Fischella wrote:Okafor projects better defensively than Towns, he has real size for a Center, trunk legs with a terrific strength level and he can defend in the post from day one, he needs to work on pick&roll defense and conditioning, but he has the feet and the agility, whereas Towns has boatfeet and is kind of robotic moving, not as fluid, Marc Gasol had similar issues when he was younger, and he is what he is today.
Towns projects as a better fit offensively if Wiggins pans out, but you cant put all your eggs in Wiggins basket if you are Flip, not now at this stage when nothing is proven.
Go with the BPA, and figure that out later.
Plus Okafor is from Chitwon and his best friend is from Minneapolis, that has to be a plus, Towns is used to be on the spotlight and all that, he will probably want to go 2 to LA.
And now I think you're completely off-base. So, the first thing to note is that everyone basically agrees Okafor isn't a rim protector. He's a below the rim player. So he's not an interior defender in the sense that he can patrol the paint and block shots. So what can he do? You emphasise his strong lower body, with which he can battle in the paint for position. The thing is, that's virtually a defunct skill set. How many teams run plays where the big fights for position in the low post, then gets the lob thrown to him, so he can post up and try and array of moves? Almost none. It's actually not that efficient for one thing. These days everything is a pick and roll, a movement based set, etc, with very little big man post up isolation. So his one good defensive skill, which would have been very useful in the 80's, is basically useless against most teams.
Here's how the NBA developed to where it is today:
- The NBA hates the 2004 finals, and all the low scoring games teams like the Pistons play. They get rid of handchecking. In addition, defensive 3 seconds and zone rule changes are quite recent too.
- Phoenix immediately capitalises on these rule changes, and begins ripping up the league. It takes the rest of the league the first year to adjust, but by 2006 scoring has gone crazy. The Spurs are still getting by on talent, and older systems like iso-ball/triangle aren't dead yet, but the league is changing.
- Thibs becomes assistant-coach in Boston, revolutionises defensive systems, especially with strong side D. The last vestiges of iso-ball goes to die against these Celtics. The Celtics offense sucks, and their teams are getting older, so that holds them back a little bit. Coaches start to wonder "what would happen if we used that sort of D and had a half decent offense?"; soon all teams will start adjusting and doing the same things on D. 2011 sees Thibs go to Chicago and demonstrate the defensive adjustments he made can carry over to other teams. The Heat lose the finals, with the Mavs taking advantage of Thibs adjustments, zone rules, and 3pt shooting. The importance of things like the 3 point shot, lay-up and motion offenses are increasingly emphasised. Why? Because Thibs strong side D systems can't stop it. The Heat with Lebron realise this too, and go small and adopt an increasingly high 3pt shot, motion oriented system. They win the next 2 titles.
- Spurs retool their team using motion offenses, make the WCFs in 2012, the finals in 2013, and win it all in 2014, using fancy motion offenses, and much less iso.
- 2015. The final 5 teams lead the NBA in most 3's made, and the final 4 teams rank similarly high among 3's attempted. Iso-ball is officially dead. Meanwhile the Bucks are trying a fancy way to counter it, involving switching. This may be the next revolutionary development.
In that NBA big men who roll to the rim, shoot, are fast and athletic, etc, are super valuable. That's the opposite of everything Okafor does.
