What Can Sixers Expect From Sophomore Jahlil Okafor?

Noel’s Rookie Season – in his words

Here is an extract from that Bleacher report interview.  You can find the interview in its entirety here:

"My struggles early on this season were more of a mental thing. Gaining that experience helps slow the game down in your head, and you make your moves more confidently. You learn how to place yourself on the court, which started from working last season with Greg Foster, now a Bucks assistant coach, who I’ll train with a bit this summer. Greg really helped me expand my game playing more of a face-up way, especially learning how defenders position themselves. Reading your defender, instead of actually reading yourself and telegraphing a move, was something that took me a while to learn as I started seeing how certain players play. You learn how to get them going one way and always have a counter to that. I’ve also been working on pick-and-roll angles and rolls, as well as posting up more aggressively and knowing when to call loudly for the ball. Even before my rookie season, starting in 2013, I worked closely with Brett to completely rebuild my shot. He didn’t even want me to bring my guide hand over until January of last season. The early focus was one-handed shots with a tight elbow setup just to keep the technique. Before then, I would shoot with a release from the side of my head and the ball would rotate sideways. In fact, at Kentucky, I hadn’t taken a jump shot the whole year. But I was able to finish at nearly 61 percent from the free-throw line this season, which was the team’s goal for me. The Sixers’ attention to details is just crazy—the Sixers have GoPro cameras in the practice facility, and they know the percentages for everything. Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie has come up to me before and told me my free-throw percentage in practice. And nobody was even in the gym. There are so many metrics, and I’m still learning how to read them. But the most important ones for me are the opponents’ field-goal percentage and defensive points in the paint. The Sixers also film your shot, and they’ll put it into an app where you see the progression of it over time and see the little things that you can fix. I think that’s what really helped me so much, being able to visualize my shot, see it on the app and take another shot. The team also shows me the footwork of my idol Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Amar’e Stoudemire—their foot placement and how they step and explode to knock down 15-footers consistently… Only four players in NBA history have averaged at least two blocks and two steals per game in a season. It’s definitely an honor to be close to that type of company, but I think I’m still a long way from where I want to be. Winning Rookie of the Year would be appreciated, but I need to continue to just focus on me and what I have to do to reach the level of play like an All-Star and be an All-Star.– Nerlens Noel as interviewed by Bleacher reports Jared Zwerling"

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