College Basketball: Top 10 2015 NBA draft prospects
By Bryce Olin
1. Jahlil Okafor, Duke Blue Devils
NBA Doppelganger: Brook Lopez
I’ve been noticing a lot of people comparing Jahlil Okafor and Tim Duncan lately. Let’s take a chill pill, people.
Okafor is one of the best frontcourt players in the last ten years of college basketball, but I think calling Okafor the next coming of the greatest center since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seems a little ambitious.
Okafor is very fundamentally sound, and he rarely makes the wrong play. In his freshman season, Okafor is averaging 18.9 PPG on 68 percent shooting! Whoa.
| Season | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | TRB | AST | BLK | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 14 | 29.0 | 7.8 | 11.4 | .681 | 8.9 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 18.9 |
| Career | 14 | 29.0 | 7.8 | 11.4 | .681 | 8.9 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 18.9 |
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 1/8/2015.
For everything Okafor is good at, we have yet to see him actually tested in a game against an elite defender. Until that point, I don’t feel like I can even mention him in the same sentence as Duncan just yet.
Brook Lopez, on the other, hand is the perfect NBA comparison for Okafor. Lopez and Okafor have a very similar body type and play roughly the same style of below-the-rim defense.
Okafor and Lopez have great footwork, and that’s how they beat their opponents in the post. Okafor, for such a big guy, is very light on his feet and can make quick adjustments as defenders change their positioning.
Ultimately, Okafor is going to be the top pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. He will also be a star in the NBA, but I’m slightly skeptical Okafor won’t have a hard time against bigger, more athletic defenders.
If I have one complaint about Okafor’s game, it’s his athleticism. Okafor isn’t an elite athlete, which may cause some problems against some of the league’s biggest and best athletes.