Josh Okogie
Strengths:
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Weaknesses & Concerns:
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Report By: Mark Wahlen
Profile:
Strengths:
Physical Tools & Athleticism
Although he’s not the tallest of the bunch, Okogie has some tremendous physical & athletic tools. At this years combine, he measured in at 6’4.5” tall while in shoes, with a massive 7’0” wingspan and weighed in at 211 pounds (5.2% body fat). His wingspan is fairly unique for someone his height, but here are some relatively comparable players that are currently in the NBA: Tyreke Evans (6’5.25” tall, 6’11.25” wingspan), Jordan McRae (6’5.25” tall, 7’0.5” wingspan), Norman Powell (6’4.25” tall, 6’10.75” wingspan), Wade Baldwin IV (6’4” tall, 6’11.25” wingspan) and Davon Reed (6’5.5” tall, 7’0” wingspan). For the athletic tests, Okogie did extremely well, posting a 42” max vertical (tied for 1st amongst this years participants) with a 33” standing vertical (tied for 3rd best amongst this years participants). Those vertical numbers are comparable to: Ben McLemore (42” max vertical & 32.5” standing vertical), Victor Oladipo (42” max vertical & 33” standing vertical) and Zach LaVine (41.5” max vertical & 33.5” standing vertical). Additionally, Okogie posted the best ¾ court sprint time (3.04 seconds), 5th best shuttle run time (3.03 seconds) and 21st best lane agility time (11.08 seconds) amongst this years participants. Those numbers are comparable to current NBA players such as: CJ McCollum (11.02 lane agility, 2.91 shuttle run and 3.32 ¾ court sprint), Dennis Schroder (11.09 lane agility, 2.86 shuttle run and 3.21 ¾ court sprint) and Trey Burke (11.2 lane agility, 3.01 shuttle run and 3.16 ¾ court sprint). And while there are some legitimate questions about whether or not his athletic capabilities are functional on the court (more on this later), these are all impressive scores.
Shooting Upside
Okogie was a fairly good shooter this past season, albeit a bit streaky. This past season, he scored 0.937 points per possession (PPP) on all spot up jump shots (54th percentile), 1.339 PPP on all catch & shoot shots (93rd percentile, 62 FGA’s) and 1.161 PPP on all 3-point shots (77th percentile on 4.2 3PA’s, shooting 38% 3P%) His shooting mechanics are decent, but there’s some work to be done there in terms of consistency and translatability to the NBA. However, his 82% free throw shooting this past season is certainly an encouraging sign (career 78% FT%). He’s shown the potential to hit deep 3’s and midrange shots, even when struggling a bit more when shooting off the dribble (more on this later). But overall, Okogie has shown nice shooting upside for a combo guard, especially as an off ball spot-up shooter.
Isolation Scoring Upside
He didn’t have a chance to create much in isolation this past season, but Okogie has shown some success in isolation scoring. This past season, he scored 1.5 PPP in isolation (100th percentile) but only had 15 isolation scoring attempts all season, so it’s hard to say just how representative that number is of this particular skill. However, he can make some tough shots (1.474 PPP on guarded catch & shoot shots in the half-court, 93rd percentile) and his length makes him a hard guy to recover against once he gets a step on the defender. He’s mostly a straight-line driver at this point in his career, but has shown flashes of spin moves and more advanced ball handling, especially in transition. Additionally, his strength can help him create separation and he doesn’t get knocked off balance easily, making him handful once he gets going down hill. He could use to develop more advanced ball handling to help create separation, but there have been some promising signs of his shot creation potential at the collegiate level.
Playmaking Upside
Okogie also shows flashes of vision and good passing, averaging 2.5 assists this past season. He’s particularly good when in transition and when making outlet passes. He’s thrown some of the better outlet passes this past season than any other player in this draft class. He’s also pretty good at making passes on quick hitter plays. For example, he’s shown the ability to hit open bigs under the basket after offensive rebounds, etc. He seems to do better passing when on the move and within the flow of a game rather than when being asked to make reads or think one step ahead of the defense (more on this later), but there’s some potential there.
