Just five days after his arrival in the Nets, Jahlil Okafor has been cut off by New Yorkers, as reported by Shams Charania, a journalist for The Athletic. The center had come to Brooklyn with Sekou Doumbouya in exchange for DeAndre Jordan and various rounds of the draft, but it seems that the franchise’s plans were not to count on him and they have not been slow to terminate his contract.
Okafor will therefore have to look for a team again, continuing his journey through a league in which, despite having been number 3 in the draft at the time, he has not been able to establish himself. After a campaign of rookie In which he averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds with the 76ers, the pivot soon saw his presence on the court reduced once Joel Embiid was ready to play, which led to him being traded precisely to the Nets in 2017. Since then, his stays in New Orleans and Detroit have not been exactly successful, which has led him to find himself in his current situation.
His offensive virtues are known to all, but he is a more classic player who does not fit so well in the contemporary type of center, who requires greater mobility and ability to be important outside of the paint. This, added to his defensive apathy, has made it difficult for him to be as dominating as he could be, and his presence is often relegated to trying to push his team off the bench.
His contract of just 2.1 million euros could invite to think that in Brooklyn they would keep him trusting that, in the right context, he could offer his best version, but it has not been like that. We will now see where he stops and how he adapts, because, at 25 years old, he still has time to at least find some stability in his career.
(Cover photo: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images)
