In his 3rd draft as the Sixers' GM, Sam Hinkie again came out of the night with a highly rated center. First in a draft say trade to land Nerlens Noel on 2013, then at one time top rated Joel Embiid fell to Philly's 3rd overall pick with an ankle injury in 2014, and now in 2015 with Jahlil Okafor landing in Hinkie's lap.
The consensus top rated Karl Anthony Towns was unsurprisingly taken by Minnesota at #1 but the Laker shook thing up by taking D'Angelo Russell with the second pick when many thought Okafor was a lock for #2. Although Hinkie seemingly hoped to take scoring guard at #3, when he was off the table it was a no-brainer to select Okafor, once the top-rated prospect coming into his Freshmen season at Duke.
The consensus top rated Karl Anthony Towns was unsurprisingly taken by Minnesota at #1 but the Laker shook thing up by taking D'Angelo Russell with the second pick when many thought Okafor was a lock for #2. Although Hinkie seemingly hoped to take scoring guard at #3, when he was off the table it was a no-brainer to select Okafor, once the top-rated prospect coming into his Freshmen season at Duke.
Although many think Hinkie made a strange decision selecting yet another lottery big man (with Daario Saric still overseas for another year), it was a very Hinkie-like move. He selected the best asset as he always has. But Jahlil Okafor could be more than just a tradable asset and could very stay with the Sixers with Embiid's health still a big question mark. Noel or Embiid could be on the trading block instead. Or Brett Brown could roll out a Big-Ball line-up (opposite of small ball trend- name is a work in progress) and play with with 5 seven-footers. Unlikely, yes. But don't rule it out.
In his only season at Duke, the 6'11'' Okafor averaged 17.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks on 66.4% FG. Okafor is already a polished offensive player but needs to work defense and his free throw shooting where he only shot 51% from the charity stripe. As good as he is in the paint and with his back to the basket, he can't improve his free throw shooting, defenses will have no problem hacking him instead of letting him get a shot up.
If the 76ers end up keeping all 3 young, potential franchise big men on their roster by the start of the season it will be interesting to see how they play together (Embiid will likely not be healthy). In order for Okafor to do his thing on the post, Noel will have to give him space but with little range the Sixers' offense could suffer. Although anything would be better than last season.
In his only season at Duke, the 6'11'' Okafor averaged 17.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks on 66.4% FG. Okafor is already a polished offensive player but needs to work defense and his free throw shooting where he only shot 51% from the charity stripe. As good as he is in the paint and with his back to the basket, he can't improve his free throw shooting, defenses will have no problem hacking him instead of letting him get a shot up.
If the 76ers end up keeping all 3 young, potential franchise big men on their roster by the start of the season it will be interesting to see how they play together (Embiid will likely not be healthy). In order for Okafor to do his thing on the post, Noel will have to give him space but with little range the Sixers' offense could suffer. Although anything would be better than last season.
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