Onyeka Okongwu: NBA Draft Scouting Report & Analysis
- Nick Heintzman
- Jun 8, 2020
- 13 min read
Onyeka Okongwu's vitals:
Introducing Onyeka Okongwu
Onyeka Okongwu, a 6'9 center, hails from Los Angeles, and he played highschool basketball at Chino Hills Highschool, in California. At Chino Hills, he played at least one season with each of the acclaimed Ball brothers (Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo). Despite being ranked #19 in RSCI, Okongwu grew accustomed to playing alongside high-level initiators (the Ball brothers), and he embraced a role as a rim protecting PNR big.
After one season at USC, Okongwu declared for the NBA Draft, and he'll be 19.5 years old as of June 25, 2020. Okongwu's most devout fans praise him for his defensive mobility and versatility. Bigs that can defend in space and lockup guards on switches are a valuable commodity, and Okongwu should be able to fill such a role Skeptics may note that Okongwu, at only 6'9, doesn't possess great length or strength for a center. In the age of the behemoth initiator, Okongwu may get overwhelmed by some of the league's best players.
Overview
OFFENSE
Okongwu projects as a good screener and rim runner. He uses solid technique screening, and he gets to the rim quickly, where he has an explosive two-foot jump. With good hands and body control, Okongwu catches difficult passes. Okongwu's also a good finisher; he has soft touch with either hand, and he gets nice length extension. He's limited only by his size - he's 6'9, so he's less imposing than finishers like DeAndre Jordan. And while he's definitely explosive, he lacks the strength & ferocity of players like Bam Adebayo and Dwight Howard.
Apart from strong finishing skills, Okongwu also possesses complimentary faceup and postup skills. He's got a quick first step, a basic, but tight, handle, and a nice spin move, all of which give him the foundation to attack slower bigs off the bounce. He's also a good post player, with either-hand touch, up-and-unders, and dropsteps. Okongwu's not big enough to create efficiently in the post against large centers, but he'll be able to make smaller defenders pay.
The main question marks of Okongwu's offense are his passing and shooting. He's solid at passing out of the post: he recognizes doubles quickly, and he makes some skip passes to weakside shooters. On short rolls, he's shown flashes of making dump offs and doing some high-low passing. He must get quicker with his reads out of the short roll and get more comfortable hitting shooters, but, given his youth, he has a solid passing foundation.
His shooting currently consists of taking spotup midrangers, which he hits at a respectable (41.5%) clip. He only took 4 3s all year, so it is not a guarantee that he can stretch his shot out to the 3pt line. With non-broken form and decent midrange touch, he should be able to at least take some wide-open 3s. In general, Okongwu doesn't project as a stretch big, but he should be able to knock down some open shots and get guarded a little on the perimeter.
DEFENSE
Okongwu projects as a valuable NBA defender. He's bouncy and possesses good rim protection instincts; he's only 6'9, but he'll be able to protect the rim in the NBA. His rotations aren't perfect, but he typically prompt about being in the right spot. He's very mobile in space and is comfortable on the perimeter. He stays with guards for extended sequences, and he hedges & recovers well. Okongwu's also a good PNR defender: he guards both the screener and the ball, and, given his quickness, he doesn't get exploited on the perimeter. Okongwu can further refine his space & team defense by keeping his arms out, getting more confident in his rotations, and improving his closeout technique.
Okongwu's biggest defensive weaknesses stem from his relative lack of size: sometimes he gets ran over in the post. Post brutes shove Okongwu around, and he currently lacks the lower body strength to hold position. At 6'9, he doesn't swallow offensive players up, so, even though he's a good rim protector, he may get overwhelmed against physical-tool standouts. Okongwu is also a poor defensive rebounder (this seems mostly related to effort; Okongwu misses boxouts and lets himself get shoved around).
Projections for NBA Impact & Role
I project Okongwu as a solid NBA starter.
On offensive, his PNR game + good finishing will translate well, and he has a burgeoning offensive skillset. Reasonable improvements in his passing and shooting should unlock some short roll and possibly marginal PNP game. Okongwu should be a good 4th or 5th option in most offensive systems. It's unlikely he ever becomes an offensive initiator. His jumpshot would have to improve to the point that defenders guarded him closely (opening up blowbys), which is unlikely. He'd also have to significantly improve his passing. Further, Okongwu, while a very explosive athlete, just isn't as strong or powerful as dominant centers of similar size, such as Dwight Howard or Bam Adebayo. Thus, Okongwu projects as a good PNR player and finisher that can hit an open jumpshot and attack some mismatches with postups and faceups.
