How Jahlil Okafor Could Fit With Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves possess the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft, and with young studs Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine in the fold, along with plenty of other players with upside including Shabazz Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng and Ricky Rubio, this could be the team’s real chance to get the final building block in place for a successful future.
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There are quite a few players that have been looked at as worthy of the first pick by many scouts and executives around the league, but word is from ESPN’s Chad Ford that Timberwolves president and head coach Flip Saunders has taken a strong liking to center prospect Jahlil Okafor.
Okafor is certainly no slouch as an NBA-quality talent, even if he may not possess the upside that many see in Kentucky forward Karl-Anthony Towns.
What Okafor does well is provide his team with a legitimate scoring option in the low post, as he was the second-most efficient scorer in college basketball last season, shooting 66.4 percent from the field.
His elite size at 6-foot-11 and 272 pounds combined with his 7-foot-5 wingspan and huge hands allow him to dominate smaller defenders on the low block.
Not only does his size factor into things, but he has an array of moves when his back is to the basket, with everything from the baby hook over either shoulder to the up-and-under move in his arsenal.
Okafor can dominate his man one-on-one, but even when the defense brings help, he still has the footwork and capability to score when pressured.
What’s even more impressive is his overall offensive awareness, as he knows when to take the shot himself or when to pass to his teammates using his vision that’s excellent for a big man.
When you put his scoring (17.3 points per game in college) and passing abilities together, you have a low-post offensive machine capable of carrying a team through many different situations.
Where Okafor is limited is in his defense and to some extent his rebounding.
Defensively, Okafor isn’t necessarily a bad defender, but he doesn’t move the needle in a positive direction for his team, as he’s not a rim protector or a big man capable of moving out on the perimeter to help rotate and cover shots when needed.
He does possess good enough footwork to act as a help defender in the post, but outside of that and relying on his size and wingspan to help him be a serviceable enough one-on-defender, Okafor doesn’t scream defensive anchor by any stretch of the imagination.
In terms of rebounding, Okafor did manage to end up averaging 8.5 rebounds per game in college, but that number was boosted by some games in which he grabbed a ton of boards against weaker competition.
Too often, Okafor logged six or fewer rebounds against teams with a bigger interior presence, and sometimes he was even outworked by players that were much smaller than him.
Could this have been due to Okafor being responsible for doing so much on the offensive end and constantly being hounded by the defense, limiting the amount of energy he had to contribute to other parts of the game? Certainly.
Okafor was asked to do a lot at Duke, and he may be asked to do even more offensively at the next level. However, it’s not a good sign when someone who was more often than not the biggest player on the floor grabbed less than six or seven rebounds in a number of contests.
That to me is a huge red flag that has to be considered by teams looking to draft him as their main center, as he will go up against players that are bigger or more physical than him on a nightly basis in the NBA.
To me, I think a solid comparison for Okafor is Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez.
In terms of scoring, Lopez can put up points with any big man in the league with his variety of post moves and his mid-range jumper that he seems to extend range on every season. Lopez has never been an excellent defender or rebounder, though he has had moments in which he has excelled in both areas, similar to Okafor last season in college.
So how could a player similar to Lopez fit in with what the Timberwolves want to do?
For starters, he could take a lot of offensive pressure off of Wiggins.
Wiggins is going to be the go-to guy in Minnesota for years to come, so as he takes more time to develop his game on that end of the floor, it would be great to have another scoring option capable of carrying the team when Wiggins is struggling or taking some rest on the bench.
Okafor can be that guy and potentially more for a team that is looking for a consistent threat on offense in the post, especially since starting center Nikola Pekovic hasn’t exactly been the healthiest player during his time in the league.
If the Timberwolves could find a way to move Pekovic, then Okafor could step in right away and contribute accordingly. The bigger question is what the Wolves would do at power forward.
Putting a player who isn’t a quality post defender next to Okafor, who’s already not great on that end to begin with, such as Adreian Payne, may not be in their best interest, even though he is someone who could stretch the floor and create some much needed space in the lane for Okafor and Rubio to operate in the pick-and-roll game.
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If the team would choose to put a better defender like Dieng next to Okafor, then the lane would be clogged with two bigs who prefer to play closer to the basket, creating more problems on offense for a team that has a lot of slashing options and a point guard who loves to run the pick-and-roll like Rubio.
Coach Saunders would be able to find a way to balance this problem out I’m sure, but the point is valid that Okafor’s ideal frontcourt partner may not be on the Wolves’ current roster.
Regardless, what Saunders could see in Okafor is a franchise center who could potentially be the anchor to a championship team down the road, and if he truly believes in that notion, then why should he not go with his gut and take a chance on Okafor?
Okafor has the offensive talent to blossom into a once-in-a-generation kind of talent on that end of the floor. If the defense and rebounding ever fall into place on a consistent basis for him, then his upside increases dramatically, and could rival that of Towns or any of the other top prospects in the class.
The Wolves would have to find a way to trade Pekovic if they took Okafor, but if he reaches his potential and dominates on the next level, then the move would certainly be justified.
*Statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.
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