Jahlil Okafor: Leaps and Bounds Ahead of Where He Should Be

Jahlil Okafor has been doing fantastic in his rookie campaign, and is far ahead of schedule.

Jahlil Okafor came into his rookie season with high expectations and low expectations. On the offensive end of the floor, he was expected to be a scoring machine and leader, just as he was at Duke the year before. On the defensive end, and at the foul line, he was expected to be not so great, but also expected to show improvement from his lackluster performance in those areas compared to his time at Duke.

Okafor was a winner. Since his time in high school, he had found success and led his teams to success, winning a national championship in his only season at Duke.

With the trajectory expected for this season, and the predictions before the year, Okafor’s roadmap was clear: Show promise on offense and succeed in that realm, and show relative improvement on defense, at the free-throw line, and perhaps even from beyond the typical post area that centers like Okafor are expected to be at. Okafor has exceeded expectations and outdone his expected roadmap for this season, and we only expect him to get better with time.

This young player is showing signs of being the focal point of a good offense for years to come. He scores over 17 points per game and is improving as a rebounder, averaging 7.1 per game at this point.

This year’s rookie class was a great one, so Okafor probably won’t win the Rookie of the Year award, but he will be in the conversation. Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis have either outperformed Okafor or been placed in markets that were more friendly to making them popular. Philly hasn’t been a good place for national exposure to young players, that was shown when Nerlens Noel was snubbed of the ROY Award last season.

More from The Sixer Sense

The fact is, Okafor is out-doing the other rookies in some categories. Okafor rarely shows up and doesn’t put up a good stat line, especially as a scorer. Okafor hasn’t scored less than 10 points in a game since early February, and the last time (and only time in his entire career) that he didn’t score 9 points or more was in early November, in the first group of games of this young player’s career.

Comparitavely, Kristaps and Towns haven’t lived up to those scoring numbers. A recent scoring outburst from Towns has pushed him above Okafor in the points per game category, but they each have had several down games. Porzingis has had 9 games this season with less than 9 points, and Towns has had 8. Okafor consistently puts up double digit, or very close to double digit point games where players that are considered to be ahead of him are failing to do so.

So we know Okafor is exceeding expectations as far as a scorer, or at the very least, meeting them. His defense, although it doesn’t pass the eye test, is decent, as he’s making his opponents shoot 6.6 percent worse when they are coming near the rim (within 6 feet).

His free-throw shooting, the other thing that Okafor “needed” to fix to be a good NBA player coming into this season, has also improved compared to what it was at Duke, going from around 50 percent to nearly 70 percent.

We know Okafor will improve in all of these areas as well. For some reason, though, there is a large crowd looking to ship Okafor out in return for draft picks, simply because that’s what the team’s rebuilding process has consisted of before. But there has to be a point where the process stops shipping players out, and starts keeping them in the system because they are key parts of supporting the hopeful championships to come. Why trade a player that is exceeding expectations? Yes, one of the big men will probably have to be moved, and it will probably be him or Nerlens. And yes, Nerlens will bring less value, but that’s for a reason. Okafor brings more value because he does better on the court.

Okafor is only 20 years old, and was 19 when he started this season. The level he is playing at is incredible for such a young player. He is already a nuisance to defend, and will only get more difficult over the years.

Next: Joel Embiid is back on track

The truth is I think it would be a bad move for the team to trade this young cornerstone. Nerlens Noel is good, but couldn’t show success without Ish Smith at his side at all so far in his NBA career. Okafor can clearly succeed in multiple rosters, and has done his job with countless different lineups this season. No matter who the Sixers put around Okafor, he will succeed and score for them.

We’ve got to start looking at Okafor as a piece to move and what we can get for him, and instead start commending his exceeding of expectations this season.