zigzag22 wrote:You know who else cannot dribble drive, shoot jump shots, or command a double in the post? Rudy Gobert. And he's OLDER than WCS.
True in terms of offense, but defensively there are differences. For as long as WCS is, his standing reach is still 5 inches shorter than Gobert's. Rudy is a physical freak in terms of his length. The other thing is that Gobert can rebound the hell out of the ball, something WCS hasn't improved upon a bit in his three years of college. And Rudy is barely a year older, so it's not like there is a huge difference in terms of age.
TRKO wrote:Okafor didn't have a great game, but made some big plays down the stretch. I thought he played solid defense as well.
Yeah me too. It was a bummer to see some of those fouls but I didn't see anything physical tonight that would brand him a bad defender. Duke as usual just had no defensive philosophy. Their bad team rotations got Okafor 3 of his fouls. Yes he shouldn't reach but when you are running to cover bad rotations shit happens.
Playing a stretch guy like Kaminsky wasn't the easiest match up for Okafor either. Okafor is the guy I want most now. I feel Russell is the best, but I've liked what I've seen out of LaVine. I think Okafor has the ability to be a solid defender and a great offensive player.
The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
Kaminsky was torching Towns so bad they had to switch WCS on him to keep them in the game. Towns did no better than Okafor defensively against Kaminsky.
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
Kaminsky was torching Towns so bad they had to switch WCS on him to keep them in the game. Towns did no better than Okafor defensively against Kaminsky.
This isn't true since most of the time Kaminsky wound up switched onto Booker
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
Explain
What did Okafor do in this game besides get 2 big buckets? He played like 1/3 of the game.
I disagree with anyone saying he looked fine on defense. Kaminsky made him look bad on multiple occasions, especially when people are saying Kaminsky's post moves wont transfer to the big league because he's slow. Okafor isn't very quick either, displayed by him trying to defend Kaminsky anywhere outside of 2-3 feet from the hoop.
I also hate how Okafor is positioned for rebounding, he is almost always right under the hoop. He doesn't box out often, and he doesn't seem to have the knack for seeing how a ball will play off the rim.
He also looked to have trouble for much of the game with Kaminsky's experience and length. He bullied him 2-3 times for nice buckets, but missed 3 or so bunnies because he was pushed off his spot.
khans2k5 wrote:
Kaminsky was torching Towns so bad they had to switch WCS on him to keep them in the game. Towns did no better than Okafor defensively against Kaminsky.
This isn't true since most of the time Kaminsky wound up switched onto Booker
I recall hearing post game comments criticizing KY for switching too much too.
khans2k5 wrote:The one thing about Okafor's performance tonight is that there isn't a 5 in the NBA that takes guys off the dribble from the 3pt line like Kaminsky did tonight. I thought his defense was fine in every area except being taken off the dribble by Kaminsky where he was torched. That was a tough matchup for him and his only shot to outperform Kaminsky was to take him to the woodshed in the post and even try to draw some fouls on him, but he missed some bunnies and Kaminsky played him physical without fouling for the most part.
In my opinion, this game just further solidified that I want Towns over Okafor.
Explain
What did Okafor do in this game besides get 2 big buckets? He played like 1/3 of the game.
I disagree with anyone saying he looked fine on defense. Kaminsky made him look bad on multiple occasions, especially when people are saying Kaminsky's post moves wont transfer to the big league because he's slow. Okafor isn't very quick either, displayed by him trying to defend Kaminsky anywhere outside of 2-3 feet from the hoop.
I also hate how Okafor is positioned for rebounding, he is almost always right under the hoop. He doesn't box out often, and he doesn't seem to have the knack for seeing how a ball will play off the rim.
He also looked to have trouble for much of the game with Kaminsky's experience and length. He bullied him 2-3 times for nice buckets, but missed 3 or so bunnies because he was pushed off his spot.
Okafor didn't have a great offensive game. He made good moves but didn't finish. He didn't get a lot of rebounds. One of the reasons is because he was out on the perimeter a lot during the game. He wasn't in the paint. Also Kaminsky shot 20% worse against Duke than he did Kentucky. Some credit has to go to Okafor. I think he was solid defensively in the game.