Defensive Upside
Athleticism, length and strength give Okogie great defensive upside for a combo guard. He should be able to check 1’s and 2’s and maybe even some slender 3’s in spot minutes at the next level with those factors in mind. He possesses a decent motor on D, although it can waiver (more on this later). And while he doesn’t play team defense at a high level (more on this later too), he has shown the ability to be disruptive on double teams with his length. His 1.8 steals per game (career 1.5 steals per game) and 2.9% steal percentage are both encouraging signs of his defensive disruptiveness. For relativities sake, Okogies’ 2.9% steal rate ranks 81st amongst all NCAA players this past season that played 870 or more minutes (1004 total players), and his 1.8 steals per game ranks 46th amongst that same group.
Positional Rebounding
Okogie is active in seeking out rebounds for a guard, albeit sometimes at the cost of his help defense (but more on this later), especially on the offensive glass. This past season, Okogie averaged 4 total rebounds per game, 2.3 of those being on the offensive glass. And while some of his rebounding numbers are helped by not being surrounded by great rebounding bigs, he deserves a lot of credit for the numbers that he posted. He’s not afraid to get into a scrum for 50/50 rebounds even when the scrum is comprised of bigs. And his ability to grab a rebound and push the ball in transition will be an intriguing skill for teams that play more up-tempo.
Drawing Fouls
Okogie does a great job of putting a lot of pressure on the rim and is good at forcing the issue with rim protecting bigs. He isn’t afraid of contact (almost to the point of recklessness) and is willing to go into the body of much bigger and stronger defenders. This allows him to get to the free-throw line at a high rate, averaging 6.8 free-throw attempts (FTA’s) this past season (career 6.6 FTA’s) with a free-throw rate of .506 (career .539). For comparison: his 6.8 FTA’s is tied for the 31st highest amongst all NCAA players that played 870 or more minutes this past season (1004 total players). His ability to get to the free-throw line is important, as he’s struggled to figure out how to finish at the rim effectively.
Age
Despite being a 2nd year player, Okogie is still only 19 ½ years old. And while his game shows quite a bit of immaturity, his young age gives him more time to build on his strengths and improve his weaknesses before he hits his prime years.
Weaknesses & Concerns:
Functional Athleticism?
One of the more concerning aspects of Okogie’s profile is the on-court functionality of his athleticism. He rarely plays above the rim despite his elite length and explosiveness. This is especially true in traffic, as he needs space and time to load up on two feet to dunk the ball. Additionally, his quickness doesn’t show up all that often when he’s handling the ball, making it hard for him to turn the corner on defenders, and he lacks wiggle in his ball handling that allows him to catch defenders off guard or to get them off balance. Additionally, he’s just an ok defender, not showing an ability to mirror ball handlers like other high level athlete gaurds and wings. This is a real issue for Okogie that he’ll need to figure out as he hopes to translate his game to the NBA. If he’s unable to turn his elite athletic testing numbers into functionality on the court, his upside and chances of succeeding in the league greatly diminish as it will effect nearly every aspect of his game.
Finishing at the Rim
In correlation with his non-functional athleticism, Okogie has really struggled to figure how to finish at the rim effectively. This past season, Okogie only scored 0.946 PPP on shots around the basket that weren’t post-ups (23rd percentile). Not being able to harness his vertical explosiveness means that he can’t finish over the top of guys at the rim. He also isn’t big or strong enough that he can finish through multiple defenders at the rim, which he tries to do all the time. And because he lacks a degree of finesse around the rim (and to his game as a whole), he really struggles to finish at the rim effectively unless he’s given a fairly easy look. A lot of his issues stem from his poor decision-making too, which only compounds the problem of his non-functional athleticism. He relentlessly drives to the rim, regardless of traffic or rim protectors and will often find himself trying to finish through 2 or 3 defenders at the rim. It’s why he draws a lot of fouls, but he won’t get bailed out by defenders fouling him nearly as much at the NBA level, so this is something he really needs to work on. He needs to learn to better pick his spots and to find more crafty ways of finishing around the basket. He could really benefit from learning how to better shoot around rim protecting bigs with scoop shots, etc.
