Countdown to NBA Draft: Prospect Talk

[BRIGGS]

Omg. How stupid is this. Let's think about it for just one second. Duke lost because of okafor? First off guys okafor is a 4 he scored 28 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and shot 73℅ . How about coach k putting plumlee in at 5 moving Winslow to 3 and play 2 guards? If he did duke could've shut the lane off. Duke was out coached tonight. Okafor was unbelievable

[djphan]

Yep. They lost because he's bad on D... Obviously if we are ignoring every other member of the team playing terrible defense and missing all of their shots.

if you're going to be an elite center you have to bring it on D... and he was getting abused...

it blows my mind how so many people dgaf about that... it's like they only watch one end of the court and look at the layup line at the other end and blame it on other people... he's the center.. that's his responsibility to protect that basket... and he fails at this every game...

when are people going to wake up and open their eyes about that...

[DaGawd]

Omg. How stupid is this. Let's think about it for just one second. Duke lost because of okafor? First off guys okafor is a 4 he scored 28 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and shot 73℅ . How about coach k putting plumlee in at 5 moving Winslow to 3 and play 2 guards? If he did duke could've shut the lane off. Duke was out coached tonight. Okafor was unbelievable

Okafor is def not a 4

[Workforce250]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_ ... basketball)


That's Stef Curry's resume in College and he was drafted 7th.

Russell maybe nice, but he has to be at least Huskies Ray Allen like, If not I'm passing on him.

Hey dumbass you linked us to a wiki page about the name Stephen and it's origin. And you know Curry went to Davidson right? If Russell went to Davidson he'd be dropping 30 a night.

You missed my point dik head

[bigfnjoe96]

ND attacked the paint all night because Duke has no rim protectors.

ND game plan worked perfectly.

That dude Colson put in work


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[ibraheim718]

ND attacked the paint all night because Duke has no rim protectors.

ND game plan worked perfectly.

That dude Colson put in work


Sent from my G2 via Tapatalk

Not the way I saw it.. they attacked the paint all night because it was so easy to get into. Duke overplayed them out on the wings and part of it was because Notre Dame is a such a good 3pt shooting team but more of it was because Duke struggles defending the perimeter. I could agree with what you're saying if let's say they dumped the ball down low and got to the bucket that way but they didn't. It's really no different than the Knick teams of the past 3 years. I used to preach this all the time while people projected their hate towards Tyson Chandler... it wasn't Tyson Chandlers fault the bucket was getting molested on penetration.. not even Bill Russell can block every shot from an onslaught of athletic wings and guards attacking the basket.. it's up to the perimeter defenders to seal that kind of penetration off. I'll say this for what feels like the Millionth time.. you protect the basket from the perimeter first and not the other way around.

[bigfnjoe96]

I get what your saying Abe. I also think Coach K didn't adjust correctly to what ND was doing.

I get you know ND is a good 3pt team, but you gotta find a balance defensively and Coach K didn't do that.

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[DickGrayson]

ND attacked the paint all night because Duke has no rim protectors.

ND game plan worked perfectly.

That dude Colson put in work


Sent from my G2 via Tapatalk

Not the way I saw it.. they attacked the paint all night because it was so easy to get into. Duke overplayed them out on the wings and part of it was because Notre Dame is a such a good 3pt shooting team but more of it was because Duke struggles defending the perimeter. I could agree with what you're saying if let's say they dumped the ball down low and got to the bucket that way but they didn't. It's really no different than the Knick teams of the past 3 years. I used to preach this all the time while people projected their hate towards Tyson Chandler... it wasn't Tyson Chandlers fault the bucket was getting molested on penetration.. not even Bill Russell can block every shot from an onslaught of athletic wings and guards attacking the basket.. it's up to the perimeter defenders to seal that kind of penetration off. I'll say this for what feels like the Millionth time.. you protect the basket from the perimeter first and not the other way around.

you protect the basket from the perimeter, but thats not guaranteed in the NBA all the time. A great offense will through a great defense and once that happens, you need someone to cover you. If your center can't protect you then your defense will be garbage 10 times out of time.

Tyson Chandler became an average defender after his DPOY season. Okafor isn't going to be a good defender even with good perimeter defenders until he works on his behavior on defense. He presents a lethargic body language on defense similar to Eddy Curry. He doesn't even need to be a beast rim protector. Okafor just needs to give more effort, show he's not afraid to go hard on defense and make a stop consistently. He can't protect the rim or guard the paint. He has no inside presence defensively except using his massive body for delayed defensive attempts.

[ibraheim718]

ND attacked the paint all night because Duke has no rim protectors.

ND game plan worked perfectly.

That dude Colson put in work


Sent from my G2 via Tapatalk

Not the way I saw it.. they attacked the paint all night because it was so easy to get into. Duke overplayed them out on the wings and part of it was because Notre Dame is a such a good 3pt shooting team but more of it was because Duke struggles defending the perimeter. I could agree with what you're saying if let's say they dumped the ball down low and got to the bucket that way but they didn't. It's really no different than the Knick teams of the past 3 years. I used to preach this all the time while people projected their hate towards Tyson Chandler... it wasn't Tyson Chandlers fault the bucket was getting molested on penetration.. not even Bill Russell can block every shot from an onslaught of athletic wings and guards attacking the basket.. it's up to the perimeter defenders to seal that kind of penetration off. I'll say this for what feels like the Millionth time.. you protect the basket from the perimeter first and not the other way around.

you protect the basket from the perimeter, but thats not guaranteed in the NBA all the time. A great offense will through a great defense and once that happens, you need someone to cover you. If your center can't protect you then your defense will be garbage 10 times out of time.

