A common NBA refrain is that you can't teach height. You sure as hell can draft it though.
As you all know at this point, the Sixers ended up selecting Duke center Jahlil Okafor in last night's draft after the Lakers, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, went with D'Angelo Russell at the 2nd pick. I was in the soaking rain at the draft party last night, and judging by the crowd reaction, most fans were upset that the Lakers took Russell and then elated that the Sixers took Okafor.
And that's probably the right reaction. Okafor was the right pick in that situation, without a doubt. The cheering at the party was likely just as much "Hooray we have Okafor" as much as it was "Hooray Sam didn't do something weird and draft Hezonja!" Okafor was basically the presumed #1 overall pick for most of the year. Then after dominating the paint for Duke, averaging close to 20 and 10 in college, winning ACC player of the year and then a national championship …. he slipped to 3rd.
Okafor was a victim of the standard over evaluation that occurs at draft time. His negatives are probably not as glaring as they seem, and his defects (FT shooting and defense) and highly coachable things – things that Brett Brown also happens to excel at (see Nerlens for FT shooting, and the entire Sixer squad for defense). He is going to step in immediately and provide a sorely lacking scoring punch for a squad that ranked dead last in offensive efficiency last season. I would guess he has to be the front runner for rookie of the year at this point, given all the touches he'll get. It was the right pick, and Jahlil is going to help us tremendously.
I'm still not happy though.
There's a couple problems with what went down last night. The first, and most obvious, is we now have 3 big men in Okafor, Noel, and Embiid, who have many redundant talents (and I'm not even going to touch the 4, thats right FOUR, other big men we took in the 2nd round). Let's be clear: you cannot play all three of these guys at the same time, and none of these guys are bench players. That means that one of them will be traded. My gut reaction is that Okafor and Noel are the better pairing, seeing as Nerlens can cover up some of Jahlil's defensive shortcomings. Noel is more of a garbage man on offense as well, getting points on put backs and rebounds. If he can develop that 10-12 foot Tyrone Hill baseline jumper, they can coexist.
At the same time, Embiid can step out of the paint and knock down jumpers, even out to 3pt range. He could be the stretch guy to Okafor's low post immovable object. Maybe that's the better pairing. I don't know. Hinkie probably doesn't even know at this point. And that's the rub – this pick created a new dilemma that didn't previously exist, one that currently has no clear cut resolution. Having 3 big guys like this will not work (it reminds me a bit of the Utah Jazz of a few years back, with Paul Milsap, Al Jeff, and Derrick Favors, a trio that failed to co-exist and ultimately was disbanded). Additionally, the logjam hurts the trade value of all three of them. This is a knot that Sam will spend plenty of time unraveling.
The second issue is that we, uh, ya know, HAVE NO BACKCOURT. Again, I don't think Hinkie should have reached for Mudiay or anything drastic like that, although would it have killed him to draft some guards in the 2nd round of the draft? But the fact remains, we have no viable starting PG (I love Ish, but cmon, he should be off the bench) and we have very little reliable perimeter shooting. These are issues that still must be addressed and as yet have not been. So despite another draft, the to-do list remains pretty long. Again, I still believe Hinkie made the right pick given the circumstances, it's just that things didn't work out our way.
And that brings me to my final problem. I would consider myself an ardent Hinkie supporter, and while I completely agree with his approach to this rebuild, I also readily admit that the risk inherent in said approach is that there is no guarantee it will work. Well, last night made me wonder if perhaps this isn't working. The Sixers tanked hard two years in a row, yet somehow still weren't the worst team in the NBA. They ended up drafting the best player available both times, but it turns out both of those best players were centers. Relying on the draft to rebuild means hoping to get lucky, and I feel like the Sixers simply haven't gotten lucky yet. If anything, they've been downright unlucky. How much more bad luck can we take before we decide that this approach, for all it's merits, just isn't panning out as we hoped?
After being selected by the Sixers, Okafor was asked how he envisioned playing with both Noel and Embiid working out. He responded, "It's not my job to figure it out." I'm glad its not my job either.
