Okafor or Towns? Which center is the better pick?

[Kalela]

I agree with all those saying Towns is a better player than Okafor. Okafor is too soft. Not as bad as someone like Olynyk but still soft.

[DickGrayson]

"neither of these guys are franchise pieces"

- only seen Okafor and Towns play a total of 10 games combined.

what the hell are you talking about dick. you aint ****. I've watched every jah game, less KAT, but more than 10 games.

You compared Okafor to Enes Kanter...you obviously need glasses. Okafor lives in the paint. Kanter takes more mid range jumpers.
Okafor is a superior prospect and will be an NBA All star. Franchise player? we dont know yet. Its too early to even tell these things.

I believe Towns is a bit overrated on the defensive end at this point. I understand that he has made some strong plays from the help side at times for UK, but he does still struggle against elite bigs 1 on 1 and on switches imo.

That said, I have always liked Towns' advanced skill level and believe he will develop in the NBA. I do believe that UK is somewhat masking some of the holes in his game as it currently stands, though.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7csO1XitHY[/youtube]

[Zombiesonics]

"neither of these guys are franchise pieces"

- only seen Okafor and Towns play a total of 10 games combined.

what the hell are you talking about dick. you aint ****. I've watched every jah game, less KAT, but more than 10 games.

You compared Okafor to Enes Kanter...you obviously need glasses. Okafor lives in the paint. Kanter takes more mid range jumpers.
Okafor is a superior prospect and will be an NBA All star. Franchise player? we dont know yet. Its too early to even tell these things.

I believe Towns is a bit overrated on the defensive end at this point. I understand that he has made some strong plays from the help side at times for UK, but he does still struggle against elite bigs 1 on 1 and on switches imo.

That said, I have always liked Towns' advanced skill level and believe he will develop in the NBA. I do believe that UK is somewhat masking some of the holes in his game as it currently stands, though.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7csO1XitHY[/youtube]

Kanter was taking jumpers as an amateur prospect? No he wasn't, he was feasting in the paint, and doing interesting things off one dribble. Go watch the hoop summit. Are you this douchey in real life? You know, with the banal insults like 'you need glasses'? Kanter developed more offense in the pros, Okafor might too since a TON of his post moves will prove to be ineffective vs pro defensive schemes.

You know just the fact you outchea bringing out dunk highlights to prove his athleticism is the smoking gun on your overall hoops acumen , dick.

[DickGrayson]

what the hell are you talking about dick. you aint ****. I've watched every jah game, less KAT, but more than 10 games.

You compared Okafor to Enes Kanter...you obviously need glasses. Okafor lives in the paint. Kanter takes more mid range jumpers.
Okafor is a superior prospect and will be an NBA All star. Franchise player? we dont know yet. Its too early to even tell these things.

I believe Towns is a bit overrated on the defensive end at this point. I understand that he has made some strong plays from the help side at times for UK, but he does still struggle against elite bigs 1 on 1 and on switches imo.

That said, I have always liked Towns' advanced skill level and believe he will develop in the NBA. I do believe that UK is somewhat masking some of the holes in his game as it currently stands, though.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7csO1XitHY[/youtube]

Kanter was taking jumpers as an amateur prospect? No he wasn't, he was feasting in the paint, and doing interesting things off one dribble. Go watch the hoop summit. Are you this douchey in real life? You know, with the banal insults like 'you need glasses'? Kanter developed more offense in the pros, Okafor might too since a TON of his post moves will prove to be ineffective vs pro defensive schemes.

You know just the fact you outchea bringing out dunk highlights to prove his athleticism is the smoking gun on your overall hoops acumen , dick.

as a prospect? Where did you see Kanter play? He couldn't play for Kentucky, so the only thing we knew about Kanter was his domination at the Nike Hoop Summit and his American HS play in Cali.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YzbhAQGPqk[/youtube]


You say you watch DUKE games, but don't even know or can begin to explain or asses how Okafor plays.
You say you watch the NIKE Hoop Summit Game in 2010....but you ignore the fact that Kanter hit 3-4 mid range jumpers.


So what happen this belief you have that Kanter never took jumpshots as a prospect? Seems like you're using the term douchey as a self projection. Bad.

