Philadelphia 76ers: Comparing Jahlil Okafor to Other Rookies

Ever since the NBA Draft in June of 2015 there has been debates about who is the best player between Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Kristaps Porzingis. Back in November of last year I wrote a piece on the comparison of the three rookies and most of my argument was speculation based on a statistic from basketball-reference.com. That stat is called percentage of field goals assisted which calculates the percentage of field goals a player makes is assisted.

My hypothesis was that the reason Okafor was less efficient than his peers was because he was assisted less than them. So basically the more a player (especially a big man) gets assisted, the more efficient they will be. Okafor had to create his shots a lot more than Towns and Porzingis which means Jahlil expended more energy on offense and had to take tougher shots which hurt his efficiency. Having to create your own shot on offense all of the time expends much more energy than being assisted and this leads to lackluster play on defense.

It was unfair for people to expect Okafor to singlehandedly anchor an NBA offense at 19 years old and give 110 percent effort on defense as well. These players are not machines, they are human. Not to mention the terrible spacing the Philadelphia 76ers had early in the season which gave Okafor much less space to operate than Towns or Porzingis. While it is great that Okafor can create his own shot better than any young big man in the game, having to do over 60 percent of the time would make any big man less efficient.

Now that Okafor has had a legitimate NBA point guard to play with in Ish Smith for 10 games instead of Isaiah Canaan (undersized shooting guard) and T.J McConnell (Rookie), the stats and eye test are now starting to back my claims up. Now that Towns, Porzingis, and Okafor all have legitimate point guards to play with, it is now fair to compare the three.

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Without Ish Smith on the floor this season, Okafor has only been assisted on a pitiful 39.1 percent of his field goals which is a testament to how bad the other 76er point guard options besides Smith are. Almost any big in the league would be much more inefficient if they had to create over 60 percent of their scoring on their own like Okafor does and did without Smith.

Without Smith, Okafor averages 20 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game with a field goal percentage of 46.6% and a true shooting percentage of 50.4 per 36 minutes according to nbawowy.com. With Smith Okafor is assisted on 58.8% of his two-point field goals which is comparable to Towns’ number of 66.4 percent and Porzingis number of 59.2 percent. That is almost a 20 percent assisted field goal percentage jump when Okafor is playing with Smith rather than without him and it is still less than Towns and Porzingis’ assisted percentages.

With Smith and a two-point assisted percentage of 58.8 per 36 minutes, Okafor is averaging 23.3 points and 7.8 rebounds with a field goal percentage of 62.2 percent and a true shooting percentage of 62.5. Those are superstar offensive stats and those numbers blow Towns’ and Porzingis’ out of the water while still having an assisted percentage less than both when Smith is on the floor with him. With a two-point assisted percentage of 66.4 percent Towns averages 19.2 points and 11.7 rebounds with a field goal percentage of 52.3 percent and a true shooting percentage of 57.3. Porzingis, with an assisted percentage of 59.2 per 36 minutes averages 17.9 points and 10.2 rebounds with a field goal percentage of 43.2 percent (which is a worse field goal percentage than Okafor without Smith) and a true shooting percentage of 52.4 (only two percent better than Okafor’s TS without Smith).

This is why I am so happy that the 76ers landed Okafor. He is really so much better than some give him credit for, and is the most offensively talented 20 years old or below big man I have ever seen. Just imagine if Towns or Porzingis were only assisted 39.1 percent of the time on their two point field goals like Okafor was before Ish Smith arrived. Their efficiency would most likely have been terrible, and almost certainly far worse than Okafor’s.

Okafor is younger than both players and starts with a much higher base offensive skill set to work with. When they are all in their prime it still won’t be much of a comparison. Although the stats of Okafor with Smith are a smaller sample size than the stats used for his competition, I still think it is large enough considering his games with Smith are equal to over a quarter of his young career so far. Okafor was dealt a much tougher hand than his competitors having to play for a team without a legit NBA point guard earlier in the season which is why he looked worse. When put on an even playing field Okafor is simply better than both in my opinion.

There are two sides of the floor so lets talk about defense. My theory that more offensive burden leads to worse defense holds true according to Okafor’s stats. Before Smith’s arrival his defensive rating was 110 and with Ish it is 108. Okafor’s offensive rating without Ish was 95 and with him it is 108. Towns defensive rating is 104 and Porzingis’ is 102. Both of those numbers are better than Okafor’s with or without Ish. It is not a secret that the other two guys are better defenders than Okafor but I don’t think Okafor is nearly as bad at defense as people think he is.

Next: Whitch Draft Picks Will The Sixers Get?

With the way Okafor constantly blows by other centers, it is clear he is not slow. With his relative quickness, big hands, and 7’6″ wingspan, I don’t see why Okafor with a lot of conditioning, practice, and film watching cannot become an above average defender. He will always be a step or two behind Towns and Porzingis defensively, but I think he will be in a whole different league than them offensively when he hits his prime making him an overall better player than both. Check out the video below vs the Portland TrailBlazers. Okafor is already catching up to the other two in shooting skill while being miles ahead in the post and face-up:

Okafor has proven that he has a knack for improving his weaknesses and doing it quickly. I think it is insane that people want to trade Okafor. Now that he is showing a vastly improved jumper, it won’t be a problem anymore to play Okafor and Noel together especially when they are in the same lineup with Smith. That is the key. As long as there is a legit point guard on the floor at all times, any combination of Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and Okafor together will work.

Jahlil Okafor vs Karl-Anthony Towns And Kristaps Porzingis Part 2

By Jaylen Young | Jan 21, 2016

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