Okafor-to-Boston rumor scary

I'M NOT SURE what trade-deadline deal that did not happen concerns me more: that the Sixers reportedly came close to moving rookie center Jahlil Okafor to the Boston Celtics, or that president/general manager Sam Hinkie said teams had interest in role players Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson and T.J. McConnell but nothing was worked out.

WARNING!! For those who keep telling me they are tired of me only writing "hit pieces" on the Sixers, this might be considered another one.

Let's start with Hinkie saying at a press conference on Friday: "There's been a lot interest in even the undrafted players. (Covington) is one of those and (Thompson), but also (McConnell)."

Just so I understand this, teams had interest in three marginal NBA players, but the Sixers could not work something out and kept all three because they are vital members of a team that was 8-45 at the time.

C'mon . . . If four basketballs were offered, was it worth scrapping a deal because the Sixers could not get a fifth one?

Jokes aside, while I've made light of the Sixers' propensity for trading for second-round picks, even a conditional second-rounder would likely offer more value to the future than keeping Covington, McConnell or Thompson.

With possibly the exception of Covington as a low-minutes shooter off the bench, it would indicate the rebuild was going poorly if these guys are still counted on after this thrown-away season.

Still, my real apprehension is with the report that Okafor was close to being traded.

Any trade rumor, especially one that was not consummated, has to be taken with a teaspoon of salt, so the Okafor-to-the-Celtics story in the Boston Herald over the weekend might not have legs.

However, a story like Boston almost acquiring Okafor isn't thrown out there without some serious fact-checking.

Where there's smoke . . .

So if you believe the story, even discussing an Okafor trade in which the Sixers' big acquisition would be the unprotected 2016 first-round draft pick the Celtics get from the Nets is disturbing.

A trade like that would not have been bad just because Okafor's ceiling is higher than any potential player in the 2016 draft except, maybe, multiskilled LSU freshman forward Ben Simmons.

It also is bad because entertaining a trade like that is an indication that the Sixers could be considering another reset for 2016-17.

Trading Okafor would have meant that after a half-season, the Sixers had given up on a potential multiseason All-Star low-post center because his skills did not translate to the Sixers' system.

I'll say for the umpteenth time that if the Sixers can't find a way to incorporate a talent like Okafor into their system, they should find a new system.

Wasn't choosing a system over superior talent one of the complaints about former Eagles coach Chip Kelly?

If the Sixers trade Okafor, it means they've made their choice and decided they prefer Nerlens Noel or the injured Joel Embiid over Okafor.

That would be a bad decision.

The purpose of this "sink to the bottom to rise to the top" plan is to acquire transcendent players through high draft picks.

Okafor is as close to a transcendent player as the Sixers have. He is a low-post player who can average 20 to 25 points with 10-plus rebounds.

Noel is a specialist, so you don't build around him.

Embiid, with his twice-broken right foot, is too unpredictable, so you can't risk building around him.

Okafor is playing now and developing in NBA action. It is a no-brainer to establish him as the foundation piece.

As bad as things are overall for the Sixers, they have a player in Okafor who has the potential to develop into one of the superstar pieces they are searching for.

The idea that the Sixers might not see it that way and were negotiating with the Celtics for a draft pick with still-unknown value is troublesome.

It was the move they made when they traded point guard Michael Carter-Williams a half-season after he was named NBA Rookie of the Year.

It wasted 111 games of development and forced the Sixers to reset things for this season.

The Sixers' point-guard situation is atrocious and they still don't when they'll be getting the Lakers first-round pick they acquired in the MCW trade - it's top-three protected this year and next - or where it will be slotted.

Okafor is a far superior talent to Carter-Williams.

Trading Okafor would also mean the Sixers would have miscalculated two of the five lottery picks they had over the last three drafts - possibly three if the gamble of taken an already injured Embiid with the No. 3 overall pick in 2014 craps out.

We won't talk about Dario Saric coming or not coming over from Europe and what happens when he finally gets here.

Missing on high draft picks is disastrous for a rebuilding franchise.

Deciding to even put Okafor on the trade market is bad enough.

If the primary thing the Sixers want in return is another high lottery pick, just push the reset button and start things from the beginning, again.

smallwj@phillynews.com

@SmallTerp

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog