On March 2, Beijing time, the first round of the third phase of the CBA regular season continued, guangsha team defeated Sichuan team 106-57, and Guangsha's new foreign assistant Okafu ushered in his personal CBA debut. In the whole game, the former NBA detective played 21 minutes, scoring 16 points and 8 rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting. While it may seem efficient, how capable is Okafor? In fact, it needs to be continued.
About Okafor's debut, although it is not a thousand calls, it can be regarded as quite eye-catching. If nothing else, because of his past NBA resume. As a tanhua in 2015, Okafor averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds per game in his first season in the NBA, and his excellent basketball skills made him widely recognized. Although the slow position play is withering away and the huge holes in the defensive end are becoming more and more prominent, Okafor, who eventually lost his position in the NBA, still gained widespread attention after joining Guangsha. After all, the CBA is different from the NBA, whether it is the overall competitiveness or the rhythm of the game, there are huge differences, not to mention that Okafor is only 26 years old and is still playing, and the height of 2.10 meters is not a loss, so it is still expected after the NBA's unloved Okafor came to the CBA.
This game against Sichuan, Guangsha's first game in the third stage of the regular season, Okafor also ushered in his CBA debut. In order to give Okafu enough time to adapt to the rhythm and find feelings, Guangsha included Okafu in the starting lineup as soon as he came up, and arranged for the two cores of Hu Jinqiu and Sun Minghui to cooperate with him, and did not relax because of the two main forces of Sichuan Xuezang Haddadi and Han Shuo.
When the game started, Guangsha also gave Okafor a chance. In the first four attacks after the opening, Guangsha's choice was to drop the ball and hand the ball to Okafor. Weak Sichuan has used joint defense tactics for a long time since the first quarter of the game, and under such defense, the space and position obtained by Okafor are actually not too good, but Guangsha is still determined to give the ball to Okafor's hands again and again. Perhaps it is necessary to adapt to the rhythm and teammates of the CBA, or perhaps because the training after a long period of isolation is not systematic, Okafor's first two offenses have ended in iron. In the first attack, he turned over the penalty area and missed the jump shot. But in the second attack, Okafor was already close to the basket, but he still failed to hit the basket.
It wasn't until a minute and a half into the first quarter, when Okafor took the ball on his back to the right side of the basket and used a move to fight with his back against the jumper, that Okafor won the first point in the CBA. Attacking again, Okafor still attacked on the right side of the basket, and this time, he turned over and scored again on a jumper. It's not hard to see that Okafor's favorite and most threatening position is the right side of the basket, that is, when he uses his right hand. Only if he could work in his "sweet zone", Okafor would always be able to frequently use his back technique to score points or create fouls.
As far as offense is concerned, Okafor is still quite threatening, but only if he can calmly pick up the ball on the right side of the basket with his back to his back or make a second attack under the basket, which was evident in the second quarter. But as long as he is kept away from the basket or the right side of the basket, Okafor, who has almost no shooting threat, still has a hard time creating pressure on his opponents. Guangsha had tried to make more trouble with him on this point, but Okafor's performance was not ideal. Four minutes before the third quarter, Okafor's one-time high-dribble breakthrough ended in a three-second violation, and once received Sun Minghui's pass in the counterattack without looking at the basket and walking directly. Compared with his teammate Hu Jinqiu, who has a variety of offensive means, can fight and grab, can quickly attack and pass, Okafor's shortcomings on the offensive end are actually much more. At the very least, in his personal CBA debut, Okafor showed it to be.
Okafor, who made his debut, is also very actively integrating. He assisted Zhao Yanhao to complete the counterattack layup after the steal, and actively stuck when fighting for rebounds, but Okafor's loopholes on the defensive end are still very obvious. In this game, which is not fast-paced, there are many scenes where Okafor can't defend himself, and the defense is constantly misplaced by the opponent, and the slow pace movement makes him a loophole in the team on the defensive end. On the other hand, Okafor does not have a good ability to protect the basket like many slow-paced big centers, and the lack of defensive awareness and ability leads to Okafor's weak presence on the defensive end. In addition to being able to take some rebounds in the backcourt with the help of early card slots, Okafor did not help Guangsha much on the defensive end.
Of course, this is only Okafor's debut, and the lack of tacit understanding with his teammates and the need to adjust his own state have affected Okafor's performance to a certain extent. But it also needs to be admitted that even if Okafor comes to the CBA from the NBA, he may not be able to easily kill the four sides, and here, his weakness on the defensive end is still obvious. Moreover, Sichuan this game took a break from Haddadi, the overall competitiveness of the team and the defensive pressure exerted on the inside line are very small, the second quarter of the single quarter of 4 points scored, the whole game only 57 points and the fiasco of 49 points are enough to show how poor Sichuan's performance in this game, how weak the competitiveness is. For this reason, Okafor's best data in such a game is not worth a big book, not to mention that his data is not gorgeous.
Judging from the schedule of Guangsha, Okafor has little time to find the state, and in the next two battles, Guangsha's opponents are Jiangsu, which is mediocre in strength, and sichuan again. Given that Sichuan lost so badly this time, it is not ruled out that they will send Haddadi next time, and the deterrent power of Haddadi's basket defense is still good. After that, the opportunity for Okafor to find a feeling is even more limited, because the opponents after Guangsha include Zhejiang, Shanghai and Qingdao, who won the first victory over Liaoning in the third stage, these three teams are much stronger than Sichuan in terms of overall strength and internal line, and Zhejiang and Shanghai are the top giants of the CBA this season. In order to improve or stubbornly rank, Guangsha will not and does not dare to exercise Okafor like today.
Through this game, Guangsha and fans may also appropriately lower their expectations for Okafor. Judging from Okafor's current not-too-good personal competitive state, if it is against a strong team, he may be more suitable for playing substitutes, because the pressure of playing substitutes will be much less, and the strength of Guangsha's second team is not outstanding, and it also needs Okafor's interior weapons that can create damage at a low level. In the case of a limited schedule, if Okafor can add icing on the cake to Guangsha, I believe that Guangsha will not lose money in the introduction of this former NBA insider.