WESTWEGO ― With less than two days to go before the Hornets tip off their 2009-10 season, the Okafor Watch continues.
That’s not a good thing, either.
Okafor, New Orleans’ big offseason acquisition, has yet to play in a game in the Hornets’ uniform and he has only been through two days of practice.
But the optimism is building that his introduction into the lineup could come as early as Wednesday in New Orleans’ season-opener, a 7 p.m. showdown at Southwest Division rival San Antonio.
“He did more today than he did (Sunday),” New Orleans Head Coach Byron Scott said following Monday’s practice session. “Hopefully he’ll feel pretty good tomorrow and we’ll try to up it a little bit.”
Okafor has sat out the entire preseason and training camp with an injured toe. More than three weeks after camp began, Okafor can finally envision his first minutes as a Hornet.
“I can definitely see myself playing Wednesday,” Okafor said. “I’m not completely pain free, but now it’s to the point where it’s manageable. That was the goal, to get it where it’s manageable.”
The sixth-year former No. 2 overall pick has played all 82 games the past two seasons.
He also owns a career double-double average, putting up 14 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. But his biggest contribution might be on the defensive end, where he averages nearly two blocked shots per game.
And that’s where New Orleans might need him the most. Opponents averaged 103.3 points per game in eight preseason games and the Hornets had two fewer blocked shots per game than opponents.
Sunday and Monday’s practice were enough to show Scott that Okafor will be an upgrade from Hilton Armstrong and Sean Marks, who have been playing center in his stead.
“He played with a lot of intensity today,” Scott said. “He’s very, very active down there. He comes to block everything and he runs the floor extremely well. In just two days, I’ve been impressed with his athleticism and his defense. That’s one of the reasons we got him.”
Yet, there could be issues, at least early on. Okafor doesn’t have any on-court chemistry with Chris Paul or David West and since he hasn’t been on the floor, he doesn’t know all of the offensive sets.
“I think you have to limit it to a certain extent and some of the things he doesn’t know, we can run through timeouts,” Scott said. “As far as just coming down and calling a bunch of plays he’s not familiar with, we’ll have to be pretty simple right now with him in the basketball game.”
Okafor, however, isn’t buying into any lack of chemistry.
“I don’t think it will be that big of an issue,” he said. “It may take a game or two to get fully acclimated with the team. I don’t think it’ll be too hard.”
