Ebuka Okorie has a chance to make an immediate impact for the Pistons

The Detroit Pistons traded up to land guard Ebuka Okorie, hoping that he can eventually help with their ball handling and scoring needs. 

But Okorie is joining a team fresh off 60 wins that has title aspirations, so he’s not going to walk into automatic minutes as Pistons rookies did during their lengthy rebuild. He won’t be granted impunity for his mistakes and will have to earn his time.

With a deep roster and more experienced players at his position, it will be an uphill battle for Okorie to make an impact as a rookie, but there is a path if he does certain things. 

Ebuka Okorie needs to get stronger 

You could say this about nearly every player coming into the NBA, but Okorie is a slight guard who only played one year in college, so he has plenty of growing to do. 

It was clear in Summer League when he had a more difficult time converting at the rim against stronger players. This one isn’t a long-term concern, as all humans fill out naturally as they age, and Okorie will now have the benefit of an NBA training facility. 

But if he wants to crack the rotation at some point next season, he needs to start that work now and hopefully put on some muscle before training camp. 

Okorie has to take care of the ball 

The Pistons were turnover prone as a team last season, so can’t afford to have another player in there coughing it up. 

Okorie did a good job of this in college even though he had a very high usage rate and few teammates to pass the ball to, but the NBA is a different story. 

He won’t be able to dribble as much as he did in college and will have to adjust to meeting bigger and better defenders at the rim. He’ll have to avoid one of the pitfalls young players often fall into, which is to jump before they know what they want to do with the ball, something we’ve seen with both Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey. 

Okorie will have to play under control and limit his mental mistakes to stay on the floor. 

Ebuka Okorie has to come in hot and set up the shooters 

The best path for Okorie is to come in for short stretches as a change of pace guard who can put up points in a hurry, but these types of players have to come in hot, which can be tough for a rookie. 

He won’t be afforded long stretches to get his legs under him, so Okorie will have to get to the rack and do what he does best, which is score. And if his dribble penetration starts drawing defenders into the paint, he needs to set up his shooters, something he didn’t do much of at Stanford on a team that lacked scoring outside of him. 

The Pistons have shooters, so Okorie will have to think quickly and kick out when his own shot isn’t there. He’s got the quickness to get into the lane for his own shot, but he has to be more of a distributor than he was in college. 

It won’t be easy for any rookie to crack the rotation of a good team right away, so Okorie will have to make the most of his limited minutes and stay ready. 

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