Okafor Can't Explain Production Decline

DENVER -- Emeka Okafor is a stand-up guy. All 6-foot-10 of him. So he isn't doing any ducking when it comes to the uninspiring season he's having for New Orleans.

Okafor's statistics are down from his five years in Charlotte. He sure doesn't look to be the same player who was the 2004-05 NBA Rookie of the Year and was counted on by the Bobcats for around 14 points and 11 boards a night.

"It's just been a funky year," the Hornets center said in an interview with FanHouse. "If you look at people's careers, they have one year that happens to be off for whatever reason. So you can't really look to be discouraged by it. You've got to take from it the best you can and deal with it next year.

"I'm hard on myself ... As a competitor, of course I'd like to be better. But I've been trying. As far as the effort standpoint, I don't feel I've given bad effort. Of course, I'd like to see better (play). I just have to work hard and see what happens ... I'm just hoping it's a hiccup year. For whatever reasons, certain players have slightly down years, and this might be it."

In his five seasons with the Bobcats, Okafor averaged 14.0 points and 10.7 rebounds. Since being acquired last summer for center Tyson Chandler, Okafor is averaging 10.6 points and 9.3 rebounds for the Hornets.

Okafor, 27, had been showing some slippage from his rookie year, when he averaged a career-high 15.1 points and 10.9 rebounds, the second-best mark of his career. But even last season's 13.2 points and 10.1 rebounds looks a lot better than what he's done this season.

Okafor's shooting has fallen off from last season. He's dropped from 56.2 percent from the field to 52.9 percent and from 59.4 percent at the foul line to 57.2.

Okafor's playing time is down a bit and he is averaging about the same number of rebounds per minute as in his career. But he doesn't have any definitive theories as to why he's having an off year. All he can do is speculate.

"New surroundings," he said. "Maybe I was thrown for a loop by the trade. But who really knows?"

Okafor did miss most of training camp with a sprained right second toe, which New Orleans coach Jeff Bower said "slowed him down." But Okafor didn't look too bad at the start for the Hornets, averaging 14.5 points and 10.8 rebounds in the first four games.

Bower does point out Okafor is playing alongside more scorers than he did in Charlotte, namely forwards David West, Peja Stojakovic and star guard Chris Paul, although Paul has missed nearly half the season due to injury. That's the primary reason the Hornets, who now have Stojakovic out for a while with an abdominal strain, are 33-37 and out of the playoff chase.

What about changing conferences? Has going from the East to West, which is stronger from top to bottom and perhaps offers a faster tempo than the grind-it-out Okafor prefers, been a factor in his slippage?

"Maybe yes, maybe not," Okafor said.

Denver big man Nene leans way more toward yes. While Nene likes Okafor, calling him "a good player,'' he wonders if he has been fully ready to do battle in the rugged West.

"Come to the West, you need to prepare, man, in the post," said Nene, who got the best of Okafor in four meetings this season, averaging 15.5 points and 10.0 rebounds and shooting 65.6 percent to Okafor's 11.3 points, 10..3 rebounds and 46.5 percent shooting. "It's definitely tougher. Just look at the records of the teams.

"Oh, yeah (Okafor's statistics are down due to moving to the West). In the West, he needs to have something different. Something in the low post. Not just hook shot."

Okafor actually is averaging 9.7 points this season against East teams and 11.2 against the West, but those statistics have not been helped by how dreadful Okafor has been against East toughies Cleveland, Orlando, Boston and Atlanta. Take out the meager 33 points he's had in seven games against those teams on 33.6-percent shooting, and he's averaging 11.5 against the rest of the East.

The bottom line might be that top teams are simply figuring out Okafor, 27, who is undersized at center and hasn't improved much since his rookie season.

When Orlando was considering in 2004 whether to use the top draft pick on Okafor, who had played three years at Connecticut, or Dwight Howard, who came straight from high school, the consensus was Okafor was better at that time but Howard had more upside. Obviously, Howard, now the NBA's top center who went No. 1 to the Magic while Okafor went No. 2 to Charlotte, had miles more upside.

Still, one figured the Hornets might get more this season out of Okafor in a move the team made to save a little money in the near future while taking on huge dollars in the distance future.

Yes, Okafor has been much better this season better than the more defensive-oriented Chandler, who is averaging 6.3 points and 6.2 rebounds for Charlotte and might never again be the player he once was due to two years of battling injuries. But Okafor sure doesn't look like someone the Hornets gleefully will be wanting to pay $28 million after Chandler's contract will have expired.

Chandler is making $12.2 million this season and has a player option next season for $13.2 million he obviously will pick up before becoming a free agent in the summer of 2011. Okafor is pulling down $11.5 million this season and $12.5 million next season before he gets $13.5 million in 2011-12 and $14.5 million in 2012-13.

So the Hornets saved $700,000 this season on Okafor, which helped them get under the luxury-tax line, and another $700,000 next season. But will that make up for how ugly Okafor's contract could look for two years after that?

Then again, Okafor does vow to come back better next season.

"If the trend continues, then you have a problem," Okafor said. "Just one year you chalk it up to whatever and you shoot for next time ... After the season, I just have to sit down and really just think about how the season went and just decide what I need to focus on and kind of go about that. Right now, I'm kind of focusing on this season. After the season is over, I'll sit down and (then start to) work on X, Y and Z."

To Okafor's credit, Bowers has been able to write him on the lineup card every night. He's started all 70 of New Orleans' games, extending his streak of consecutive games played to 245.

"I think new situations and new things that are being asked of him could be part of it," Bowers said of why Okafor's stats are down. "I think he's made a lot of progress throughout the year."

With this being pretty much a lost season for the Hornets, next season is now what really will matter for Okafor. If he has another uninspiring campaign, he won't be able to chalk it up as just a "hiccup."

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter@christomasson