People worried about Okafor who'd blow the 3rd pick in the draft on a scrub like Dragan Bender?
I can see the concern about Horford. Okafor would be a terrific addition to the Celtics, and Ainge is correct to pursue him. He will grow a lot under Brad Stevens.
I don't believe that either Okafor nor Bender are worthy of being top 3 picks, but for opposite reasons.
Bender's problem is that he is 'solid' at just about everything, but he's "great" at pretty much nothing. A jack of all trades, but master of none. Being mediocre at everything isn't really a recipe for becoming an NBA star.
Okafor's problem is that he is great at one thing (inside scoring) and terrible at pretty much everything else. He's a poor rebounder, he's a poor shooter, he's a poor defender, he's a poor athlete - if you can name it, and it isn't post scoring, then he probably sucks at it. Being really great at one thing is, also, not really a recipe for becoming an NBA star.
Merge Okafor's dominant post talent with Bender's all round competence, and suddenly you have yourself a player. Sadly this isn't one of those computer games where you can take a cat's face and a cow's butt and create a "caow". This is real life - Bender is who he is, Okafor is who he is, neither is probably ever going to be a big star.
Okafor COULD develop into a valuable player, but he's a very difficult player to build a strong team around simply because he has so many major flaws in his game that you need to cover for.
For example:
* He's not a great shooter, so you need to play him alongside a big who can stretch the floor
* He's not a good defender in general, so you need to play him alongside a big who can defend
* He's not a good rebounder, so you need to play him alongside a big who can rebound
* He's very slow, so you need to play him alongside a big who is very mobile
* He seems to have significant attitude issues
Try to find yourself a starting big man who is mobile, can stretch the floor, is versatile defensively, can rebound and has positive intangibles. If you can do that then maybe you can find a way to integrate a guy like Okafor into your lineup (next to Draymond Green or Lemarcus Aldridge might work). It's hard to find guys like that though, which is why it's hard to fit a team around Okafor.
Think of Okafor as Enes Kanter minus the elite rebounding and you're pretty much on the money.
The Thunder aren't starting Kanter (despite the fact that they have the seemingly perfect guy to fit next to him in Ibaka) because he kills their defence that badly. They are paying some $15 million for Kanter to come off the pine. That's why I don't want Okafor.
Topic: Envisioning Okafor, Horford Frontcourt pairing. (Read 6588 times)