I’m comparing 2 of the top 3 picks from the 2024 NBA draft. I’m comparing the first pick Karl Anthony Towns to the third pick Jahlil Okafor. Both look fantastic. I have a hard time deciding on league pass which one to watch. Both are extremely fun to think about their futures.. They’re such different players but both look like eventual stars.
KARL ANTHONY TOWNS
Karl Anthony Towns is definitely the better of the two. Towns is absolutely unbelievable. He can do it all. I’d be willing to argue he might already be a top 25 player in the league. Although it’s early KAT ranks 9th in blocks per game and 6th in rebounds per game. I think in 2 seasons he could be a top 10 player and you’ll also see him taking and hitting 3’s. Towns is very athletic, has great passing ability for a big, and is just an all around player. KAT has such a great attitude and just looks perfect as a franchise player for a team like Minnesota. On draft night I personally felt like Okafor was the better fit for Minnesota; It was clear Minnesota couldn’t pass on a guy like Towns.
JAHLIL OKAFOR
I know KAT is the best of the 2 but there’s something that makes me like watching Okafor more. Something about Okafor reminds me of AD. It’s not the D obviously. His rebounding isn’t near as good as AD. They both have monster wingspans. Their bodies can be compared even though AD is more athletic. Okafor worked a lot on his mid range game and is terrific in the post. He sometimes looks lazy but who wouldn’t on the 76er’s. Obviously on a bad team he’ll have higher numbers but they’re still worth sharing. Okafor leads the league in 2 pt fg attempts while he is 3rd in 2 pt fg’s. It shows he’s already being used as a go to guy and is proving that’s what he is. I picked Jahlil as my ROY prediction over Towns because I felt Okafor had a better shot of dominating right away especially on a bad team. No one knows how everything will be when the Sixers have Dario Saric and Joel Embiid back. I still think in a time where everyone’s getting small it is an advantage to have a great player in the post like Okafor. Okafor to me will be when of the best big men in a couple years, and who knows maybe with a lot of other teams going small Philly will have a different advantage.
Both have played in 12 games so far. Okafor averages about 4 minutes more than KAT per game. Okafor averages almost 19 points a game while towns averages about 16. Towns pulls down about 3 more rebounds per game despite playing much less. Towns is also averaging 2.4 blocks per game and Okafor 1.7. That is crazy for both of them as rookies. If you do a player comparison on Basketball Reference you see that Towns advanced numbers are much better. Towns is also doing this with a decent team. Okafor is playing great but you have to take into consideration what he would play like on a team like Minnesota. I still think he’d be great, but no where near where KAT is right now. These teams obviously don’t have any regrets about who they took and they shouldn’t because these are both going to be 2 great players, even though they have completely different styles from each other; They’re both crazy weapons.