Floater & Midrange Game
Another concerning aspect of his scoring profile is his complete lack of a floater/runner or midrange game. This past season, Okogie attempted only 10 floaters/runners in the half-court, and he missed all of them. And his midrange scoring wasn’t much better, only scoring 0.533 PPP on medium (17’ to <3 point line) ranged jump shots (22nd percentile, 15 FGA’s) and 0.682 PPP on short (<17’) ranged jump shots (36th percentile, 44 FGA’s). This is particularly concerning when considering he’s just an ok outside shooter and is a poor finisher at the rim. He’ll need to work hard to develop some sort of midrange game if he wants to be an effective scoring option as a combo guard in the NBA, especially if he can never figure out how to score at the rim.
Pick & Roll Offense?
Okogie also struggled in the pick & roll as the ball handler. This past season, he scored 0.75 PPP as the P&R ball handler (48th percentile, 33 FGA’s) and when including passes, he only scored 0.737 PPP (26th percentile). He certainly has a scorers mentality when running the pick & roll, many times to a fault. He too often has tunnel vision, showing a lack of willingness and ability to make the correct reads for passes in the pick & roll, whether that’s to the roll man (0.875 PPP on passes to the roll man, 33rd percentile) or to perimeter shooters (0.69 PPP on passes to spot up shooters out of the P&R, 18th percentile). Some of this is due to the lack of talent around him at Georgia Tech, but a lot of it isn’t. Most often times, he forces the issue as the ball handler by driving into the teeth of the defense, regardless of what the defense is doing for their P&R defensive coverage. He’s also too casual when coming off screens for jump shots, which allows hard working defenders to recover and contest his shots even if they went under the screen. He needs to better learn how to play with more decisiveness and pace off screens in the P&R but doing so without pre-determining that he’s going to drive to the basket every time. He’s going to have read and react at a higher level to be more successful in the NBA as a rotational combo guard.
Shooting?
Despite his decent shooting mechanics and overall shooting %’s, Okogies shooting ability remains a question mark, especially off the dribble. This past season, he only scored 0.74 PPP on all jump shots off the dribble in the half-court (42nd percentile, 77 FGA’s). When shooting off the dribble, his mechanics can become inconsistent and he tends to start fading away too much to try and create more separation between himself and his defender. This happens because he’s not great at creating separation off the dribble, but also because he doesn’t get a lot of elevation when shooting the ball, making it easier for defenders to contest his shots. The fading away is a reactionary compensation to both those decencies in his game. This contributes to his streaky shooting, as does his shot selection (more on this in a second). He also tends to slow down his release when shooting off the ball, which seems to help his overall shooting %’s, but allows for defenders to better contest his shots. His ability to hit contested jump shots is high level, scoring 1.474 PPP on guarded catch & shoot shots in the half-court this past season (97th percentile, 38 FGA’s) but that’s not likely to last in the NBA with better, longer and more athletic defenders contesting his shots, especially with the lack of elevation he gets when shooting.
Decision Making & Shot Selection?
As alluded to earlier, Okogie is a poor decision maker with fairly poor shot selection. He too often forces bad shots, whether they be contested dribble jumpers or out of rhythm spot-up shots on the perimeter. One example of this: he will often pump fake and successfully get the closing defender in the air, but he doesn’t dribble to create space between he and the defender, allowing the defender to contest the shot despite the defender having bitten on the fake. He’s also turnover prone, with his poor assist to turnover ratio being a major concern (career 2.0 assists per game to 2.3 turnovers per game). His reckless drives to the rim with tunnel vision often leave him without any good options, and lead to turnovers via stripped balls or bad passes through traffic. He also tends to be a ball stopper, and isn’t much of an off ball mover. This lack of off ball movement (some of this is GT’s bad system) hurts his ability to create open looks for himself. Overall, his decision-making and shot selection will need a lot of work before he can contribute effectively at the next level.