Defensively, Okongwu should be above-average to well above-average in most settings. With his combination of rim protection and space defense, Okongwu is versatile and doesn't have many weaknesses. He's got the bounce and instincts to be an effective rim protector against all but the most ferocious finishers. He should mature into a smart PNR defender that succeeds in a variety of coverages, and he'll guard most switches effectively.
However, despite his impressive strengths, I'm skeptical of Okongwu reaching DPOY level because I think his defensive skillset is slightly less valuable than it was a few years ago. By way of explanation: when Golden State rose to prominence in 2015, quick-footed big men that could stay on the floor against Steph Curry & co. became a valuable commodity. Golden State, as we knew them, have since met their demise, and I suspect quick-footed big men are somewhat overvalued by the NBA draft community. A lot of the best players in the NBA - including young players - use either their height + length or strength to dominate (or some combination of both) (see Giannis, LeBron, Kawhi, Jokic, Embiid, Adebayo, Siakam, Ben Simmons, Zion, Anthony Davis, etc.). I think big centers will be essential to effectively guard those players. For example, Toronto's Marc Gasol, a slow-footed, hefty big, was instrumental in slowing Joel Embiid in one series and then Giannis in the next.
Therefore, I project that Okongwu lacks the overall heft and length to be a stopper against big initiators. He gets shoved around in the post, and larger bigs can finish through him (relatively) easily. Okongwu is only 19, and he will undoubtedly add more lower body strength. However, I just don't see Okongwu having the requisite strength and length (or the intensity of a player like Draymond Green), to be a stopper against the biggest and baddest initiators.
Overall, I project Okongwu as a solid starter, with an impact similar to such starting-calibre centers as Daniel Theis, Montrezl Harrell, and Tristan Thompson.
Physical Tools
Quick and agile. Has face-up game and solid first step. Steps around opposing players.
Excellent lateral quickness. Very fluid. Great balance. Looks comfortable moving in space. Keeps guards in front for extended sequences. Great hip quickness. Changes directions well.
Covers ground quickly. Hedges & recovers well.
Good two-foot vertical explosion. Gets off floor quickly. Doesn't need load time. Can dunk in crowds, but generally not powering through defenders and dunking on their heads.
Quick second jump.
Absorbs contact well (50.4% FTA/FT rate). But as mentioned usually not powering over the strongest defenders for dunks. Tries to go up past defenders or around them.
Quick hands & reflexes, but must keep arms out. Plays with them at his side too often.
Good open court speed (although inconsistent sprinting the floor).
Seemingly good strength and frame at 6'9 & 245lbs, but I'm skeptical of his overall strength level. Doesn't overpower defensive players, instead, finishes with craft and skill. Gets overpowered on defense. Isaiah Stewart a 6'9 250lbs big man gave Okongwu a lot of trouble, muscling him and moving him out of position.
Okongwu is still a teenager, and further strength improvements are likely. But I predict he'll always be a little overmatched against elite physical talents in the NBA like Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antenkounmpo.
At 6'9 with a 7'1 wingspan, Onyeka probably has enough length to play center, although his standing reach is currently unknown. Either way, he's small for NBA-center standards.
Context, Intangibles
Okongwu played basketball at Chino Hills, and his freshman season overlapped with Lonzo Ball's senior season. He played several years years at Chino alongside LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball.
Because Okongwu played alongside talented initiators, he learned to embrace playing a role. He's stated that he prioritizes playing defense, and he appears willing to embrace a role as a defense-first big that also has some face-up equity.
This matches his on-court performance: Okongwu appears to be acutely aware of his role, and he rarely attempts plays that aren't in his skill set. He's usually locked in on defense, and he demonstrates a clear understanding of how rotations works.
Okongwu has a reputation for quietness on the court (per interview with Mike Schmidtz). However, Okongwu often gets visibly frustrated with his teammates when they miss defensive rotations. Hard to assess from a far whether this is a good or bad indicator, at least suggests Okongwu understands his teammates' defensive responsibilities.
Okongwu's compete level is difficult to assess. On one hand he generates a lot of events and makes timely rotations throughout the game. On the other hand, Okongwu doesn't box out, doesn't always run the floor hard (on either end), and sometimes gives up position easily too other big men. The best switch bigs (Draymond Green, PJ Tucker, etc.), play with incredibly high motor and intensity. Although Okongwu plays reasonably hard, I think he needs a better mean streak to dominate at his size.
Finishing (non postups)
Good finishing touch with either hand.
Crafty finisher. Uses up-and-unders. Has little tricks to keep defenders off balance. Knows how to stretch his arms around defenders.
Generally does a good job leaping towards rim and not away from it. Leaps up and around defenders. Doesn't fadeaway.
