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Jahlil Okafor is a Bad Defender: Fact or Fiction?

By Jaylen Young

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Many have said that rookie center Jahlil Okafor of the Philadelphia 76ers is a bad defender. Is this a fact, or is it a common misconception?

Once there is a narrative on a player it can be hard to shake it whether it is good or bad. The narrative set on Jahlil Okafor ever since college is “great scorer, horrible defender”. While this narrative may seem true sometimes when Okafor gets lost on a pick and roll, or fails with help defense, this is not the full truth. Once you dig deep into the statistics and really watch the games, you start to realize that Okafor is a better defender than what he is perceived as and has been improving.

Difference Percentage:

Difference Percentage from nba.com is the first defensive stat I will be using to assess Okafor. difference percentage is basically a stat that shows the difference in field goal percentage a player shoots against one player compared to against the rest of the league. For comparison’s sake, DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers who is considered a Defensive Player of the Year candidate year in and year out has a difference percentage of -6.8 percent from less than 6 feet. This means that opponents shoot 6.8 percent less from less than 6 feet when Jordan is defending them compared to what they usually shoot from that area. Okafor has the exact same difference percentage of -6.8 from less than 6 feet as a rookie. Moving on, how about less than 1o feet which requires more mobility than just less than 6 feet? From less than 10 feet Jordan has difference percentage of -3.3 percent. Okafor’s difference percentage from less than 10 feet is -5.6 percent, 2.3% better than Jordan’s number.

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Defensive Rating:

Defensive Rating  from nba.com is a stat that tells you how many points per 100 possessions a team gives up with a certain player on the floor. To show Okafor’s improvement, I will be using statistics from the last full NBA month which was January. In the month of January Okafor had a defensive rating of 104.5. This number was better than the January number for Kristaps Porzingis (106.6), Anthony Davis (106.7), Andre Drummond (106.8), Karl-Anthony Towns (109.2), Dwight Howard (109.4), and Tyson Chandler (114.4). Okafor’s defensive rating was also only 0.3 points worse than his teammate Nerlens Noel (104.2). Okafor’s defensive rating for the whole season is 107 which is the exact same rating for Karl-Anthony Towns over the whole season. The only difference is one is seen as a great defender and the other is seen as a horrible one.

Plus/Minus:

Some stats even view Okafor as more effective defender than offensive player. Okafor’s defensive real plus minus (DRPM) from ESPN.com is 1.78 points better than his offensive real plus minus (ORPM). His defensive box plus minus (DBPM) is 1.6 points better than his offensive box plus minus (OBPM) according to basketball-reference.com.

Conclusion:

To answer my own question in the title, I don’t think there really is an answer right now. There are some defensive stats that hold Okafor in a very high regard like difference percentage and defensive rating and others that don’t like DBPM or DRPM which ranks him near the bottom of centers. Okafor is truly a polarizing defensive player. I wouldn’t say he is good or great at defense and I wouldn’t say he is bad or horrible. I think it’s safe to say he’s average on defense. He is strong in some parts of defense like post defense and rim protection due to his strong build and 7’6″ wingspan/9’3″ standing reach. No one can push him around and his long arms allow him to block shots without even jumping at times.

His arms also help him to cover ground that his legs will not. He is weak in other parts of defense like defending the pick and roll. Most chalk up his weak pick and roll defense to bad lateral quickness but I don’t think that’s the case. I think he is bad at pick and roll defense more because this is his first year playing at the highest level of basketball. With all of the spin moves and jukes Okafor displays on offense I don’t see how anyone can think he is the slowest guy ever.

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I just think he needs to watch more film and get more experience defending the pick and roll along with improving his reaction time. I think it has more to do with those things than his athletic ability. I don’t know if Okafor will ever be a great defender, but I think he will most certainly be a plus defender and two-way player once he reaches his prime. He has great physical tools and has too high of a basketball IQ to not become a good two-way athlete. He just turned 20 a couple months ago, so he has plenty of time to improve his defense.