The Sixer Sense
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Brett Brown Will be Asking Jahlil Okafor to Take More Jump Shots

By Josh Wilson

Feb 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor (8) attempt to dribbles past the defense of Orlando Magic forward Jason Smith (14) during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The Orlando Magic won 124-115. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor (8) attempt to dribbles past the defense of Orlando Magic forward Jason Smith (14) during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The Orlando Magic won 124-115. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Philadelphia 76ers are asking Nerlens Noel to slip back into a center role, and that is going to leave Jahlil Okafor playing some power forward.

According to a recent report about the Philadelphia 76ers big man Nerlens Noel, he will be taking many more steps this season to be a traditional big man. Playing close to the rim on the offensive side, as well as continuing to improve himself defensively as a rim protector.

Really, that makes a lot of sense. The Sixers tried to make him a power forward last year at the beginning of the season, and he simply just did not do well with that. The team would be smart to optimize him to get the best production possible, since it’s inevitable that the Sixers will have to trade either him or Okafor at some point.

That being said, putting Noel at the classic center position affects his counterpart — the other player that may be traded, Jahlil Okafor — much more than it affects him.

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This shouldn’t be a surprise. We will see Okafor slip in as a power forward much more than Noel did last year during this season. We actually saw that a lot at the tail end of last year, simply because Noel was asked to go back to center (since he was not doing well at power forward) and Okafor was asked to pick up the slack.

Okafor didn’t do too shabby as a power forward on offense. His ability to handle the ball (and not play like his hands are actually bricks like Noel does) let him be somewhat of a threat from the 10-15 foot range away from the hoop. Okafor shot 35.3 percent from the field within that range.

With Noel playing close to the hoop, and Embiid likely to get a lot of minutes as a post player, things are shaping up to have Okafor play some minutes at the power forward slot, even with Ben Simmons and Dario Saric both likely playing the bulk of their minutes there.

That’s not to say that Okafor will play all of his minutes, or even most of his minutes at the power forward slot. But it’s no secret that it’s going to be hard for head coach Brett Brown to divvy up the center minutes, and having that option to give Okafor minutes as a power forward is incredibly helpful for the team.

Sixers fans should be okay with Okafor playing some minutes there. Having Noel play at center and Okafor play at center and some power forward would be most effective for both of them, and that will result with them having higher trade values to other teams around the league, and therefore will hopefully result in a higher trade return for whichever player the Sixers decide to trade.

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Okafor has proven that he can improve his game in less than a full season (he missed around 20 games at the end of his rookie season). Where he was awful on defense at Duke, he came into the NBA (which is a much higher skill level than the competition he faced at Duke) and wasn’t too shabby. When he didn’t have a good free-throw shot at Duke, he did a decent job from the line in his rookie season with the Sixers.

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I’m confident that no matter what Brown asks Okafor to do (within a reasonable amount) Okafor will be able to do it. Whether that be jump shots, or simply posting up well like he has done, Okafor is going to do well.