From the very outset of the season, Brett Brown and the Sixers had a pretty strong sense that Jahlil Okafor would be able to score in volume on a consistent basis. Okafor has lived up to this billing, as reflected by his team-best 17.4 points per game average, and his rookie class-leading 18 performances with at least 20 points. As the Sixers work their way to the mid-February All-Star Game break, however, they continues to learn more and more about the offensive abilities the first-year center possesses.

Okafor has routinely demonstrated, from game one to 41, that he is beyond proficient in post-up situations. Going into Monday, the Duke product was tied for second among all NBA players with an average of 5.5 post-up points per game, according stats.nba.com. He also ranks third in the league with 6.4 post-up touches per contest.

A area where Okafor has recently displayed a different type of growth is with his mid-range jump shot. In his past four outings, Okafor has hit 10 of the 20 shots that stats.nba.com has defined as having come from mid-range distance. Zooming in on that trend a little more, Okafor has been even more reliable from 10 to 14 feet from the rim, sinking nine of 11 such tries. Between a distance of eight to 16 feet, the low-post weapon has buried 11 of 19 attempts.

The Sixers have been pleased to see Okafor steadily send in his mid-range jumpers lately. Perhaps even more significant to Brown, though, is that Okafor is becoming increasingly comfortable taking those shots, which the coaching staff is encouraging.

“No doubt,” said Brown Sunday. “I get upset when he doesn’t. When he picks and pops, and has daylight separation, I want him shooting. I get most concerned when he just picks and stands. Whether he’s rolling to dunk, or rolling for a little 17 [foot] little pocket pass type shot, as long picking and moving, then good things can happen, and I think bad things happen when we’re indecisive.”



“My teammates are telling me to shoot it, and the coaches are telling me to shoot it, because they believe I’m a capable shooter,” Okafor said last Wednesday, when the Sixers were in Orlando to face the Magic. “When you have the people around you telling me to shoot, you’re shooting it pretty freely.”

On the season, Okafor has converted 34.2 percent of his mid-range attempts. The flashes of potential he’s exhibited in that area are the root behind Brown’s belief that Okafor could ultimately assume power forward responsibilities, provided that Okafor proves he can defend the position.

“If you could ever find a way to figure out how to let Jahlil guard four men, and chase [Boston’s Kelly] Olynyk around, and [Sacramento’s] Rudy Gay when they go small” Brown said. “Let Nerlens [Noel] just be the primary pick-and-roll defender. Put him in all the pick-and-rolls, and let him stay at the rim. That’s a good world.”

At this stage, Brown isn’t certain whether he’ll do a late-season positional experiment with Okafor similar to the one he conducted with Noel last year, when Noel logged his final six starts at power forward after spending the rest of the campaign at center.

“If I can figure that out, I think there’s a chance we could do [that] at the end of the year,” said Brown.

