I thought I'd compare Okoro and Lamar Stevens - our two rookie small forwards. They have a similar game. Stevens is listed at 6'6", 225 while Okoro is 6'5", 225. Stevens is 3.5 years older and played four years of college ball to one for Okoro. The numbers were compiled before the win over Houston.
In terms of usage, Stevens is more involved in the offense 13.4% to 12.1%, but not significantly. They are both low usage players.
They're very close in points per 100 shot attempts: 97.5 for Okoro to 95.7 for Stevens.
Effective field goal percentage is also close; 46.4 to 45.2 in favor of Okoro.
Three-point percentage is where Okoro is significantly better; 29.9% to 11.1%. But Okoro is trending up, having made 10 of his last 21.
In terms of assists as a percentage of usage, Stevens is better; 0.94 to 0.65.
Stevens is better finishing at the rim, hitting 60% compared to 53% for Okoro. He's also better than Okoro in the mid-range; 41% to 27%. That's from 4 to 14 feet out. Okoro's advantage on 3-pointers evens the score and puts Okoro slightly ahead in the points per shot attempt category.
Stevens protects the ball better, committing a turnover 11.6% of his possessions compared to 16.1% for Okoro. So although Okoro is a slightly better scorer he loses the ball more often. So far it's pretty even except Stevens is better on assists.
Stevens is a better free throw shooter 75% to 64.3%.
Defensively Stevens leads in block percentage 1.0% to 0.8% but Okoro has a slight advantage in steals 1.5% to 1.2%. I'd say blocks and steals combined are even. They're about even in foul percentage; 4.1% to 3.9% in favor of Okoro.
In rebounding Stevens has a big advantage on the defensive glass; 13.9% to 5.2%. On the offensive glass his advantage is less; 3.4% to 2.8%.
In the on/off category, the Cavs are 4.7 points per 100 possessions worse that their opponents when Okoro is on the court and 14.6 points worse when Stevens plays. This is obviously affected by the fact that Okoro generally plays with the starters while Stevens has been playing with the other reserves.
My question is if an NBA scout had no idea which was the #5 pick and which was undrafted, would he be able to identify which was which?
Okoro is much better at shooting 3's (although still not good at 30%) while Stevens is a much better rebounder. In every other individual category they're almost even. Stevens has a better assist number, is a better rebounder and foul shooter, is better finishing at the rim and in the mid-range, and commits fewer turnovers. The only thing Okoro does significantly better than Stevens is 3-point shooting.
As for individual defense, JBB said after the win over Atlanta that Stevens is an "elite NBA defender".
Obviously Stevens has the advantage of having played four years in colege to one for Okoro, so it's not a fair comparison. In three years Okoro should be much better than he is now. If he isn't then we spent the #5 pick on the same skill set we got for nothing. At this point Stevens doesn't even have a minimum NBA contract; he's a two-way player.
I think the Bobby Phils and David Nwaba comparisons are accurate at this point, but both players are still rookies so we'll see where they go from here.