Inconsistent Motor?
May people cite Okogies’ motor as a strength, but that’s not the case. His motor, although good at times, is really inconsistent and there’s some fake hustle to his game. Specifically, he often shows poor weak side defensive rotations as he goes rebound hunting instead of helping on drives or down low in the post. It’s a common thing that we see with Westbrook in the NBA when he’s stat hunting for rebounds; Okogie does essentially the same thing. Okogie is also prone to dying (many times intentionally) on screens, especially when his team gets down by double digits. There was far too many times when he gave up on the play as the primary defender and allowed his man to break into the paint when his team was down. And as mentioned before, he rarely showed even average off ball movement, instead waiting for the ball to come to him before forcing up a shot or driving recklessly into the paint. And yes, the talent around Okogie wasn’t great at Georgia Tech, and they weren’t particularly well coached, but these are less than ideal things you’d like to see from a draft prospect. However, Okogie showed a high motor during the 5 on 5 action of the combine, and he interviewed well, coming across as very well spoken, self aware and committed to doing whatever the team that drafts him will need him to do. So maybe a lot of his inconsistent motor and stat hunting was more situation based than anything else. But it’s certainly something for teams to explore more as they consider drafting Okogie, especially in the late 1st round.
NBA Fit: Coming soon!
Draft Range:
Okogie fits the mold of an athletic change of pace rotational combo guard in the NBA, but he still has a ways to go in terms of basketball IQ and skill-set development. However, it’s easy to see how teams could fall in love with his upside, especially late in the first round and early second round when the pickings get much more slim. Expect Okogie to be a name you see pop-up in pre-draft workouts for nearly every NBA team as he’s sure to draw interest over a wide swatch of the draft.
Projected Draft Range: 27-43
- 19.5 year old combo guard from Georgia Tech University
- Grew up in Snellville, Georgia and played for Shilo High School
- Ranking out of high school: 182nd (3 star recruit)
Strengths:
Physical Tools & Athleticism
Although he’s not the tallest of the bunch, Okogie has some tremendous physical & athletic tools. At this years combine, he measured in at 6’4.5” tall while in shoes, with a massive 7’0” wingspan and weighed in at 211 pounds (5.2% body fat). His wingspan is fairly unique for someone his height, but here are some relatively comparable players that are currently in the NBA: Tyreke Evans (6’5.25” tall, 6’11.25” wingspan), Jordan McRae (6’5.25” tall, 7’0.5” wingspan), Norman Powell (6’4.25” tall, 6’10.75” wingspan), Wade Baldwin IV (6’4” tall, 6’11.25” wingspan) and Davon Reed (6’5.5” tall, 7’0” wingspan). For the athletic tests, Okogie did extremely well, posting a 42” max vertical (tied for 1st amongst this years participants) with a 33” standing vertical (tied for 3rd best amongst this years participants). Those vertical numbers are comparable to: Ben McLemore (42” max vertical & 32.5” standing vertical), Victor Oladipo (42” max vertical & 33” standing vertical) and Zach LaVine (41.5” max vertical & 33.5” standing vertical). Additionally, Okogie posted the best ¾ court sprint time (3.04 seconds), 5th best shuttle run time (3.03 seconds) and 21st best lane agility time (11.08 seconds) amongst this years participants. Those numbers are comparable to current NBA players such as: CJ McCollum (11.02 lane agility, 2.91 shuttle run and 3.32 ¾ court sprint), Dennis Schroder (11.09 lane agility, 2.86 shuttle run and 3.21 ¾ court sprint) and Trey Burke (11.2 lane agility, 3.01 shuttle run and 3.16 ¾ court sprint). And while there are some legitimate questions about whether or not his athletic capabilities are functional on the court (more on this later), these are all impressive scores.
