Philadelphia 76ers: 5 goals for Jahlil Okafor in 2017-18

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1. Drastically improve on the defensive end

It’s fair to say that Okafor has been a disaster on the defensive end of the floor over his 103 career games to date.

His rookie season saw him return a defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) of 108.7, before following up with a defensive rating of 109.5 last season. This mark last season ranked him 66th overall among all centers who played at least 45 games for the season.

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Like his ineffectiveness on offense, the Sixers’ defensive performance also took a hit when Okafor was on the court. While the Sixers’ defensive rating was 109.5 when he was playing, this number dropped to 105.1 when Okafor was off the court.

Overall, the Sixers’ net rating (difference between offensive and defensive rating) improved by 12.2 last season when Okafor was off the court. For a player just two years removed from being the No. 3 overall draft selection, this is clearly alarming.

One highlight clip that could perhaps encompass all the doubts surrounding Okafor’s defense, defensive rebounding, and effort level in general could be summarized with the following road game against the Miami Heat last season:

While it’s obviously just a single possession, it’s hard to fathom what Okafor’s mindset was in that particular possession. This leads us to another portion of his Draft Express scouting report:

"“The biggest question marks around Okafor revolve around his play on the defensive end, where he was very inconsistent this season. He has the size, strength and length to be more than adequate if he puts his mind to it, and did show some flashes on this end of the floor from time to time, particularly as a post-defender. “With that said, Okafor typically looked far too lackadaisical on this end of the floor, jogging back nonchalantly and looking downright lazy in stretches. He gives up deep post-position too often and isn’t aggressive enough looking to body his man when he does receive the ball, possibly out of fear of getting in foul trouble.”"

This report is almost a summation of the above possession against the Heat. Whether it’s a mental issue, a conditioning issue or a combination of both, the Sixers are going to continue to be hurt if Okafor is performing at this level on the defensive end.

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In all, Jahlil Okafor has a host of areas of his game to improve upon. But with age and talent on his side, a more mature Okafor could, and should, be able to live up to the hype that was heaped upon him coming out of Duke.