Jahlil Okafor

LaMelo and Bad Rookie Debuts

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One of the happenings from the first week of the NBA season was the execrable debut of LaMelo Ball (0-5 from the field and no points).  The NBA web is in a tizzy about Ball noting that he “looked lost” and, ergo, he is possibly a pending bust.  That sounds pretty rash but Ball’s goose egg did get me wondering about rookie debuts.  Was LaMelo’s performance the worst debut of a top 3 lottery pick?  How often do top picks have scoreless debuts?  What, if anything, can we … [Read more...] about LaMelo and Bad Rookie Debuts

2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Centers

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There haven’t been a lot of good, deep center classes in the history of the NBA draft. The last draft with multiple all-stars at center was 2007 with Horford, Noah and Gasol. Before that it was 1992 with Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning. Before that it goes back to 1970 when HOFers Bob Lanier, Dave Cowens and Dan Issel all came into the game, along with the solid Sam Lacey. The 2015 draft has the potential to join this group. That will be a great thing for a league that’s starving for some … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Centers

2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

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The role of the center is in decline in today’s NBA. With analytics valuing the 3-pointer over back-to-the-basket offense the best teams are filling their center rotations with defensive-minded rim-protectors and stretch 5s whose range can pull the opponent’s rim protector away from the rim. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. It is probably correct. It is also possible there’s a shortage of elite centers. This table shows how the center position has changed in this decade. It shows the … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

2015 NBA Draft Top 60 Post Tournament

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The 2015 draft has the potential to be one of the best ever. The 2015 class features the most impressive group of bigs in a long time, possibly since Shaq and Alonzo in ’93. The PG and PF classes are also deep. I have omitted all players who have announced plans to return to school for the 2016 season. Players are listed in order of how I would draft them, all other things being equal. Karl Anthony Towns, C Kentucky: I like both top centers a lot, but Towns has the edge because he’s more … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft Top 60 Post Tournament

NBA Draft 2015: Top 60

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The story of the 2015 draft will be the centers. The 2015 draft is deep with quality bigs. This has the potential to become one of the great center classes ever. Right now I have 7 in the lottery and 4 more in the first round. There are several other freshmen centers of moderate promise out there and a few seniors who would be great 2nd round picks. This is welcome news for an NBA that currently has a lot of talent but is lacking in quality bigs. The way this top 60 played out I have the … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2015: Top 60

NBA Draft 2015: Top 60

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My first top 60 is never in precise order and this one is no exception. With only numbers from the easy non-conference schedule to use, it’s difficult to separate the players on a hot streak from the ones who are the real deal. For that reason rather than a strict ranking of prospects 1-60, I rank the prospects in groups that (hopefully) will be sorted out into a more traditional Top 60 a month from now. Each group is ranked in order of value. For example a freshman center is generally more … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2015: Top 60

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