Shooting Upside
Okogie was a fairly good shooter this past season, albeit a bit streaky. This past season, he scored 0.937 points per possession (PPP) on all spot up jump shots (54th percentile), 1.339 PPP on all catch & shoot shots (93rd percentile, 62 FGA’s) and 1.161 PPP on all 3-point shots (77th percentile on 4.2 3PA’s, shooting 38% 3P%) His shooting mechanics are decent, but there’s some work to be done there in terms of consistency and translatability to the NBA. However, his 82% free throw shooting this past season is certainly an encouraging sign (career 78% FT%). He’s shown the potential to hit deep 3’s and midrange shots, even when struggling a bit more when shooting off the dribble (more on this later). But overall, Okogie has shown nice shooting upside for a combo guard, especially as an off ball spot-up shooter.
Isolation Scoring Upside
He didn’t have a chance to create much in isolation this past season, but Okogie has shown some success in isolation scoring. This past season, he scored 1.5 PPP in isolation (100th percentile) but only had 15 isolation scoring attempts all season, so it’s hard to say just how representative that number is of this particular skill. However, he can make some tough shots (1.474 PPP on guarded catch & shoot shots in the half-court, 93rd percentile) and his length makes him a hard guy to recover against once he gets a step on the defender. He’s mostly a straight-line driver at this point in his career, but has shown flashes of spin moves and more advanced ball handling, especially in transition. Additionally, his strength can help him create separation and he doesn’t get knocked off balance easily, making him handful once he gets going down hill. He could use to develop more advanced ball handling to help create separation, but there have been some promising signs of his shot creation potential at the collegiate level.
Playmaking Upside
Okogie also shows flashes of vision and good passing, averaging 2.5 assists this past season. He’s particularly good when in transition and when making outlet passes. He’s thrown some of the better outlet passes this past season than any other player in this draft class. He’s also pretty good at making passes on quick hitter plays. For example, he’s shown the ability to hit open bigs under the basket after offensive rebounds, etc. He seems to do better passing when on the move and within the flow of a game rather than when being asked to make reads or think one step ahead of the defense (more on this later), but there’s some potential there.
Defensive Upside
Athleticism, length and strength give Okogie great defensive upside for a combo guard. He should be able to check 1’s and 2’s and maybe even some slender 3’s in spot minutes at the next level with those factors in mind. He possesses a decent motor on D, although it can waiver (more on this later). And while he doesn’t play team defense at a high level (more on this later too), he has shown the ability to be disruptive on double teams with his length. His 1.8 steals per game (career 1.5 steals per game) and 2.9% steal percentage are both encouraging signs of his defensive disruptiveness. For relativities sake, Okogies’ 2.9% steal rate ranks 81st amongst all NCAA players this past season that played 870 or more minutes (1004 total players), and his 1.8 steals per game ranks 46th amongst that same group.
Positional Rebounding
Okogie is active in seeking out rebounds for a guard, albeit sometimes at the cost of his help defense (but more on this later), especially on the offensive glass. This past season, Okogie averaged 4 total rebounds per game, 2.3 of those being on the offensive glass. And while some of his rebounding numbers are helped by not being surrounded by great rebounding bigs, he deserves a lot of credit for the numbers that he posted. He’s not afraid to get into a scrum for 50/50 rebounds even when the scrum is comprised of bigs. And his ability to grab a rebound and push the ball in transition will be an intriguing skill for teams that play more up-tempo.
Drawing Fouls
Okogie does a great job of putting a lot of pressure on the rim and is good at forcing the issue with rim protecting bigs. He isn’t afraid of contact (almost to the point of recklessness) and is willing to go into the body of much bigger and stronger defenders. This allows him to get to the free-throw line at a high rate, averaging 6.8 free-throw attempts (FTA’s) this past season (career 6.6 FTA’s) with a free-throw rate of .506 (career .539). For comparison: his 6.8 FTA’s is tied for the 31st highest amongst all NCAA players that played 870 or more minutes this past season (1004 total players). His ability to get to the free-throw line is important, as he’s struggled to figure out how to finish at the rim effectively.
