Colangelo denies aggressively trying to trade Noel, Okafor

The logjam in the Philadelphia 76ers' frontcourt with Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, and a returning Joel Embiid had new general manager Bryan Colangelo thinking it would be wise to trade one of the three to improve other areas of his roster.

Months after making his original comments on the matter, Colangelo appears to have changed his tune on how soon a deal will be made, and if one will even happen at all.

"Making a statement that absolutely something will be done is not necessarily the case,” Colangelo said during an appearance on "The Vertical" podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday, as transcribed by Philly.com's Keith Pompey. "I think what I said over the course of the summer is there is no doubt that we got three talented players. It’s a high-class problem to have."

Question marks surrounding the long-term health of the three players has Colangelo leery about pulling the trigger on a trade too soon. Embiid has sat out his first two seasons in the league because of a broken navicular bone in his foot, Noel missed 15 games during the 2015-16 campaign, and Okafor was held out for the final 23 games with a small tear of the meniscus in his right knee.

Related: Report: 76ers would rather trade Okafor than Noel

Ultimately, Colangelo will only open up trade discussions with other teams if it makes sense for the Sixers.

"But I never felt compelled that we have to do something, because it will work itself out over the course of time," he said. "Some of it will work itself out with contract negotiations and free agency. There’s different things that are staggered in terms of timeline.”

Noel is eligible for a contract extension by the Oct. 31 deadline with his rookie deal set to expire. Embiid's expires following the conclusion of the 2017-18 season, as will Okafor's in 2018-19.

Related: Report: Sixers' Embiid not expected to play in back-to-backs

"But the notion that we were out shopping any of them and aggressively pushing to make a deal is not the case," Colangelo said. "We certainly listened because a lot of people thought we were in a corner.

"We never felt like we were in that corner. We feel like we’ve got three talented players that we are going to obviously let work itself out."