You assume Okafor will be shut down by NBA defensive schemes and his moves will be ineffective as a pro...but you don't explain why. No argument from you on this then? It's a statement with zero substance. I can't say I expected much.

I do believe Okafor will develop a jumper, but his offensive post game is levels above Kanter.


as for Towns, it's just a showcase of what he can do as a 7 footer. In game, he's had some pretty impressive facials on a few guys, but don't expect him to do that all the time. He plays similar to Tim Duncan, more tech than athleticism. The point was Towns isn't nonathletic. Didn't know youtube videos annoyed you so bad. Next time let me know. Peace.

[Zombiesonics]

your reading comprehension is grossly inadequate and i'll just leave it at that.

[DickGrayson]

your reading comprehension is grossly inadequate and i'll just leave it at that.

I'll accept the white flag, goodnight!

[E-Balla]

Don't you mean Towns? Towns just killed ND who has one player over 6-5 and against the big teams like Cinci, UNC, and Arkansas he looked like another guy. Last time a team let their big play Okafor 1 on 1 most of the game was the Virginia Tech game and he ate the 7-0 255 C guarding him alive. He also ate SDSU alive and they're bigger than any team Towns has had 10+ points against I can think of. Two games where he played NBA prospect bigs and dealt with insanely hard doubles/triples off ball (Utah) or frequent doubles (yesterday) shouldn't change people's opinions on him when he's killed big teams all year.

Here's the difference.... okafor is known for dominant offense .. and if he's not getting consistent good looks against guys who are actually good.. that's a problem isnt it? he's generally been fine... and maybe they just wanted to have him avoid doubles but he was very hesitant to be physical with any of them... that's what gives me pause... and if you're looking at him in a honest light it should probably give you pause also... i generally trust the numbers and the offensive side still looks good so i'm not too down on him on that side.. if anything the rebounding trends which have been going on for longer are more of a concern...

and for towns... the same thing applies... the numbers are what they are... louisville is another team with consistent size and a great defense and he had no problem banging with them... notre dame isn't the greatest defense but how many guys in college basketball would do what towns did against them? 25 pts in 23 minutes in the post? not even okafor was scoring at that rate in any of his games against them... just the fact that he was even close to okafor...

so yeah.. it's impressive anyway you slice it and i've been saying it all year.. when they need buckets.. they goto towns.. and they did and they won... underselling that is a far far reach...

Yeah the rebounding trends are an issue with Okafor but I can't help to notice that his rebounding and effort look way worse since he twisted his ankle against UNC. He had 11 double doubles up to that missed game and he hasn't had once since. I don't think he looks like the same player physically since that happened but strangely enough we haven't had any injury reports about him since then. For now I can see the concern there definitely.

And you mentioned Louisville for Towns but Okafor put up 18/7 on 8-10 shooting against them and Towns actually played a weak game against Louisville going 3-7 for 10 points and 4 turnovers.

And they went to Towns for buckets but like I've said they only do it when he's against small teams. 8-8 in the second half is damn impressive but remember we've seen Jahlil bring it to them 3 times this year (22/17 game 1, 20/10 on 9-11 shooting in 23 minutes game 2, 28/8 on 13/18 shooting game 3) including a game or two that was more impressive than Towns' game arguably.

My biggest issue is that with the massive difference in coverage they see against teams it's hard to make an apples to apples comparison with their numbers. ND let Towns murder them inside without throwing more than 2 soft doubles while Jahlil actually got the foul treatment at times against ND.

No way will Okafor average 12 rebounds a game in the NBA.

Cousins averaged 18 rebounds per40 in college and is now averaging 12 rpg in the pros.

Okafor is averaging around 10-11 rebounds per40 in college. Okafor will probably average 7/8 rpg in the pros.

Drummond averaged 10-11 rebounds per 40 in college (Jahlil averages 11-12) and now he is one of the best rebounders in NBA history. I honestly think he could average 13-14 boards a game but not if he is a primary scorer. Still if All Jefferson could average 11 a game there's no reason Jahlil can't average 11.5+. 7-8 is insanely low. You're putting him at a level about 5 centers have been bad enough to be at for no good reason since his rebound numbers are pretty good.

