Jahlil Okafor has recently moved to the power forward spot on defense, and it has caused some devastating confusion for the team.
If people thought Jahlil Okafor was causing defensive issues for the Philadelphia 76ers before the All-Star break, they are probably freaking out after the defensive performances the team has shown in the past few games.
Since the Sixers came back from the All-Star break, they have let teams score over 118 points per game on them, a disturbingly large amount. Throughout that time the Sixers are putting up a defensive rating of 121.2. The rest of the season hasn’t been glamorous, but before the All-Star break, they let up 105.2 points and had a defensive rating of 107.7. Still not good, but numbers that are vastly improved compared to their recent defensive fallout.
It’s tough to pinpoint exactly what the defensive issue is lately. There are absolutely fallouts all over the floor: The Sixers don’t have strong wing defenders or much of a threat to players beyond the arc. But those things have been true all season. What has been good this year — and for the most part, last year — is the rim protection and the defense in the key. That comes because Nerlens Noel has been good defending the key, and as much as people think Jahlil Okafor isn’t a good defender, he’s been decent in the key as well. Within six feet, Okafor’s challengers shoot 6.6 percent worse from the field, and Noel’s 7.8 percent worse.
But recently head coach Brett Brown admitted that on both sides of the floor, Okafor is now the power forward, since Noel just didn’t work in that position. Okafor has now been tasked with chasing the opposing 4s and Noel was set to defend the rim. But that has been much easier said than done, as they’ve struggled to figure out how they fit together on defense, which has often allowed opposing teams to score easier. It showed all too well against the Orlando Magic,
This first instance didn’t have to do with Okafor and Noel not fitting together, but Okafor struggling to realize his defensive place caused him to stray from Nikola Vucevic for just a moment, and Nik made him pay.
Moving on, here is an instance where Noel and Okafor couldn’t figure out who the 4 was. Okafor started the play off as the player guarding the rim, but when Aaron Gordon got the ball beyond the arc, Noel — probably as he has been instructed to do — realized that his place was supposed to be at the rim. But since Okafor was already there, they were double-teaming a guy who didn’t need to be double-teamed, leaving Aaron Gordon wide open for an easy 3-pointer.
This last example was quite interesting. Okafor, knowing that him and Noel were getting a bit confused, started off the play by pointing to Noel and telling him exactly where he should be on the play. Noel then blew it, popping out to defend when he should have been guarding the rim. If he would have done his job, the Magic wouldn’t have scored here.
What was interesting is this is one of the only times I’ve seen Okafor get visibly frustrated with the lack of ability on the team this season, as he slammed the ball down at the end of this play and then looked very frustrated as he sat down on the bench for the timeout that followed.
It’s tough to break old habits, and I think we’re seeing that when Okafor falls back to the key and Noel tends to the 3-point line for defense. That’s what they were accustomed to for over 50 games this season, so it’s hard to go to something new right away.
Some point to the positive, saying that the Sixers have also shown great offense of their own throughout this awful stretch of games. That is statistically true, as they’ve scored 106 points per game with an offensive rating of 106.9. But what we must remember is that when the Sixers play this poorly on defense, there is a reason for other teams to think, “well hey, why do we need to play any defense if they aren’t?” thus letting the Sixers score more. Marc Zumoff alluded to that concept during the Magic game.
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The defense — and the offense, for that matter — has been an issue this season, but it’s just now becoming absolutely awful. It’s no coincidence that it started when Brett Brown said he was going to move Okafor to to the 4 spot. The miscommunication and the kinks that have to be worked out with Okafor and Noel switching positions are going to cause this defensive lapse to continue, but hopefully not for too much longer.