As the 2015 NBA Draft draws near, the debate between Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor for the No. 1 overall pick continues to grow
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With the NBA Lottery and the 2015 NBA Draft on the horizon, teams such as the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Lakers are focusing their attention on two men: Karl-Anthony Towns from Kentucky, and Jahlil Okafor from Duke.
At the beginning of the college basketball season, the consensus favorite to go No. 1 overall was Jahlil Okafor. Flash forward a season and now Karl-Anthony Towns is considered the best prospect in this year’s NBA draft.
If you’re looking for a franchise big to build around, Towns is your man. He has it all. He is big at 7-0, he runs the floor, his post game is already above average, his rebounding ability is terrific and his size and strength already rivals the elite bigs in the NBA.
On offense he finishes with either hand, his post hooks are lethal and his passing ability is tremendous.
Couple that with his ability to make straight-line drives to the hoop — be it on a run or a set play — and he is a deadly “can’t miss” prospect. The only concern with Towns offensively is his jump shooting. He plays close to the basket and didn’t take too many jump shots in college, but that’s a fault that can easily be fixed with repetition. While we’re at it, you shouldn’t be drafting a 7-foot center based primarily on his jump shot ability anyway.
Another concern for Towns is his tendency to get in foul trouble. While he is a great shot blocker, he tends to go up on the pump fake more often than not, being over aggressive, and picking up fouls that are easily avoidable. All that being said, Karl-Anthony Towns is and should be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft.
Then, there’s Jahlil Okafor from Duke. At 6-10, this bigman is a ready-made scorer at the next level. His touch around the hoop is as smooth as butter, and can finish with either hand as well. Inside (15ft and under) his adjusted per 40 minutes points per game is 22.5, which ranked him number one in the nation at his position.
He was also the number one ranked finisher overall. His post game is really solid and his footwork is even better, he’s hard — if not impossible — to stop with his back to the basket and can turn around and attack his man off the dribble, too.
Another strength of Okafor is his hands. He can palm the leather as if it were a Nerf ball. This means it will be hard to steal the ball from him in the post and easier for him to get rebounds over smaller players. He does have his downsides, though.
His free throw shooting is not good, at 51 percent, and with the Hack-a-Shaq problem going on in the playoffs currently, namely the Houston-Los Angeles series, Okafor might be an easy target for this strategy.
Another weakness is his defense. He tends to take plays off and play it safe to avoid fouling and isn’t really good at protecting the rim. A good way to mask this weakness though, is to make sure your team has a good rim protector playing beside him.
This hotly contested debate of who should go first overall in the 2015 NBA draft will all be over in a matter of a month. As it stands now, and should stand until draft day, Karl-Anthony Towns from Kentucky should be the first named called on NBA draft night.