Not a power finisher. Not going to power through bigs and dunk on them. Still explosive in traffic in the sense he gets up high but not going through anyone. More of a skill/craft finisher.
Very soft touch. Lays it in gently off glass. Shows a lot of fluidity for a big man.
Baby right hook is his preferred move. His little baby hooks almost looks like a push shots at times.
Good touch with left hand and certainly goes left, but still sometimes uses right when left is the better move.
Explosive two-foot leaping helps his finishing. Gets off ground quickly. Doesn't need much loadtime.
Doesn't use much physicality on his finishes. Doesn't push defenders out of the way.
Good feel for cutting. Drifts into open dunks.
Nice soft touch on his babyhooks. Flips them in easily:
Good feel for cutting. Drifts into open dunks:
Nice touch going left:
Postups
Skilled postup player. Not big enough to run offense through at NBA level, but definitely punishes switches and can attack the right matchups.
Right hand over left shoulder is his preferred move, but he has a good left hand too. Usually gets his arms well above the rim on his hookshots. Sometimes goes right when he should go left, which leads to him getting blocked unnecessarily.
Has nice step-through into an up-and-under move.
Also has left to right spin.
Absorbs hits. Finishes through contact. But doesn't overpower anyone himself.
Flails a lot in lower body when he starts his moves. Needs improved strength (particularly lower body) to get & maintain position against good post defenders.
Effective getting post seals against smaller players. Will punish most switches effectively.
As discussed in the Passing section, Okongwu handles doubleteams effectively. He sees them coming and usually makes the right pass. Has vision to weakside corner.
Nice step-through & up-and-under move against Zion:
Go to post move. Right hook over left shoulder.
Offensive Rebounding
Quick second jump. Grabs lots of his own misses.
Good effort pursuing offensive rebounds. Outquicks his defenders.
Sticks with it for extended sequences. Clearly more athletic than vast majority of college rebounders.
Can go up and get it in traffic:
Shooting
Reluctant shooter.
94 2pt jumpers; 4 3pt attempts on the year.
Only takes c-s 2s. Likes shooting them along wings. Doesn't pullup off dribble, takes them off movement.
Ok FT shooting (72% on 143 attempts) + ok form gives hope his shooting can improve.
Nothing about his form is broken - it's just inconsistent. Doesn't always hold follow through, release point varies, sometimes shoots ball closer to his face than is ideal, stance width varies, etc. Looks like he needs lot of reps to get consistency.
Therefore, I project that Okongwu will take and make some spotup 2s. I don't project him as a volume threat from 3 - perhaps 1 PNP 3 a game.
Passing
Passes well out of postups. Reads help well. Hits shooters quickly. Looks to weakside.
Doesn't see everything (teammates not the best at creating passing angles either, but generally looks to pass when doubles come).
Passes with right hand. Good accuracy.
Hits dropoffs out of short roll. I haven't seen much evidence of him hitting the corners off the short roll.
Not much evidence of manipulating defenses. Not many eyefakes/passfakes.
Has some faceup game and can probably make basic passes off the bounce.
Good high-low passer. Nice chemistry with fellow big Nick Rakocevic.
Makes some transition hit aheads. Keeps headup.
Not anticipatory, but good reactive passing. Above-average passer for a big.
Sees weakside out of post:
Usually finds the open man against the double:
Pick & Roll Offense
Good PNR player. Embraces his roll as screener and dive man.
Good screener. Not the most imposing frame but technically sound. Makes good contact. Explodes out of screens well.
Solid diveman. Good quickness and vertical explosion helps him get to rim quickly.
As mentioned previously, his explosion drops when confronted with big bodies in traffic.
At 6'9 with a 7'1 wingspan and very good explosion, Okongwu possesses a good, but not spectacular catch radius. Something akin to Montrezl Harrell.
Good flexibility for catching lobs and adjusting in the air. Contorts body well.
Good hands. Catches passes in traffic.
Showed some promise as a short roll passer. Made dropoff passes. Will he hit corners?
Some shortroll passing. Hits the drop off:
Handle & Faceup Game
Has solid faceup game from free throw line/mid-post area.
Puts it on floor going either way. Has nice right to left spin move.
Pretty fluid attacking off the bounce. Can attack a closeout, step around defenders.
Good rip-through moves. Effective exploding out of the ripthrough.
Uses crafty little headfakes, jab steps to get defenders off balance.
Good at drawing fouls out of faceups.
Gets to right or left hand out of faceups.
Lacks sophisticated moves. But tight handle. Can do 1-2 dribbles in traffic without losing control.
Uses little upfakes in his faceups:
Look at the fluidity and agility here. Impressive for a big: Some off-the-bounce equity:
Rim Protection
Generally an attentive rim protector.