LOL....Towns has bad mobility and athleticism?
I wish people who don't watch these kids play would stop participating on these threads.

Actually, I have seen them play. I shouldn't have used the word bad because he's not bad in those areas, but it certainly isn't his strength. A person who hasn't seen them play would probably think Towns is more athletic and mobile since he has a really good max vert for a person his size and he will probably perform better than Okafor during the pre-draft workouts. Performing well there doesn't always translate to in game athletics/mobility though. Durant performed poorly during the pre-draft workouts and it's obvious that he's more athletic and more mobile than about 99.9% of people who are his height. In contrast, a person like Joe Alexander performed really well there but it's obvious that KD is more athletic and mobile than Joe. That's where watching the games comes in. Towns' moves on the offensive end are very mechanical and his moves aren't quick either. He's probably quicker than Okafor at moving his feet laterally on the defensive end, but that's about it. He'll probably end up being a better defensive player than Okafor as a result but Okafor will be better on offense.

I respect that....I just believe Towns isn't on Drummond or Jordan type level of athleticism, but it could play to his favor since he gets to use his tools (post game, jumpshot) and make his offensive game more multi dimensional than Jordan/Drummond.


I do think Town is impressive enough(not all world athleticism) but he does impressive things for a 7 footer, quick feet, 9"5 standing reach.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4bnBDBsM7g[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo48q4aciQ0[/youtube]

According to the UK pro day he has a 9-1 standing reach. Other than that I agree with both of you. Good athlete overall but weak in areas you'd usually like to see bigmen physically accel in.

[nicnac215]

why does towns have 2 completely different measurements for his standing reach? both taken in 2014 one has 9'5" which sounds right and one says 9'1"

[Hachmabash]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

[Marcus]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

you caught him on a bad night. he's a much better prospect than what you saw in that game.

[Hachmabash]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

you caught him on a bad night. he's a much better prospect than what you saw in that game.

He´s usualy quicker on a good night?
I will be watching him in Final Four, so he does have a chance to redeem himself in my eyes.

[E-Balla]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

you caught him on a bad night. he's a much better prospect than what you saw in that game.

Bad night? He caught him on his worst night (offensively at least). He never really got the chance to show off. Still anyone making a judgment off a player in the only game they ever saw of his where he put up close to a season low in points shouldn't really have an opinion IMO. Every first overall pick has had games where they don't look like they should go first.

[Marcus]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

you caught him on a bad night. he's a much better prospect than what you saw in that game.

He´s usualy quicker on a good night?
I will be watching him in Final Four, so he does have a chance to redeem himself in my eyes.

he's usually quicker when he's not hurt. His gas tank can be a problem, definitely needs to get into better condition. 100% Jah is much quicker, he fights for position better on the block, dives really well, the statement about his IQ is false. Very intelligent kid that picks spots on the floor to sit for dumpoffs and makes good passes out of doubles. I think the catches you saw him make up top had more to do with the defensive shading than it did with him being "not particulary bright" and if you noticed those proved to be fairly effective decisions because for some reason (which they shouldn't have) the Zag's bigs followed him out there and opened the lane for drivers.

On the defensive end he can be very lazy, low hands, makes poor reads sometimes in the PnR, and he doesn't really rebound outside of his area. The reads are improving, the hands and board activity are not.

We'll see how he looks having so much time off and how MSU decides to defend him. The kid can be a marvel in the post, ridiculous touch around the cup, handles doubles like a seasoned pro, can put it on the floor and go ISO if need be, no real range outside of 10 feet or so but he's also not to the type to not play to his strenghts. If Izzo decides to let Jah go 1 on 1 on the block he'll shred their defense. More than likely he'll see hard doubles and they'll zone around him to keep the entry passes out. So the key for Jah will be passing out the doubles to create swings for open threes or closeout attacks in which case he'll dive and make himself available for dumpoffs.

State will more than likely stay with that gameplan and put Jah in as many PnR situations as possible on defense which should lead to Coach K zoning which might cause Izzo to adjust on the other end since Jah won't have to work as hard on defense as they would have liked for him to. If Duke's shooters are on and Izzo has his guys staying home more Jah could get his touches down low and feast on MSU's size down there.

We'll see what happens.

