Philadelphia 76ers: Outlook For Jahlil Okafor's Rookie Season

Even though the Philadelphia 76ers may be deep into the rebuilding process, that doesn’t mean there can’t be any bright spots on the team.

Sure, the collective product may not be worthy of competing for the playoffs quite yet, but there is still some talent on this roster.

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Nerlens Noel had a standout year for the team and gave Andrew Wiggins all he could handle for the NBA‘s Rookie of the Year award. Robert Covington also emerged as a legitimate rotation player in the league as a “three-and-D” wing.

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With Joel Embiid now out for another season due to a foot injury, this gives draft pick Jahlil Okafor plenty of opportunity to shine and show that he may very well be the best player on the roster.

Here’s how I see his rookie season shaking out.

Offense

Let’s get this out of the way: Okafor is the most skilled low-post prospect to come into the NBA in a long time.

It’s been said by pretty much every draft analyst, and for good reason. There are very few players who have been able to combine a soft scoring touch around the rim with strength and elite footwork like Okafor has at this point in his career.

Okafor can score over either shoulder, and has the body and deceptiveness to force his way to the spots on the floor he wants to get to. With his variety of post moves and lay-ups around the rim, it’s no wonder he was able to average 17.3 points per game on 66.4 percent shooting from the floor.

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In college at Duke, Okafor was the biggest player on the floor most of the time at 6-foot-11 and 275 pounds. Okafor was a man among boys and didn’t have much size to go up against, resulting in plays like the one above in which getting to the basket was simply child’s play.

That won’t be the case in the NBA, however. He’s going to go up against players his size or bigger every night, and we’ll get to see just how strong Okafor really is in the post.

With that being said, he’s still going to get his because of his incredible touch. Okafor has massive hands that allow him to grip and lay-up the basketball in ways that others can only dream about. When he had to face size and aggression in the Summer League, he still scored the basketball because of his along with his footwork.

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It’s up-and-under moves like those that have impressed scouts since he was in high school. That level of skill at that size doesn’t come along very often, and it’s certainly a plus for a team like the Sixers that needed a No. 1 option on offense.

Speaking of being a No. 1 option, Okafor is not just because of his scoring prowess but because of his passing ability, which allows a team to run a lot of plays through him similar to what the Memphis Grizzlies do with Marc Gasol.

Okafor’s feel for the game is greater than a lot of other centers in the league because of his court vision and willingness to pass out of the double team to set-up his teammates.

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From being able to finish with either hand on multiple moves in the post to having the capability of passing all over the floor in the halfcourt, Okafor has a lot of tools to work with on offense, but his game isn’t quite complete just like any other rookie’s.

Okafor is more that proficient at finishing when he catches the ball relatively close to the basket, but his game away from the basket still needs work, as he’s still not the best facing his man up.

Don’t get me wrong, when Okafor has a full head of steam going to the basket he’s gong to finish unless he coughs up the ball. But enough times when Okafor went to turn around and get into a triple-threat position in Summer League he had the ball swatted away or he dribbled it off of his foot.

When he’s pressured by a better defender in the post who’s capable of stepping away from the basket, it seems Okafor doesn’t have the proper understanding of what to do quite yet with the ball in his hands. As time progresses, he’ll work on those skills and eventually be a better ball-handler as well as potentially a mid-range jump shooter, but it’s going to take time.

The other major flaw in his offensive arsenal is his free-throw shooting, a struggle of many big men. Okafor has hovered around 50 percent from the charity stripe between college and the Summer League, meaning he’s a late-game liability for the Sixers should a team choose to employ the “Hack-A-Okafor” strategy.

Okafor will have to work diligently to fix that number and raise it into the 70s or else he may find himself on the bench in some fourth quarters as players like Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan have at times.

His rebounding is also something that could be better, but I’ll wait for the next part of the discussion to bring that up: defense.

Defense

As good as Okafor is on offense, he still has a lot of work to do on the other side of the ball.

I won’t chalk this up to his lack of understanding on defense, though. Okafor is just as smart on defense as he is on offense. Rather, I think it’s more a matter of conditioning than anything else.

Okafor has always been asked to be so involved on offense and make that the focus of his game that he expends enough energy that he doesn’t have anything left on defense.

When he doesn’t have a play run through him or he’s given enough time to get back on defense, I’ve seen him make a key switch or block a shot on defense. However, things change when he has to run back right away or chase opposing players down. In high school and at Duke he wasn’t in the greatest of shape, but that appears to have changed now that he’s reached the next level.

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Okafor came into practices with Philly looking much leaner and a lot quicker moving up and down the floor, which should bode well for the Sixers as long as he can keep it up.

The ability to play defense is there thanks to his knowledge and size. If he continues to assert himself on that end of the floor and take care of his body, then he should have no trouble getting better over time defensively.

Another trouble area that I’ve noticed has surprisingly been his rebounding. Yes, there are games when he will put up impressive numbers on the boards, and he even averaged 8.5 rebounds per game in college, but there were certainly other moments when he underwhelmed in that area.

As I said before, Okafor was often the biggest player on the floor, yet he was getting outrebounded by players much smaller than him in both size and weight. Okafor put up plenty of five- and six-rebound games during his time at Duke, and that’s simply unacceptable for a player looking to be dominant in the NBA.

Conclusion

Consistent effort and conditioning seem to be the biggest question marks surrounding Okafor’s current game. The good news is these things along with handling the ball better are certainly fixable over time. The intangibles, size and want to dominate are all there along with an advanced offensive post game.

Will there be times this season where Okafor looks better than advertised? Absolutely. He’s not there yet, but he has all the tools to be one of the NBA’s dominant big man. Expect flashes of that this year for the Sixers.

Predicted 2015-16 Stat Line: 16.4 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.2 AST, 56% FG, 50% FT, 1.2 BLK

Next: Joel Embiid Facing Uphill Battle

Philadelphia 76ers: Expectations For Jahlil Okafor’s Rookie Season

By Nathan Grubel | Aug 18, 2015

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