Sixers draft in review: Jahlil Okafor selected No. 3 overall in 2015
As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the 2021 NBA draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on July 29, we look back on past drafts.
The Sixers entered the 2015 NBA draft with a tough decision to make. Nobody knew the status of their top pick in 2014, Joel Embiid, who had missed the entire season with a foot injury, and they did not know what they would get out of the big man yet.
So they went with another big man with the No. 3 overall selection, Jahlil Okafor out of Duke. He had just wrapped up a phenomenal freshman season with the Blue Devils averaging 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds. In his first season with the Sixers, he averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds as Embiid missed the entire season again due to a foot injury.
When Embiid finally took the floor in the 2016-17 season, he showed no ill effects from the injuries and he pushed Okafor out of the rotation due to his stellar play. Okafor averaged 11.8 points in the season before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets early in the 2017-18 season.
Okafor now plays for the Detroit Pistons as a backup big man after spending two seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans. He averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 rebounds while playing only 27 games due to a meniscus injury in the 2020-21 season for Detroit.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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