Following potential 2015 draftees
- Thread starter Dr. Jones
- Start date
Okafor seems like he's a pretty good passer himself as well.
He seems much improved passer out of the post, I'm still not totally sold on his passing being on elite level. Also... the most important part of the description I gave above is really the defensive part. At this point I can't see Okafor ever being elite defender. Offensively, to me it looks more like Okafor is the ultimate consumer. He's the finisher with polished post game(think Big Al). Towns looks more like a guy who can be part of an offensive system in a more broad capacity rather than just finishing the attacks.
Okafor is undersized for a center as far as height goes (from the measurements available) but he does have an elite wingspan. He seems to be about the same size as Favors. Hard to be an elite rim protector when you are undersized. Seems like the best defensive centers, as far as rim protection goes, are huge or similar size to Favors/Okafor with much quicker feet.
I am not necessarily concentrated on rim protection alone. I'm thinking more about overall defense, pick and roll defense, help defense, switches, a bit of rim protection(not necessarily elite), not allowing the opponent to establish good position to attack near the basket before the pass, etc. Think Noah, Marc Gasol, Bogut(although Bogut is actually elite rim protector, he does the other things pretty well too)...
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Ohh, dang! I jinxed it. Just read that Cedi Osman had an ankle injury yesterday. He'll be out for at least two weeks but I'm afraid it might be more serious. They say there might be fracture in his ankle.
https://www.sportando.com/en/europe...sman-to-miss-a-couple-of-weeks-of-action.html
Is Okafor less athletic than Demarcus Cousins? His game is more polished than Cousins' was and he doesn't look to be a headcase. His measurables are almost as good. I think a team can take Okafor without worry.
I agree with Cy that he's a center. He's not really undersized, but not an elite rim protector. His standing reach is a couple inches better than Kanter's and a couple inches short of Cousins'.
Gasol is pretty lazy on pick n roll defense, Grizzlies defensive schemes are just great though and Conley makes up for Gasol's greatest defensive deficiency. I would say Gasol in an elite rim protector because he is just a brick wall down low. Very hard for anyone to post up and rotates well and uses his strength to hold his ground and his length to create a wall to shoot over. Smaller players can't do that as well because they aren't as big.
Undersized might not be the best word for Okafor/Favors, but they aren't ideal center size and neither of them have elite foot speed for the position.
This is a good question for PKM as he has seen Cousins in person. My guess is the answer is "yes". Also I think Cousins is a legit 7 footer and is longer IIRC.
