paul wrote:Interesting that a lot of people are saying that Okafor if used better would be the better player. Bogut was barely an afterthought for his first 2 and a half seasons in the league, Stott's offense just didn't give him the ball anywhere near scoring position and LK's for the first half of this season was no better. LK then came out in early January and said he'd made a mistake and was going to go to Bogut more, and from that point on Bogut averaged 16/10.5/3/1.8 blocks in 48 games. And that with Redd and Mo Williams shooting the thing every chance they got.
Bogut is younger, more adept offensively, very solid defensively and has a very high basketball iq. Bogut for me, pretty easily.
Yeah, improper utilization of Bogut has to be a factor because he'd be displaying his passing ability from the high post more effectively (and the low post, more importantly) but to do that, he'd need to not be an abysmal failure as a mid-range shooter. That can and probably will come in time, though.
Bogut is not more adept offensively; he is a better passer. That is the ONLY area in which he exhibits a superiority to Okafor in an offensive category.
No one's saying Bogut is bad and no one particularly intelligent is saying that the gap between the two is especially large.
BUT.
Okafor is a considerably better rebounder, pushing 12 boards per 36 minutes and otherwise outrebounding Bogut 10.7 to 9.8 despite playing 2 fewer minutes a game but there it is. His rebounding rate is a full 2% higher than Bogut's, too.
That's a big factor here. Okafor is an outstanding rebounder and Bogut is not, though he's certainly neither bad nor below average.
Bogut is not a good man-on defender and while he numerically approaches Okafor as a shot-blocker, I am leery of making much of a single-season outlier such as he has put forth this season. Even allowing for that as a development in his game instead of a random spike in his shot-blocking, Okafor still does a better job of blocking his own man, rotating on help D and blocking shots that stay inbounds and (more often than not) go to teammates. He's also WAY better about the second and third jump, something Bogut does not possess.
Depending on the pieces of your team, then, the particular skills of the respective players might be more appealing which is why this is not a "X, and easily" comparison.
Okafor is much better defensively and a lot better on the glass. Traditionally speaking, that seals the deal for me because that means that Bogut is a poor-man's Brad Miller (a little better on the glass and as a scorer but a pale shadow at the line and as a mid-range shooter).
Okafor is a lot more fluid these days than most people seem to realize or credit him as being. He's spent two or three summers working with Hakeem Olajuwon at Olajuwon's big man camp now and it's really starting to show in the way he goes baseline or makes his move into the lane, the way he's selling his pump fakes, that sort of thing. It'd be more apparent if his coaching staff would wise the Hell up and give him more touches instead of going to low-percentage gunners in the backcourt.