Rotates for his blocks.
But inconsistent. Doesn't do it everytime. Not always coming down to block. Sometimes seems to overtrust teammates. Or not cover for teammates when they make a mistake.
Some plays where his lack of size shows. Giants able to have their way with him.
Good timing on his rim protection. Usually makes the most of his length and bounce.
Rim protector - not just shotblocker. Gets contests on floaters, etc. Even able to contest some midrangers.
Too jumpy chasing blocks. Susceptible to pumpfakes.
Poor awareness here. Must takeaway dunk:
Great instincts rotating down (even though he doesn't get the block):
Nasty block here and sees drive coming early. Impressive awareness:
Lack of elite size shows against larger players. Hard for him to affect some shots:
Pick and Roll Defense
Great lateral slider. Very quick. Can recover even if he doesn't take the best angle.
Hedge coverage: Super quick feet. Gets right into ballhandler and pressures them up, makes ballhandler kill dribble. Recovers to his man quickly (generally - sometimes a little nonchalent in his recoveries). Must improve at keeping hands high and active. Sometimes gives up passing angles.
Good in shows. No trouble sticking with ballhandler, taking away 3pt shot. Great at disrupting ballhandler and then scooting back to his man.
Solid in drop coverage. Pretty nice feel for playing ballhandler + his man while still getting contests up.
Has lots of potential as a switch big (as will be discussed in the Onball Defense section).
Struggles with PNP coverage. Sometimes contests shooting big too wildly, sometimes doesn't get out far enough. Generally uncomfortable defending pop bigs.
Show. Great lateral quickness containing ballhandler and has mobility to get back to his man:
Mobility in PNR to get deflections, recover for blocks:
Excellent at hedging. Quickness pressures ballhandlers, forces ballhandlers to kill dribble:
This dunk is by no means his fault, but could have kept hands out to contest passing lanes:
Some confusion here about whether screen should be ICED or not, but Okongwu is quick enough to recover and get block:
Team defense, Guarding in space, closeouts
Very mobile. Makes multiple rotations. Gets around court easily.
Knows how rotations works. Can cover for his teammates when they mess up (although doesn't always do this). But possesses a clear understanding of team defense.
Rotates across paint and out of paint. Covers a large radius.
Very solid steal percentage at 2.3%. Uses his quickness to jump passing lanes.
As mentioned, sometimes a little reluctant to rotate (even though it looks like he knows he's supposed to). Part of him appears to still prioritize guarding his man over playing team defense.
Gets a little wild on his closeouts. Doesn't get arms up enough on closeouts.
Bit of a tendency to reach, swipe down at ball. Sometimes works because he has quick reflexes, but picks up unnecessary fouls.
Must work at keeping hands/arms out & up. Sometimes his doubleteams (and hedges in PNR d) are ineffective because he allows passing lanes.
Must keep hands up. Should get them up sooner on this closeout.
On-ball Defense (including postups)
Very good lateral slider. Hangs with ballhandlers for extended sequences. Sticks with ballhandlers on drives and gets excellent contests up. Excellent balance. Hard to shake.
Great at extended switches. Slides feet very well. Turns hips quickly. Handles direction changes. Stays close enough to contest shots without giving up drive. Switched effectively against NBA prospects like Tyrell Terry and Nico Mannion.
Gets feet crossed while sliding. That he caan still stay in front even with crossing is impressive, but certainly a technique issue to improve.
Will be difficult for bigs to take him through faceups. Hard to outquick Okongwu. Only hope is to go through and over.
Struggles with post-defense. Gets buried too easily. Bigger players can push him back. Unimpressed with his compete level. IMO just limited physically on how effective he can be. Gets pushed through too easily. Chest is too thin. Needs serious strength gain (which is possible). Must improve discipline. Must keep arms up and not jump on pumpfakes. Best part of his post defense is his ability to poke ball away from people.
Good at guarding bigs in faceup situations. Not getting Okongwu through quickness. Need to go over or through him:
Great lateral quickness and gets the contest:
Great switch against premier guard Tyrell Terry. Stays with guards for extended sequences:
Best aspect of Okongwu's post defense is his quickness, especially when he gets around his man to jump passes:
Struggles in post defense against larger offensive players. Gets pushed backwards and those players can go over Okongwu:
Lets Nnaji go through him:
Defensive Rebounding
Mediocre defensive rebounder.
Not the best timing or instincts for tracking down the ball.
Poor timing for when to leap, sometimes leaps too early, sometimes leaps too late.
Misses rebounds he should have had.
Regularly misses box outs. Lets his man get inside position.
Gives up inside position too easily:
Comments