Early NBA Draft board foretells a lot of bigs
Even while the Magic were getting defeated by the Raptors on Monday night, and even while the NBA world worried about Jabari Parker’s health, and even while the NBA world enjoyed the Spurs battling the Blazers late into the Eastern Time Zone morning, there was one individual performance that caught just about everyone’s attention.
The opponent — it was Elon — and the highlights did not really matter. It was just the gaudy stat line for Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor that had jaws dropping to the floor.
Okaford scored 25 points, grabbed 20 rebounds and recorded three blocks in No. 2 Duke’s 75-62 win over Elon at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday. If he can continue putting up gaudy numbers like this — or the 17.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game stat line he has posted — there will be no doubt who will be the No. 1 Draft pick this summer.
The 6-foot-11 center is just a monster offensively with a surprisingly strong post game. He is an athletic freak among his peers. There seems little doubt he will hold onto that number one spot. The hope is he learns some defense playing for Mike Krzyzewski. That is also something that can come at the NBA level (look at how much of a stick Dwight Howard was when he entered the league).
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Orlando is not likely going to be drafting Okafor. Not unless the ping pong balls fall the right way.
That looks less and less likely, of course. The Magic appear to be faring a bit better in the standings, currently sitting ninth in the East and 2.5 games away from the eighth Playoff spot. That will change as the season goes on and it still feels a bit too early to put much stock in the standings. The Magic would draft 10th if the Draft were tomorrow (without a Lottery).
Why note this?
Taking a look at some of the early Big Boards around the Web, there are a lot of bigs available.
Among the top-10 players on Chirs Mannix of Sports Illustrated’s first Big Board six are centers or power forwards, four of those are listed as centers. That includes Okafor, Karl Towns from Kentucky and Myles Turner from Texas. NBADraft.net has five centers or power forwards in its top-10. DraftExpress.com has four. Marc Stein of ESPN.com has six.
Obviously, it is extremely early and there is a lot of basketball to be played and evaluation to perform between now and June. Things will change — including the standings.
But this big-heavy draft puts the Magic in an odd place.
Orlando just wrapped Nikola Vucevic up to a four-year, $48 million extension. They made a long-term investment at the center position very recently. And, so far, Vucevic has delivered — averaging 18.6 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, becoming the Magic’s most reliable offensive option in many ways.
But, there still remains a sense that while Vucevic is worth the money, he is not a true franchise center. He has many shortcomings defensively and is not a true rim protector. It is hard to see him anchoring a top-rated defense without some drastic improvement. All that is still possible and can be schemed around to some extent.
A talent like Okafor or Towns or even Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein would change the Magic defensively with the guards and perimeter players they have added.
No player is untradeable and any player becomes expendable when more talent comes in — even if it means Vucevic starts one year while someone develops beneath him.
The Magic though have shown a penchant for throwing position to the wind with their lineups and their drafting so far. Why wouldn’t they go with a twin towers lineup if they can? Vucevic can spread the floor a bit, right? And with a draft pick as high as the Magic are expecting to get, you take the best player available regardless of position.
Of course, this is all a long way down the road. But it remains something to watch as the season progresses.