Chuma Okeke drafted #16 by the Orlando Magic

[fendilim]

I will eat my hat if Okeke ends up being a good starting small forward in the NBA.

He might end up playing the position like Gordon and Isaac have played the position because the Magic's roster construction is not very good. But I assure you he is not a natural small forward.

I might have to agree with this. I think Okeke might be a bit slow for today's small forward. But i do expect him like a bit like Tobias Harris in terms of speed. A bit bulky, can overpower sfs, but can't outspeed them.

What is this fuss about speed for a SF? Where does it come from? We don't care about 40 times in the NBA.

The Top 5 teams in the East have these SFs... Middleton, Anunoby, Tatum, Duncan Robinson and Ben Simmons... I guess we should add KD. In the West, it's Lebron, Will Barton, Kawhi, Eric Gordon and Joe Ingles. Speed is not their advantage. It's their skills, which wide differ between each other. Okeke has a shooting skill and that's a way better trait than speed. I swear folks are mentally crippled by prototypical structures around here. Round peg has to fit a round hole. We need to have the mentality that our hole can fit any shape or size. It's more about roster construction and how you fit pieces together than making sure Player A fits Position A.

And all that said, let's just make this clear... Okeke is NOT the caliber prospect that Lebron, KD, Simmons, Tatum, or even Kawhi was coming into the draft. Anyone crying about his fit at SF because he's not going to go toe to toe on the offensive end with Lebron and KD, needs to check their expectations. He's not being hyped up here to be a future HOF'er. On the other hand, defensively, he sure looks to have the foundational skillset to be a huge defensive asset for us. He needs to turn his baby fat into muscle mass, but the sooner he can do that, the sooner he could be a legit stud for us. You can tell that his defensive BBIQ and motor is high.

A defensive version of Tobias Harris would be amazing.

Where did i say he is an hofer? I’m not talking about speed on offense either. Lol

[Skin]

:banghead:

I might have to agree with this. I think Okeke might be a bit slow for today's small forward. But i do expect him like a bit like Tobias Harris in terms of speed. A bit bulky, can overpower sfs, but can't outspeed them.

What is this fuss about speed for a SF? Where does it come from? We don't care about 40 times in the NBA.

The Top 5 teams in the East have these SFs... Middleton, Anunoby, Tatum, Duncan Robinson and Ben Simmons... I guess we should add KD. In the West, it's Lebron, Will Barton, Kawhi, Eric Gordon and Joe Ingles. Speed is not their advantage. It's their skills, which wide differ between each other. Okeke has a shooting skill and that's a way better trait than speed. I swear folks are mentally crippled by prototypical structures around here. Round peg has to fit a round hole. We need to have the mentality that our hole can fit any shape or size. It's more about roster construction and how you fit pieces together than making sure Player A fits Position A.

And all that said, let's just make this clear... Okeke is NOT the caliber prospect that Lebron, KD, Simmons, Tatum, or even Kawhi was coming into the draft. Anyone crying about his fit at SF because he's not going to go toe to toe on the offensive end with Lebron and KD, needs to check their expectations. He's not being hyped up here to be a future HOF'er. On the other hand, defensively, he sure looks to have the foundational skillset to be a huge defensive asset for us. He needs to turn his baby fat into muscle mass, but the sooner he can do that, the sooner he could be a legit stud for us. You can tell that his defensive BBIQ and motor is high.

A defensive version of Tobias Harris would be amazing.

Where did i say he is an hofer? I’m not talking about speed on offense either. Lol

Well, he's not gonna get abused by speed on defense enough that it would give you headaches. Sheesh, that's literally a non-issue. I wouldn't put speed up there at a top defensive characteristic at that position. The great ones are gonna score against him and everyone else regardless... being a good defender is about BBIQ, a mindset/motor, God given size and physicality... things that Okeke has the makings of.

...and even in the case, say... he gets his hips turned and the offensive player cuts back... having Isaac and Bamba as rim protectors mitigates that. That's why I say it's not so much fitting Player A into a prototypical mold of Position A... It's about putting a puzzle together that fits, where the combined strengths of players overcomes each others weaknesses.

That's why I mentioned before how much I like the fit of Tyrese Haliburton for us in the Draft thread. To bad he's projected to go way before our pick is projected. I don't see Haliburton as a guy who could single-handedly turn around the direction of a franchise, but I do see a great fit with his combination of size, BBIQ, shooting, passing, and defense. If both of our starting guards had elite court vision then we could better play to the strengths of our bigs imo.

I really thought you meant that he doesn't have the Guard-like fluidity and speed on offense... to go anywhere he wants to on the court at any given moment. I wouldn't consider him an ISO heavy guy. So yeah, I can see some restriction there, where speed with the ball on offense provides some limitation. He has a cross over, but I wouldn't call him a Magician with the ball in his hands.

[spinedoc]

I will eat my hat if Okeke ends up being a good starting small forward in the NBA.

He might end up playing the position like Gordon and Isaac have played the position because the Magic's roster construction is not very good. But I assure you he is not a natural small forward.

He's not a natural small forward, more of a stretch four.