Age
Despite being a 2nd year player, Okogie is still only 19 ½ years old. And while his game shows quite a bit of immaturity, his young age gives him more time to build on his strengths and improve his weaknesses before he hits his prime years.
Weaknesses & Concerns:
Functional Athleticism?
One of the more concerning aspects of Okogie’s profile is the on-court functionality of his athleticism. He rarely plays above the rim despite his elite length and explosiveness. This is especially true in traffic, as he needs space and time to load up on two feet to dunk the ball. Additionally, his quickness doesn’t show up all that often when he’s handling the ball, making it hard for him to turn the corner on defenders, and he lacks wiggle in his ball handling that allows him to catch defenders off guard or to get them off balance. Additionally, he’s just an ok defender, not showing an ability to mirror ball handlers like other high level athlete gaurds and wings. This is a real issue for Okogie that he’ll need to figure out as he hopes to translate his game to the NBA. If he’s unable to turn his elite athletic testing numbers into functionality on the court, his upside and chances of succeeding in the league greatly diminish as it will effect nearly every aspect of his game.
Finishing at the Rim
In correlation with his non-functional athleticism, Okogie has really struggled to figure how to finish at the rim effectively. This past season, Okogie only scored 0.946 PPP on shots around the basket that weren’t post-ups (23rd percentile). Not being able to harness his vertical explosiveness means that he can’t finish over the top of guys at the rim. He also isn’t big or strong enough that he can finish through multiple defenders at the rim, which he tries to do all the time. And because he lacks a degree of finesse around the rim (and to his game as a whole), he really struggles to finish at the rim effectively unless he’s given a fairly easy look. A lot of his issues stem from his poor decision-making too, which only compounds the problem of his non-functional athleticism. He relentlessly drives to the rim, regardless of traffic or rim protectors and will often find himself trying to finish through 2 or 3 defenders at the rim. It’s why he draws a lot of fouls, but he won’t get bailed out by defenders fouling him nearly as much at the NBA level, so this is something he really needs to work on. He needs to learn to better pick his spots and to find more crafty ways of finishing around the basket. He could really benefit from learning how to better shoot around rim protecting bigs with scoop shots, etc.
Floater & Midrange Game
Another concerning aspect of his scoring profile is his complete lack of a floater/runner or midrange game. This past season, Okogie attempted only 10 floaters/runners in the half-court, and he missed all of them. And his midrange scoring wasn’t much better, only scoring 0.533 PPP on medium (17’ to <3 point line) ranged jump shots (22nd percentile, 15 FGA’s) and 0.682 PPP on short (<17’) ranged jump shots (36th percentile, 44 FGA’s). This is particularly concerning when considering he’s just an ok outside shooter and is a poor finisher at the rim. He’ll need to work hard to develop some sort of midrange game if he wants to be an effective scoring option as a combo guard in the NBA, especially if he can never figure out how to score at the rim.
Pick & Roll Offense?
Okogie also struggled in the pick & roll as the ball handler. This past season, he scored 0.75 PPP as the P&R ball handler (48th percentile, 33 FGA’s) and when including passes, he only scored 0.737 PPP (26th percentile). He certainly has a scorers mentality when running the pick & roll, many times to a fault. He too often has tunnel vision, showing a lack of willingness and ability to make the correct reads for passes in the pick & roll, whether that’s to the roll man (0.875 PPP on passes to the roll man, 33rd percentile) or to perimeter shooters (0.69 PPP on passes to spot up shooters out of the P&R, 18th percentile). Some of this is due to the lack of talent around him at Georgia Tech, but a lot of it isn’t. Most often times, he forces the issue as the ball handler by driving into the teeth of the defense, regardless of what the defense is doing for their P&R defensive coverage. He’s also too casual when coming off screens for jump shots, which allows hard working defenders to recover and contest his shots even if they went under the screen. He needs to better learn how to play with more decisiveness and pace off screens in the P&R but doing so without pre-determining that he’s going to drive to the basket every time. He’s going to have read and react at a higher level to be more successful in the NBA as a rotational combo guard.
