3 players that Brett Brown failed: Jahlil Okafor
To be fair to Brown, Jahlil Okafor hasn’t shown much growth to his game since leaving the Sixers. Still, Okafor was the third pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Despite leading the 76ers in scoring his rookie year when he averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, he’s proven to be one of the more memorable bust in recent draft history.
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Okafor is like Embiid in terms of bothing being efficent back to basket scorers, however, that’s where their similarites end. Okafor is a poor defender, rebounder, and passer. He also wasn’t a super efficent free throw shooter.
Health (injuries and conditioning) and the fact that Embiid finally becoming healthy led to Philly not needing to rely on Okafor’s offense. With no need for his offense, he quickly fell out of the rotation and was eventually traded with Nik Stauskas and a second round pick to the Brooklyn Net for Trevor Booker.
Brown failed to develop Okafor and not just in terms of his game, but off the court as well. The big man was only 20-years-old when drafted and had his handful of off-court incidents while on the Sixers. Granted it’s not all on Brown, but being an NBA coach is more than just “X’s and O’s” its also developing your young players as men.
The good news for Okafor is that he’s found a role as reserve center for the New Orleans Pelicans for the past two seasons. He’s still not a great defender, but he’s playing more consistently with effort on that end of the floor. The Sixers weren’t able to get that out of Okafor and that’s on Brown.
Brown had his positive moments for the Philadelphia 76ers during his tenure, but it would be irresponcible to ignore his short comings, especially when it comes to players who failed to thrive under him.