OKC Thunder: 3 players who need to step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence

The OKC Thunder have assigned four players to the OKC Blue as part of the new G-League season. This is going to be played in a bubble at the same place the NBA completed their 2019-20 season. It is unlikely that there is going to be much roster fluidity between the Thunder and the Blue given the restrictions and length of the season.

This means that the Thunder are going to have to go deeper into their bench to cover the 17 and a half minutes that Pokusevski has been averaging. The other assigned players, Ty Jerome, Josh Hall, and Moses Brown do not have the regular court time that Pokusevski does so this is not an issue.

The Thunder have given Aleksej Pokusevski every chance to show that he deserves the playing time allotted to him. He has not managed to translate his talent into production, at least on the offensive end.

The OKC Thunder would like Aleksej Pokusevski to grow in the bubble.

Pokusevski has really struggled with his shot in the time he has had in the NBA so far. He did not have the time to acclimatize to the differences between division two in Greece and the best league in the world. Without that he has not got any confidence in his shot and is making mistakes.

Some of the mistakes being made a rule differences. One example of this is that in Europe you can take the ball off the rim if the shot is missing, but in the NBA it has to clear the cylinder. This has cost the Thunder on a number of occasions. However, he will be able to adjust his game to NBA conditions in the lower-pressure G-League.

Let’s take a look at who needs to step up in his absence.