Jahlil Okafor’s numbers in his rookie campaign showed promise. So did Dion Waiters’. And so have many rookies before them. The connection here is that those players put up numbers on bad (like, really bad) teams. Nonetheless, averaging 17.5 points and 7 rebounds per game on 50.8% from the field as a 20 year-old is worth mentioning.
So what went wrong in Philadelphia for the former 2015 third overall pick? During the time, the Sixers organization was still in “the process” of turning things around and heading back to NBA relevancy. In 2013 and 2014, they used lottery draft picks to select Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid.