Jahlil Okafor vs. The Abyss

Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

Jahlil Okafor has lived up to the gargantuan expectations others created for him. Buttery smooth post game? Check. Off-the-glass finesse reminiscent of Tim Duncan? You betcha. Early recognition of double teams and the passing ability to make defenses pay? Absolutely. Unlike other uber-hyped prospects of the Twitter generation, Okafor has answered the bell with gusto.

While the skills are obviously there, assessing Okafor is restricted due to the evolution of college basketball as a feeder system for the NBA. Top players usually bolt at the first chance they get rather than prioritizing their NCAA legacy, which has a domino effect on how we evaluate talent. There are future NBA players that stick around, but the quality of a freshman’s class will have a dramatic impact on the overall competition for that season.

Okafor’s class has acquitted itself well thus far; Karl Towns will jostle with him for the right to be taken No. 1 next summer, and wings like Arizona’s Stanley Johnson and Okafor’s Duke teammate Justise Winslow look ready to contribute for an NBA team — non-Sixers ones, even — right away. Strong start aside, watching Okafor play leaves me feeling as though we’re punting a year of evaluation due to factors outside of his control. It’s fun to watch him beat up on the Elon’s of the world, breaking Duke freshman rebounding records along the way, but he is the phrase “a man among boys” brought to life. Talented big men are scarce at the professional level, and even more so in the amateur ranks, a fact only exacerbated by the one-and-done nature of today’s college game.

The never-ending need for behemoths to stand near the rim creates an infinite loop; pro teams snatch up seven footers as quickly as they can be had, leaving little in the way of seasoned competition for the next class of big men. Barring colossal disappointment, that next class topples legions of 6’7″ peons, passes GO and collects their $200 (figures approximate). This is how a player like Byron Mullens — former No. 1 recruit in the country! — ends up being selected in the first round. There are many things you can teach a player, and having one-percent level genetics is not one of them.

I watch Okafor carve teams to shreds so ruthlessly, so diversely that at times I wonder if it’s fair. It’s easy to imagine him doing the same thing at all prior levels of basketball, little Jahlil (in relative terms) towering over pre-teen opponents like Xerxes on his throne, swatting away shots and requests for a look at his birth certificate. Frankly, it’s to his considerable credit that he’s developed the skills that he has; when you’re as big as he is, you could rest on the genetic lottery ticket and still do okay for yourself.

At least in the NBA Okafor would have the opportunity to do battle with extraterrestrials like Anthony Davis, or be forced to corral human Pikachus like Russell Westbrook in the pick-and-roll. The same can’t be said for his competition in the ACC or non-conference schedule. Excluding an early-season tangle with Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and several other marquee matchups later in the season, Okafor will play precisely no one that can reasonably be expected to challenge him. To this point, complacency is probably his largest opponent.

In an ideal world, a mega-conference would form in order to collect the best talent of the country in one place, forcing them to compete against ample talent on a night-to-night basis. Rather than being limited to events like the ACC-Big Ten Challenge or other comparables, the Okafors of the world could face future NBA players semi-consistently, rather than run roughshod through conference play like an 18-wheeler with no brakes. Use of strength and size is a critical factor in evaluating big men; Okafor has shown the ability to establish himself deep in the post and prevent others from doing the same, but it’s unclear to this point how that will stand up where the rubber meets the road.

There’s plenty to appreciate in the meantime, such as Okafor plucking entry passes out of the sky like Koosh balls, but I’m not sure America’s top amateur battleground is suitable for men of his stature anymore. Here’s hoping that he finds a way to make it matter anyway.