Elie Okobo is a perfect fit for the new Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns were arguably the laughing stock of the NBA last season. They lost 61 games, fired head coach Earl Watson three-games into the season, and had the Eric Bledsoe catastrophe where he tweeted, “I Dont wanna be here,” which lead to him eventually being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Once Bledsoe departed, the Suns didn’t have a point guard who was clearly an NBA player on their roster for some time. Mike James impressed early on and got his two-way contract converted to an NBA contract before being waived and returning to Europe. Tyler Ulis made 43 starts during the season but got waived a couple weeks ago. Elfrid Payton was acquired at the trade deadline, but Phoenix let him leave for New Orleans.

Phoenix was a joke last season, and their point guard play was the punchline.

Bring us to the present, and the Suns have emerged from the darkness. While they don’t seem destined for the playoffs next season, they finally have a young core to be excited about that gives hope for their future. This is mainly because of how well GM Ryan McDonough appears to have drafted in the 2018 draft.

It started with the first pick in the draft where the Suns selected Arizona center Deandre Ayton with the first pick in the draft. Ayton has been very impressive in Summer League so far, posting double-doubles in the first two games. The other Suns first round draft acquisition — Mikal Bridges, who was drafted No. 10 overall by the Sixers but then traded back to the Suns at 16 — played well in his summer league debut against the Mavericks. He finished with 14-points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range.

The third player the Suns acquired on the draft night played well against the Mavs as well. French guard, Elie Okobo, finished the game with  nine points, six assists, and four rebounds. The Suns drafted Okobo with the first pick of the second round, No. 31 overall, and were considering drafting him with pick 16 but decided to test their luck and wait until No. 31.

It worked out for them, and now the Suns finally have a point guard who’s NBA material, and wants to be there.

According to new Suns head coach Igor Kokoskov, Okobo didn’t just impress during his summer league debut. He impressed during training camp in the team’s first four practices and looks ready to run the Serbian head coach’s fast paced, pick-and-roll heavy offense alongside the team’s star shooting guard Devin Booker.

In this highlight we get a taste of Okobo’s ability to run an offense that wants to thrive in transition, which the Suns look like they want to do with all the athletic players on their current roster. Okobo shows us his ability to emerge from the pack, reach his top speed quickly, and then make a decision that gets his team a relatively easy bucket.

This isn’t anything new for Okobo, he showed this ability regularly during his time with Pau Orthez in France last season.

Both these highlights show Okobo’s ability to set himself up in transition. The first clip he shows a hesitation crossover into a spin move, and then he finishes at the rim with an off-hand lay-up. On the second clip Okobo eurosteps from left to right and finishes on the right side of the rim with a reverse layup.

The youngster’s athletic traits paired with his vision, decision-making, and finishing ability in transition seems set to be a perfect match for the rest of the Suns young core in Booker, Bridges, and Ayton as well as their main off-season acquisition — Trevor Ariza.

Okobo is a talented player in the half-court game as well, especially as a pick-and-roll player which is exactly what coach Kokoskov needs in his offense.

This highlight shows Okobo’s ability to set himself up. He’s patient while using the ball screen, waits to get the shoulder on his defender, then keeps his shoulder and attacks the rim for a wide open finger roll layup.

Okobo’s got great touch around the rim, too. Especially with his left hand, where he’s got a signature soft, high-arcing floater.

We see two lefty-floaters from Okobo in this clip. Both of them start with the pick-and-roll and Okobo getting by his man but still having to deal with him on his hip. As he gets closer to the rim help comes over, and he has to finish high off-the-glass with exquisite touch. He executes both times. This is a shot that will be very useful for him in the NBA where the rim protectors are at a level that no other league in the world can prepare you for. For small guards, especially young ones who can’t play above the rim, a floater is often the best counter and Okobo’s is already reliable.

Although Okobo is a good scorer out of the pick-and-roll, he’s even better as a passer — he has incredible patience and can make all the passes required to be a solid pick-and-roll player at the NBA level.

We see all of that from Okobo in this highlight where he finds the roll man. He uses the ball screen to get into the paint but pauses and takes an extra dribble to draw both defenders. This sets up an easy pocket pass to his roll man who gets fouled at the rim. With the Suns, he’ll be running this with Ayton, who will probably dunk through that contact for an and-1.

Okobo does more than find the roll man in the pick-and-roll. In fact, he’s truly best at finding spot-up shooters when the defense sinks to help on the roller. With Ayton being the guy diving to the rim for the Suns, defenses will probably sink to help quite often. The Suns finally have the spacing to make teams pay for this in Booker, Bridges, Ariza, and Dragan Bender.

Okobo finds two spot-up shooters in this highlight. The first pass is a simple read, the roll man picks up help from the weak side wing defender and Okobo just finds the now open man on the wing who knocks down the open look. The second pass demonstrates his patience again as he gets into the teeth of the defense alongside his roll man to draw even more help, and then makes a pass out of traffic to the open shooter in the corner — a spot where Ariza often found himself open after Chris Paul and James Harden drives with the Rockets last season.

We saw Okobo find a spot-up shooter after running the pick-and-roll in his Summer League debut, again, demonstrating great patience and waiting for his teammate to get open after the Ayton screen.

He does a great job of finding cutters out of the pick-and-roll as well. We saw him do this in France.

Again, not panicking and just waiting with the ball in his hands. He trusts his teammates to get open, and they trust him to find them once they are open.

Okobo flexed a similar pass in his debut.

Cuts like this are where Okobo can link up with non-shooters like Josh Jackson and Marquese Chriss, giving him the ability to truly set-up any and every teammate who shares the floor with him. This will make him a player that the rest of the team will love playing with, which is something every team wants out of their point guard.

Okobo has shown some ability as an isolation scorer, which Kokoskov will certainly experiment with at times during his rookie season. But the skill he has that may help the team most is how strong of a spot-up shooter he is. The Suns didn’t have this in three of their regular point guards last season — James, Ulis, and Payton. It’s a good thing Okobo brings it as well because Kokoskov’s offense is dependent upon having multiple players who can run the pick-and-roll, iso, and space the floor when another player takes on the ball-dominant responsibilities.

With Okobo and Booker as his back court, Kokoskov has exactly that.

We see Okobo spot-up on the wing in this clip during a pick-and-roll set. The pick-and-roll gets blitzed, thus forcing his defender to sink to the roll man to prevent the lay-up. Okobo gets left open, is found by his teammate, and then knocks down the open 3. The release will probably need to be a little quicker at the NBA level but that will just be a small learning curve he has to deal with like all rookies.

In general, it will probably be a relief to Booker that he can finally dish the ball to teammates who are open AND will make the open shot. Teams will pay when they try to blitz him or help off the perimeter when he iso’s and runs the pick-and-roll, and that will only make his game even more lethal going forward and into the max contract extension he just signed.

Next: Was 2018 the best rookie class since the merger?

Okobo is clearly a perfect fit with the Suns and new coach Kokoskov. With him, Booker, Bridges, Jackson, and Ayton the Suns have a group of young athletic skilled players who gel together with their versatile skill sets. The five of them are making the Sun rise in Phoenix for the first time in a long time. Once it’s bright enough, there’s a chance a lot of players will finally want to be there.