[sasso]

People that say Okafor is the safer pick and has less bust potential should re-think that. Okafor's main dominant skill is his low-post game against smaller and less skillful college defenders. If his low-post game turns out to not be as effective in the NBA, what else does he have? Not much...maybe just his passing and decent offensive rebounding. This makes Okafor a higher bust prospect in my eyes. But if Towns' low-post game isn't as effective in the NBA, he still has his shooting, passing, rebounding, and shot blocking skills to fall back on in the NBA. Towns has a more well-rounded game, with some good skills that will translate to the NBA, and a higher ceiling than Okafor. It's a no-brainer who is the #1 pick.

[richboy]

Anytime you have a big man that not good defensively it puts a much lower ceiling on what he can be for me. The most important thing a big can do is rebound and rim protection. Bill Russell said that because you can't get it from guards. Right now I think Towns is the better prospect. Not sure if Okafor is even the best prospect on Duke. He will be a good player but I could see a few guys being better pros.

[Marcus]

People that say Okafor is the safer pick and has less bust potential should re-think that. Okafor's main dominant skill is his low-post game against smaller and less skillful college defenders.

this statement always makes me question how much of that kid someone has actually seen.

[sasso]

People that say Okafor is the safer pick and has less bust potential should re-think that. Okafor's main dominant skill is his low-post game against smaller and less skillful college defenders.

this statement always makes me question how much of that kid someone has actually seen.

I've watched him play a lot. I'd like to see how effective he is posting up against someone like Marc Gasol instead of Przemek Karnowski.

[Marcus]

People that say Okafor is the safer pick and has less bust potential should re-think that. Okafor's main dominant skill is his low-post game against smaller and less skillful college defenders.

this statement always makes me question how much of that kid someone has actually seen.

I've watched him play a lot. I'd like to see how effective he is posting up against someone like Marc Gasol instead of Przemek Karnowski.

lmao.

question for you sir. How many 19 year olds in general are going to be successful posting up Marc Gasol?

[Joseph17]

According to the UK pro day he has a 9-1 standing reach. Other than that I agree with both of you. Good athlete overall but weak in areas you'd usually like to see bigmen physically accel in.

Hoop Summit has him at a 9'5 standing reach. 9'1 and 9'5 is a pretty big difference so one of them really messed up on the measurement.

[Joseph17]

I have seen Okafor play for the first time recently agains Gonzaga. Even if its only one game, I´m now highly doubtful that he´ll be a high quality NBA player, more so a superstar. He is just SO slow. Any team that runs will give him enormous trouble, for that alone I can already say he will never erase many problems on defensive end (Unless he suddenly becomes quicker). And on offence, I dont like it either. He is really passive from I can see, and not particulary bright when it comes to positioning. Not once I have seen him establish a good position down low, and he always ran up to the three point line, and started posting up from there. And he also took way too much time doing so, and it resulted in awkward shot (some of them went in to be objective).
He did show some nice footwork in the post however, when he was there, and I like his close range touch.
But overal, this guy will strugle mightily in this league I would bet. He seems to me like Al Jefferson, and Al Jefferson type players arent really suited for this league nowadays. Its no coincidence he has never won anything.
But back to Okafor, overal: Really slow, passive, bad positioning, but has some nice post moves.
Oh, and not to forget, he airballed a free throw.
From what I have seen from Towns or Russell, I would have them higher for sure.

After I saw him play, I dont think he is a worthy 1. pick. Top 10, sure, but not no. 1.

OT: I liked that Sabonis guy, wonder if he can be a starter in the league in few years.

you caught him on a bad night. he's a much better prospect than what you saw in that game.

He´s usualy quicker on a good night?
I will be watching him in Final Four, so he does have a chance to redeem himself in my eyes.

The college game and the pro game are so much different. Similar players like Boozer were pretty average in college compared to other players that were drafted, but he turned out to be really good as a pro. You can tell that Okafor has good basketball instinct and a good feel for the game on the offensive end. If he turns out to be a bigger version of Al Jefferson with better defense the team that gets him will be very happy. I think some people have unrealistic expectations for these guys. You're not going to get players that are on Lebron's, Duncan's, and Davis's level every time you get the number 1 pick.