Jahlil Okafor Likely Out For The Season, Has A Lot To Work On This Summer

Jahlil Okaforwill have arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and will miss at least six weeks, all but ending his rookie season.

When the Philadelphia 76ers selected Okafor with the third pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, they knew they were getting an offense-first post man who could rebound but wouldn’t play much defense. That’s exactly what they got this season from the Duke product.

If he is indeed done for the year, Okafor will finish having averaged 17.5 points 7.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 30.0 minutes per game. While those block numbers look pretty good, the 6-foot-11 Okafor isn’t a great defender and likely never will be. He’s not a real rim-protector and just doesn’t possess the kind of defensive instincts to turn into a guy who can anchor a defense in the post. He’s an outstanding offensive player already and, at 20 years old, will only get better. But his defense will likely always lag far behind what he does on the other end of the floor.

Okafor is currently second in scoring among rookies behind likely Rookie of the Year Karl-Anthony Towns (17.7 ppg), and is third in rebounding behind Towns (10.2 rpg) and Kristaps Porzingis (7.3 rpg).

While it sounds like I’m down on Okafor, that’s not the case. He is exactly what we expected him to be when he entered the draft. He has always reminded me of Elton Brand, another Duke forward/center who had a long, solid NBA career. Brand was a two-time All-Star and made Second-Team All-NBA once. He was an excellent offensive player in the post, but never rose to that level defensively. That said, like Okafor, you could plug Brand in as a starter and know exactly what you were going to get on a nightly basis.

As long as he stays healthy, Okafor will have a long NBA career. But if he wants to be a star he has to do something to fix himself on the defense. I’m not confident he’ll ever get there.