Jahlil Okafor
Status: Recovering from Meniscus tear. Hope to be ready by season opener. Possible starter. 2016 Team USA Select member.
Contracted Through: 2017, with team options to extend through 2019
Current 2016-2017 Salary: $4,582,680
Trade Value: Early first round pick or productive veteran with good upside.
Strengths: He’s a solid offensive machine in the post. Despite just 53 games played, he has shot making abilities, can defeat double-teams, good shot accuracy. Flirted with 20 points per game in rookie season.
Offense: He is the best offensive player on the Philadelphia 76ers, and the roof has just been blown off with the new player skills on the team. In his rookie season, he shot better than 50 percent from the floor. He may flirt with 30 points per game this season as the year will be familiar, the double teams will lessen, and the burden to “score score score” will not rest exclusively on his shoulders.
Defense: Despite a chain of events that hindered his defense, he showed signs of improving to a solid game in defense. He pulled down 7.0 rebounds per game, and did manage to block 1.15 shots per game as well, and he was just beginning to find his groove at power forward before a knee injury shut him down for the rest of the season.
Weaknesses: His greatest weakness appears to be time. He is just 53 games into the NBA and has already launched himself into an excellent trajectory towards a great NBA career. In comparison, his defense is not on par with his offense, but he can improve with focus and experience. He needs to improve his passing out of a double team and work on his rebounds and blocks.
Offense: Everything a center can do at the post, Jahlil Okafor can do offensively. He’s surprisingly quick and powerful, can sink shots in double and triple teams, and despite being one of the few offensive weapons of the team, he maintained a better-than-50-percent shooting accuracy.
Defense: This area of his game is the weakest, but also the more easily improved. With a roster that should have a greater number of scoring options, the pressure will come off Okafor to think scoring exclusively. He can turn his attention to working on reads, anticipation, and timing of his jumps to optimize blocks and rebounds.
Probability of 2016-2017 Roster: 85 Percent. No way the team surrenders his offensive potential for anything short of a “wow” offer, and the NBA teams show little sign of putting up that kind of trade offer. By the time the 2017 NBA trade deadline rolls around, that may be a different for NBA teams, but the 76ers may just turn off the “for sale” sign and decide to keep the young center for the foreseeable future.
Next: Noel