Shooting?
Despite his decent shooting mechanics and overall shooting %’s, Okogies shooting ability remains a question mark, especially off the dribble. This past season, he only scored 0.74 PPP on all jump shots off the dribble in the half-court (42nd percentile, 77 FGA’s). When shooting off the dribble, his mechanics can become inconsistent and he tends to start fading away too much to try and create more separation between himself and his defender. This happens because he’s not great at creating separation off the dribble, but also because he doesn’t get a lot of elevation when shooting the ball, making it easier for defenders to contest his shots. The fading away is a reactionary compensation to both those decencies in his game. This contributes to his streaky shooting, as does his shot selection (more on this in a second). He also tends to slow down his release when shooting off the ball, which seems to help his overall shooting %’s, but allows for defenders to better contest his shots. His ability to hit contested jump shots is high level, scoring 1.474 PPP on guarded catch & shoot shots in the half-court this past season (97th percentile, 38 FGA’s) but that’s not likely to last in the NBA with better, longer and more athletic defenders contesting his shots, especially with the lack of elevation he gets when shooting.
Decision Making & Shot Selection?
As alluded to earlier, Okogie is a poor decision maker with fairly poor shot selection. He too often forces bad shots, whether they be contested dribble jumpers or out of rhythm spot-up shots on the perimeter. One example of this: he will often pump fake and successfully get the closing defender in the air, but he doesn’t dribble to create space between he and the defender, allowing the defender to contest the shot despite the defender having bitten on the fake. He’s also turnover prone, with his poor assist to turnover ratio being a major concern (career 2.0 assists per game to 2.3 turnovers per game). His reckless drives to the rim with tunnel vision often leave him without any good options, and lead to turnovers via stripped balls or bad passes through traffic. He also tends to be a ball stopper, and isn’t much of an off ball mover. This lack of off ball movement (some of this is GT’s bad system) hurts his ability to create open looks for himself. Overall, his decision-making and shot selection will need a lot of work before he can contribute effectively at the next level.
Inconsistent Motor?
May people cite Okogies’ motor as a strength, but that’s not the case. His motor, although good at times, is really inconsistent and there’s some fake hustle to his game. Specifically, he often shows poor weak side defensive rotations as he goes rebound hunting instead of helping on drives or down low in the post. It’s a common thing that we see with Westbrook in the NBA when he’s stat hunting for rebounds; Okogie does essentially the same thing. Okogie is also prone to dying (many times intentionally) on screens, especially when his team gets down by double digits. There was far too many times when he gave up on the play as the primary defender and allowed his man to break into the paint when his team was down. And as mentioned before, he rarely showed even average off ball movement, instead waiting for the ball to come to him before forcing up a shot or driving recklessly into the paint. And yes, the talent around Okogie wasn’t great at Georgia Tech, and they weren’t particularly well coached, but these are less than ideal things you’d like to see from a draft prospect. However, Okogie showed a high motor during the 5 on 5 action of the combine, and he interviewed well, coming across as very well spoken, self aware and committed to doing whatever the team that drafts him will need him to do. So maybe a lot of his inconsistent motor and stat hunting was more situation based than anything else. But it’s certainly something for teams to explore more as they consider drafting Okogie, especially in the late 1st round.
NBA Fit: Coming soon!
Draft Range:
Okogie fits the mold of an athletic change of pace rotational combo guard in the NBA, but he still has a ways to go in terms of basketball IQ and skill-set development. However, it’s easy to see how teams could fall in love with his upside, especially late in the first round and early second round when the pickings get much more slim. Expect Okogie to be a name you see pop-up in pre-draft workouts for nearly every NBA team as he’s sure to draw interest over a wide swatch of the draft.
Projected Draft Range: 27-43
