I thought it was a sprain. Either way, didnt Westbrook have the same injury?
On Tim Duncan, comparing him overall to Duncan is absurd, but his footwork is super advanced for someone his age. I dont study bigman footwork enough to really judge it but if you watched any Okafor youve probably heard announcers gushing about the guys footwork in the post.
As for the comps. I dont have any. He is a more unique guy then people give him credit for. The comps you see are Lopez, Monroe, and Big Al. All these guys can score inside but cant defend or shoot. The difference is that Big Al is totally stationary. Okafor has a much higher defensive ceiling in my mind. I also think hes a better natural passer. Monroe is a good interior scorer. Doesnt have Okafors post game, and doesnt have half his offensive potential. Lopez might be the best comp. Difference is that I think Okafor can be a better version of Lopez. Brook had prime devastated by massive foot injuries. Okafor is more athletic and once again, while Lopez is a talented offensive big man, I believe Okafor is far superior in terms of scoring talent. Again, its all got to go right for Okafor to be valuable. The back to the basket center only works in this game if his scoring ability is so dominant that he is able to transcend scheme and fit to control the tempo and flow of the game. He must be so good that he forces teams to adapt for him, rather than forcing his own team to adapt by putting him on the bench. I dont know if Okafor will reach that level. Its honestly unlikely, but people are really overlooking what is one of the most gifted 20 year old post players Ive certainly ever seen. He has an elite elite skill, Portis doesnt. Who were Steph's player comps coming out of school?
I dont mean to suggest Okafor can be steph, but the point is that just because someone with his skillset coming out of school has not historically been super valuable does not mean it cant be.
I'm probably not qualified to assess his footwork, either, lol, but I do think that you're really underrating Monroe's post game, and he's also a much better passer and rebounder than Okafor, imo.
Also, if Brook Lopez is his ceiling, I'd rather pass, honestly, even without the foot problems. I do agree that Okafor can be a much better defensive player, potentially, because of his quickness, but as we've seen with James Young, as well as countless others over time, having the tools doesn't automatically mean that that player will become as good of a defender, never mind player, as his physical gifts would suggest. It's more about his mentality, and some guys just don't have that.
Now, does that mean that Okafor can't improve? Of course not, and I'm not casting judgement on who he'll be and what he does during the course of his career, but he didn't really show much, if any, interest, at all, in playing defense while at Duke, iirc, and obviously he didn't do much of anything, defensively, while in Philly last year. I realize that the situation was, and probably still is, a mess, but the Bulls didn't make the playoffs, either, and yet Portis, right from the first summer league game, showed his fire and desire on both ends, even if he didn't always end up posting and toasting
, lol
. I just like his mentality, in addition to his rebounding and shooting, etc., even though I wasn't on the Bobby Portis bandwagon at the time. It's not that I thought that he was a bad player, iirc, but I believe that people were talking about his narrow shoulders, although it appears that I was looking at the wrong wingspan measurements for him, which made him seem like he only had slightly longer arms than KO, and I didn't want another guy with t-rex arms, to say the least, lol
, but a 7'2 wingspan on a 6'11 guy is absolutely fine. I still like Rashad Vaughn and Delon Wright, though.
Sorry about getting sidetracked, lol
. Upon further examination, it appears that Westbrook and Okafor's injuries were one in the same, even though the former's came as a result of Patrick Beverly, and I'm not sure that Okafor's was caused by anything similar, although I don't think that that's the case, but I'm probably wrong
.
I also found every field goal that was made by Okafor in these three videos from DownToBuck (love that guy, lol
), and it does look like he has the makings of a promising midrange jumper, and his post moves, of course. I still think that he dribbles into a lot of them as opposed to playing in a more traditional style with his back to the basket, but hey, it seems to be working, to say the least, lol
. At times, though, it just looks like he's playing one-on-one on 2K, lol
. His bank shot is also very impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXrEHzf9tKwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb1iND8bFLUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOyWKgr-UpEI'm not sure that I agree with you on how centers and/or power forwards who play with their backs to the basket have to be so dominating as to justify their presence on the court, though. You don't necessarily have to be Olajuwon, Kareem, McHale, Parish, Shaq, Duncan, or KG, etc., to have an impact on the game, imo. The reasons why there are so few guys with traditional post games, to me, are because 1). no one teaches guys how to play inside, anymore, and as a guy who was among the tallest guys in my class for a long time, all you're ever told to do out there is to defend and rebound
. Really? That's it? Can I at least get to touch the deng ball once in a while? I love to pass, and you'll get it back, I promise, lol
. It just doesn't make you feel like you're a part of the game, imo
. Not that I could ever play, of course, ahahaha
, but still, the point stands, and 2). It seems like almost every coach, today, is a former guard who either thinks that big men are invariably stupid, as if they're all like the troll in the dudgeon from Harry Potter, lol, and/or they just flat out don't know how to use them, effectively, probably because the entire game seems to be inverted, as of right now, to me, and maybe that's why all of these 7 footers can handle the ball, now - so that the don't have to rely on a guard to actually get them the ball, lol
. What can I say, I guess that I prefer traditional basketball
. Sigh.