On Friday, league sources told ESPN's Chris Haynes that the Philadelphia 76ers and representatives for big man Jahlil Okafor are were continuing their efforts to try to trade him. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls have received an ultimatum from injured big man Nikola Mirotic. According to the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson, he has requested to be traded from the team if they decide to keep Bobby Portis.

Finding a suitable trade for Okafor

Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown told local media on Friday that Okafor is currently out of the team's rotation altogether.

Okafor had been manning a spot on the second unit, but Brown said that as of right now that it is Amir Johnson's to lose. With Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid both finally healthy, along with Dario Saric, the 76ers have a frontcourt logjam that has made the 21-year-old Okafor expendable.

Next Tuesday is the deadline for the team to decide on whether to pick up his fourth-year option that is worth $6.3 million. League sources told ESPN that whether it gets picked up or not depends on the trade discussions, which do not have a frontrunner at the moment.

So far this season Okafor has only played in one of the team's five games. The 76ers selected Okafor with the third pick in the 2015 draft out of Duke in the hope of him being a critical piece of their team in the future.

In his rookie season, he played in 53 games and started 48 of them, averaging 30 minutes per game. Last year, Okafor played in 50 games but only started 33 of them, as he only logged 22.7 minutes per game.

Mirotic demands trade from Bulls

On October 16, Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis got into an altercation at practice that ended with Portis punching him so hard that he had multiple broken bones in his face, suffered a concussion and had to be taken to the hospital.

Now, Mirotic is telling that team that he would welcome a trade if they opt to keep Portis, who got suspended eight games due to the incident.

In the offseason, Mirotic signed a two-year, $27 million contract before the season with a no-trade clause. Now, his representatives would be willing to wave that to get him traded. Portis, the team's 2015 first-round pick, publicly apologized on October 21 but says he had never heard back from Mirotic after reaching out to him.

The 26-year-old Mirotic joined the Bulls in 2014 after playing overseas for several seasons. In three years with them, he has averaged 10.8 points and 5.3 rebounds, playing in 218 games and starting 56 of them.
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