How Temple And Stanford Contained Jahlil Okafor

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Jahlil Okafor’s freshman season with the Duke Blue Devils couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. In the opening three games, he combined to score 53 points on 25-for-30 shooting. He was living up to the bill of being the most dominant freshman in the nation and was playing like the top pick in the upcoming draft. But in his last two games, Okafor has come back down to earth.

On Friday against Temple, Okafor had his first rough shooting night of the young season, scoring just 16 points on 20 shot attempts. He followed that up with another doozy performance the next day, this time scoring a season-low 10 points against Temple. Okafor combined for 26 points in those two games, and did so on 11-for-30 shooting.

It wasn’t reasonable to expect Okafor to maintain the incredible pace that he started the season with and it was only a matter of time until teams found a way to slow him down. Even with that in mind, he looked like a completely different player in his last two games. He is very much a finesse player at this stage of his career — he has quick feet, soft hands, and an array of post moves to choose from. Against Temple and Stanford, though, he wasn’t given the opportunities to take advantage of that. There are two main reasons why:

1. Physicality. Okafor is a strong player for his age, but he’s not someone who will punish teams by backing them down all game long. Teams are starting to get more physical with him by pushing him around on the low block and going after him on offense.
2. Double teams. As soon as Okafor caught the ball, a double team was sent his way. He’s an unselfish player, so he made the right play more often than not. It just didn’t give him a lot of room to operate.

The two factors tied into one. By getting physical with him, Okafor wasn’t catching the ball where he’s used to in the low post. When teams doubled him he was so far down that the baseline acted as a third defender, thereby taking away his ability to go both right and left. He was also positioned too low to use the backboard on face-up jump shots, which is one of his go-to moves.

Teams are now starting to double Okafor when he catches the ball. Also, notice how deep he is.

When Okafor did have some daylight, he rushed his shots because he was trying to beat the double team. As a result, he lost his footing or didn’t get the lift on his shot that he usually does. When he put the ball on the floor to attack the basket, defenders didn’t let him get to his spots by standing their ground. They nudged him just enough to take him out of his comfort zone.

On the other hand, Okafor feasted on the few occasions that the opposing team played him man-to-man. With 9:38 remaining in the second half against Stanford, he caught the ball on a deep seal, immediately turned over his right shoulder and went up for an uncontested layup. Less than a minute later he set a baseline screen on Quinn Cook, which drew any help out of the paint. Cook made a quick entry pass and Okafor turned for an easy dunk.

All in all, if there’s something that we learnt over the last two games it’s that Okafor is human. He wasn’t his same dominant self and he struggled to shoot the ball efficiently. Nevertheless, there’s something to be said about him sticking with the system instead of letting his frustration get the better of him. He attacked when he thought he had the advantage, but kicked the ball out when a teammate was open. His unselfishness is a big reason why the Blue Devils are still undefeated on the season.

The adjustments Okafor will have to make in the coming weeks and months should be easy for him. He’ll have to post-up higher on the block to give himself better angles and he’ll need learn how to play more physical. He’ll also have to learn how to beat double teams by picking his spots better and knowing when to swing the ball.

Once that happens, Okafor will be back to his dominant self.