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Jahlil Okafor And Nerlens Noel Working On Free Throws

By Josh Wilson

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Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor will be one of the most microscopically watched front courts in the NBA next season. With a sophomore player that has high expectations, and a rookie center that is expected to contend for rookie of the year, Philadelphia 76ers fans are looking forward to what this bright spot in the lineup has to offer.

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    • Of course, along with speculating what can go right and what will go right, we do have to keep our eyes out on what can go wrong. With Okafor, there is unfortunately some obvious things that need to be addressed in his gameplay that we saw in his time with Duke. The most obvious was his defense, but an underlying factor that seems to be ignored (but is gaining attention) is his free throws.

    At his only season at Duke (which didn’t end poorly, he led them to a national title), Okafor attempted over five free throws a game, but only was able to make 51% of them. This could be worse, DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers was subject to a lot of intentional fouling last season, as he attempted 5.7 free throws a game and only made 39.7% of them.

    Noel attempted 3.1 free throws per game and shot a bit better, sinking 60.9% of them.

    Coming into training camp, a lot of us were looking to see something, anything that led us to believe Okafor has been, or will be working on those free throws. We were not let down.

    Head coach Brett Brown let the media know that–especially regarding Okafor–a main focus would be free throws.

    Here, Tom Moore shows us two key things. Noel and Okafor are starting to gel, and working together. This is great, as we don’t want chemistry to be an issue as the season starts, and it doesn’t look like it will be. The two have been reported to have hung out since training camp started, and it appears they’re getting along well.

    Also, these two Tweets above came from two separate days, showing that these free throws are becoming a regular thing to work on, which is all you can really do to improve free throw shooting.

    And here, we really start to see something curious. Okafor actually has pretty good form, and can obviously sink a free throw (and so can Noel). Something is off, here, and it’s obvious that it isn’t mechanics. He even reportedly made 10 in a row at one point, which should be a sample size enough for us to see at least one miss if he’s that bad of a shooter.

    As some have speculated, it could easily be a mindset thing. Free throws are often said to be just that. You can have a great shot, but the pressures of a game-winning situation, or just overthinking a simple shot can lead to a miss.

    It’s hard to say what Okafor’s free throw issue was last year, but for now, it looks like it is improving, and he’s ready to improve it. Training camp will continue to serve as a place for him to improve aspects of his game such as this. It should be good to see how the free throws play out in real game situations.

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