going to be fine, going through Stockton, he was good. So we're looking for great and that will equate to 32 minutes. It will equate to a nimble, mobile man who will get down the floor or picking and rolling. I spent a lot of time (Tuesday) watching Orlando with Dwight Howard, how you can cleverly get people balls and touches in the paint where they want it. You try to learn from everybody. I think that his fitness is not that far away in regards of we know how to do it, but because he hasn't played, it's just not at a stage right now where we can talk about that volume of minutes."

So it may be some time before the tandem of Okafor and Noel share the court. Until then, the coach is envisioning how it may look.

"They play off of each other because if all of a sudden Nerlens is rolling and Jahlil occupies a man down there because he's Jahlil Okafor, well, Nerlens could roll into air, he can roll into space and play," said Brown. "I think as far as running, that's going to be on (Noel) and not be influenced by Jahlil. But in a halfcourt game, because Jahlil is going to require some attention, I think it will create space for Nerlens just like (Robert) Covington creates space for Nerlens, just in a different way."

Brett Brown said the team finished yesterday's practice with 10 players after Pierre Jackson and JaKarr Sampson had to leave the court with unspecified nicks . . . The team will host Washington tomorrow, play at Brooklyn on Sunday and then Boston in New Hampshire next Friday to finish out the preseason.

Blog: ph.ly/SixervilleBy Bob Cooney