Trade Deadline Looming, Sixers Cherish What Could Be Final Day Together

CAMDEN, N.J. - The Sixers looked around the court on Wednesday and knew it could be their last practice all together.

The NBA trade deadline is 3 p.m. on Thursday. The Sixers are scheduled to practice that day, but who is there for it remains to be seen.

"Honestly, I'm scared. I don't know what's going to happen," Joel Embiid said. "Hopefully I'm here and hopefully my teammates are here. We've been playing great basketball when we are healthy and we all play. Hopefully we keep the same group and you never know what can happen."

The Sixers have stayed tight knit through losing, ups and downs and trade talks. In their ideal world, they would remain teammates for the rest of the season. In the basketball world, there is a strong possibility at least one of them will be moved.

"You've learned that you're not confident on anything," Brett Brown said when asked about having the same players after the deadline. "There's nothing that would point to either my 16 years of experience in the league or my three previous trade situations here in Philadelphia that would make me say anything otherwise. We've maintained a very high level of transparency with my team. We talk freely. It doesn't feel as dramatic perhaps as it might have in other years."

Jahlil Okafor has been the focal point of trade discussions. The Sixers were close to a deal for him last week, to the point where they sat him out two games and did not send him to Charlotte. Okafor will keep his phone close as the deadline approaches.

"I did the best I can to just focus in with the guys [at practice], going over the plays and working on defense," Okafor said. "But it was definitely on my mind that I could be out of here tomorrow."

Okafor said he would not have hard feelings if a deal did not happen after being on the trading block. At the same time, he just wants to know what his NBA future holds.

"If the Sixers decide to keep me, I'll be happy," he said. "I have amazing teammates that I love being with every day and I'll go back to my everyday routine. If that's here or somewhere else, I'm just ready for 3 o'clock to happen so I can continue with my career and start doing what I love to do, and that's play basketball."

The Sixers' trade talks, to this point, have centered around the bigs because of a logjam in the frontcourt. At the start of the season Nerlens Noel said the team had to make a change. Noel said he was not worried about the deadline and noted the Sixers' first practice after the All-Star break was upbeat, not anxious.

"It's been such a long season with so many things that were said, so now at this point it's whatever happens happens," Noel said.

So who will stay and who will go? With the Sixers' roster in question, Embiid summed up the trade deadline in Embiid fashion.

"It's business," Embiid said. "Anything can happen. So you've got to trust the process, I guess."