This just isn't the case anymore. Teams are shooting 3's more and more every year.. the number of 3pt attempts literally just keeps climbing. If you're playing a team like Golden State relying on one guy at the 5 that blocks shots is just useless. He serves no purpose.

There are better more efficient ways to protect the rim and the paint. Sure having a couple of guys that can do it that can play 15 to 25 minutes a game always helps.. you need to have defensive versatility but I'm not spending a top 3 draft pick based around that because I know it's not a must have anymore. What is a must have is a player preferably two that put pressure on other teams defenses and forces them to adjust in ways that they normally wouldn't want.

[fresko024]

after that game vs ND, i feel okay about having to choose between Towns and Okafor. Both will be legitimate NBA players.

[Capn'O]

Don't watch any college... How does OK fare guarding bigger centers?

[ibraheim718]

I'm going to bed on this note... a lot of the regular posters know my affinity for the coaching legends of the game Larry Brown, Bobby Knight etc.

Jim Calhoun on Jahlil Okafor today on Mike and Mike.

"From a technical standpoint he's terrific.. he's one of the few young kids 6'11" who comes in plays the post.. actually a big guy who likes going inside and talented as heck.. I don't know about his personality.. that's a funny thing to say.. he's a good kid.. maybe too good a kid to some degree not that he's not going to be a great pro.. he'll be in my opinion a better pro than anybody on that Kentucky team and I really like that" Mike Golic: "really?" Calhoun continued: "oh he's a.. he does things that we haven't seen in a long time. His hands are massive, he's got great footwork, he's a terrific player"

Just nice to hear someone outside of the this forum who still sees this debate like I do.

Okafor is too special a talent to go messing around with any of the other players. I'm sorry fellers.

[ibraheim718]

Don't watch any college... How does OK fare guarding bigger centers?

He'll be fine.. he's got a great physical base to work from.

[god4gives]

okafor will fit well with the lakers, minnesota, or sixers. glad phil jackson ain't looking his way and he won't regret it

[Worst_to_First]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/KATis32/status/185961582650593280[/tweet]

Not sure if this was discussed here before but apparently this was a tweet from Karl-Anthony Towns about 3 years ago.

[Bklyn&company]

Not a big Okafor fan, but the game wasn't totally his fault, thats on Coach K.

I still like Towns more but OK4 is still my 1a. Calhoun hit it on the head when he said ok4 "might be too good of a kid".. I have been saying that for a while now... in the NBA he going to get bodied by grown man and wont be able to do what he does now in college unless he develops some type of explosiveness, aggressiveness and his athletic ability goes to another level.... I don't see those high 60% fg from him, more like 50%+ FG...especially if he doesn't develop away from the basket and keeps doing the same post moves ,sure everyone is salivating over a 270lbs big 18 yr old with great foot work but he is still not on most top NBA player levels.. Everyone looks at age but not everyone continues to develop also.

To keep this short the Kid needs work on both ends for the NBA... in college he should be dominating and he is not and that what worries me. I have seen guys like Durant (who was Texas Center), Blake Griffin, Tim Duncan etc.. dominate and that you knew they were going to be good and most played both ends (Griffin not so much). His 9 rebounds per worries me when on every night you are the biggest dude on the court, he should be at 12 rebs plus... this tells me you don't have much explosiveness (play flat footed) and your box out technique is not great. Point is the Kid needs to development areas of his game and more so than a Towns or Kaminski. Thats why a Kaminski can out play him one on one, Towns can also do the same. His work ethic, desire to improve and working on his conditioning is going to determine his level of play in the NBA, from being a sub par defender Carlos Broozer at a 15ppg 8rpg player or a good defender D.Cousins at a 23ppg 10+rbg player.... because if Ok4 was a 6'8 - 6'9 PF, we won't be talking about him as much, but if he was on UK he will be dominating?! but that's another story...

IMO, beyond this College game, he needs to think dominate...he need to improve his conditioning, athletic ability, develop a jumpshot, hit his damn Free throws and improve his ball handling ala D.Cousins and Anthony Davis (notice both UK guys)...

[Bklyn&company]

Don't watch any college... How does OK fare guarding bigger centers?

He'll be fine.. he's got a great physical base to work from.

The key is "work from"... so currently he won't do much... maybe guys like Mozgov, Petrovic, Al Jefferson, Hibbert etc.. guys that play down low he can just bang with, but they can draw fouls on him.
Guy like LMA, D.Cousins, A.Davis he will have a hard time guarding because of his current conditioning. They are faster, more explosive and more aggressive than him. He will have a hard time.

[Retired_Doc]

There is NO way OK4 deserves to be the number one pick. Sorry OK4 lovers, but it's the stark truth.

Sure he's scoring now against far smaller players. That will NOT be the case in the NBA. But even more importantly, his defense is atrocious and his FT shooting is so bad that in the NBA he will find his ass glued to the bench late in the fourth quarter if the game is even reasonably close. OK4 is a late game liability owing to his D and his dreadful FT shooting.

My prediction: OK4 will NOT be drafted number one.

[Apples]

And duke loses...cause ok4 is terrible on d...

This is who he is... A force on offense.. Invisible on defense...

Sounds familiar...

[Bobbyydee]

Okafor all the way.which center in the east is going to destroy Okafor? I mean who is going to stop him if the center is not doubling Melo? Hibbert? I dont see any center stopping his post up moves.There are so many bigs that can rebound and play defence.U dfrat him and look for a rebounding machine at pf