We’re here to look at his defense. And, thus far, it has not been ideal. In the 237 minutes that Jahlil Okafor has been on the court for the 76ers this season, the team has a Defensive Rating of 110.7. In the 99 minutes he has been off of the floor, it’s a staggeringly low 93.6. We’re talking a -17.1 points per 100 possessions difference when Okafor is on the court as opposed to off of it. That’s never good. The prevailing thought is that Philadelphia is just bad defensively so that’s obviously why these numbers show this for Okafor. Except, well, not really.
The 76ers rank 25th in Defensive Efficiency (105.4), but a lot of this is due to Okafor himself. Of Okafor’s 237 minutes, 130 have been spent with
Nerlens Noel next to him. The duo has a Defensive Rating of 104.5. That falls more in line with their overall team rating, but you still have to peel back more layers. This season, when Noel has been on the court
without Okafor next to him, the 76ers have a 99.8 Defensive Rating according to
NBAWowy. If you were to swap them, meaning Okafor is on the court
without Noel, the 76ers’ Defensive Rating
jumps all the way up to 124.7. In fact, we got a case study in this very thing the other night.
Nerlens Noel did not play on Monday night for the 76ers. In the 31 minutes that Jahlil Okafor spent on the floor as their main rim protector, the team had a DRtg of 113.5. In the 17 minutes he was off the floor, it was 84.6. Yeah, you’re reading that right. In one game, the 76ers saw a -28.9 points per 100 possessions shift whenever Okafor was on the floor defensively as opposed to being off of it. That truly happened. It goes beyond just raw Defensive Rating, as well. The inadequacies of Okafor as a defender bleed into other areas of the team’s defense.
With Okafor on the floor, the 76ers give up an average of 47.8 points in the paint per 48 minutes. Without him on the floor, that number drops all the way down to 36.8 points in the paint per 48 minutes. By even having Okafor on the floor at all, it means that teams, right now, are averaging 11 more points in the paint per 48 minutes than if Okafor were sitting on the bench. And that number is not represented in Nerlens Noel’s stats, either. For comparison, Philadelphia gives up 40.1 points in the paint per 48 minutes with Noel on the court, but 50.7 without him. So, we’re looking at Noel being the only thing keeping Philadelphia from being a sieve defensively inside the paint.
Also, here’s the thing. We can actually deduce how many points in the paint the 76ers have given up without Noel on the court next to Okafor. 130 of the 237 minutes Jahlil Okafor has played have seen him standing next to Nerlens Noel. That means he’s played 107 minutes without Noel. The duo, in their 130 minutes together, have given up 108 points in the paint. That comes out to 39.9 points in the paint per 48 minutes. On the season when Okafor has been on the floor, Philadelphia has given up 236 points in the paint. Subtract 108 from 236 and you get 128 points in the paint with Okafor sans Noel. That’s in 107 minutes. That comes out to
57.4 points in the paint per 48 minutes whenever Okafor is on the court, but Noel is not. Let that marinate in your mind for a moment.
It might seem unfair to put all these defensive shortcomings on the shoulders of Okafor alone. However, realistically, a lot of it is his fault in some capacity. Yes, he is just a rookie so writing this article roughly 7 or 8 games into his career might seem a tad ridiculous, but these are still issues he had even in college at Duke. Even his rebounding woes have carried over with him. 6.9 rebounds per game in 33.9 minutes per game isn’t exactly terrible, but it also must be talked about that his Rebound Rate is only 11.5 percent. That’s low. And the trend is that the 76ers actually get better on the glass when he’s
not in the game.
With Okafor on the court, opponents have an Offensive Rebound Rate of 27.4 percent. That means they rebound just over one-quarter of the shots they miss. When Okafor sits on the bench, though, the number plummets to 17.6 percent. Jahlil Okafor, alone, represents a 10 percent increase to the
opponent’s Offensive Rebound Rate. No other player even comes close to that on the team. Conversely, Nerlens Noel’s goes up roughly 10 percent when he’s off the court – from 20.1 percent with him on to 30.0 percent with him off. Meaning, the team gives up an offensive rebound to the opposition 30 percent of the time when Noel is on the bench.
knight a top 10 pg....this nikka was the reason Milwaukee even made the damn playoffs. Their record after that stupid trade was 10 for 29....they barely made the damn playoffs cuz of michael turnover williams.
