Former lottery pick Jahlil Okafor has agreed to a training camp deal with the Indiana Pacers, per Shams Charania. Okafor last played in the NBA during the 2020-21 season, where he appeared in 27 games for the Detroit Pistons. Since then, he’s played overseas, where he spent two seasons playing in China, and most recently is coming off a season in Spain where he averaged 11.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Okafor was drafted third overall in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers after playing one standout year at Duke. He had a promising start to his rookie career, averaging 17.5 points, seven rebounds and 1.2 blocks, but suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee, and missed the last 22 games of the season. He earned All-Rookie First Team honors, and finish fifth in Rookie of the Year voting, but the peak of his NBA career would be his rookie campaign.
Oakfor spent three seasons with the Sixers, and part of the downfall during his tenure was because of Philadelphia’s roster building. When Okafor was taken with the third overall pick in 2015, the Sixers already had Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid on the roster. Both Noel and Embiid were taken in the drafts prior to Okafor, and yet the Sixers still selected him. It created a logjam at center and also stifled his development. With Okafor being more limited on both sides of the ball compared to Embiid who began to flourish, and Noel who showed promise as a rim protector, Okafor fell by the wayside and was eventually traded to the Nets in a salary dump deal in 2017.
While Okafor managed to bounce around the league to different teams, he never managed to gain any real footing at any stop he made in Brooklyn, New Orleans and Detroit. But now after several years overseas, Okafor is getting another chance at the NBA with the Pacers.