Sam Presti tabs Aleksej Pokusevski as a great underdog

Are you ready for some Poku ball?! Aleksej Pokusevski is one of the most polarizing players on the Oklahoma City Thunder roster. Sam Presti fell in love with Pokusevski during the 2020 NBA Draft, with the secret getting out to the point the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves leveraged that knowledge to force Presti into a trade-up for his prized project prospect.

Despite entering his third NBA season, this is the first true offseason for Pokusevski. Not only in length, but participating in NBA Summer League for the first time, and having an elongated summer to train and develop.

While Aleksej Pokusevski has seen improvement each of his first two years, some fans are ready to end the experiment with the 7’0 ball handling forward that is still just 20 years old. The idea of Pokusevski being able to dribble, pass, work the pick and roll, and eventually shoot at his size with his already solid help side defense is very appealing but how much runway does the Serbian big man get?

Sam Presti calls Aleksej Pokusevski a great “underdog” while mentioning the former first-round pick had a great summer in the gym

Today Sam Presti met with those of us in the media for two hours, the conversation eventually reached Aleksej Pokusevski as he enters year three, a few days away from Media Day with training camp opening on September 27th.

Presti said of Aleksej Pokusevski “He is a great underdog. He has had every opportunity to fold, and he hasn’t done that. I think he has had a good summer. Development is a process and not an event.” 

Through 106 games, Pokusevski has been under the microscope. From his 40 career starts to his G-League stints, and even falling out of the rotation at times. The 17th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft does deserve the context around his career to be explained before making any sweeping judgments.

Not only was he drafted in November and playing regular season NBA games in December, and having such a short offseason a year ago OKC could not justify having him develop in the weight room and play in the Summer League, and is just now finishing his first true summer in the NBA, many projected he wouldn’t even be brought over to the Association until this season.

The franchise dove head first into giving him playing time instead of stashing him overseas, and he was forced to make the jump from the second division in Greece to the best basketball league in the world under those aforementioned circumstances.

With more experience, the hiring of Chip Engelland as the Thunder shooting coach, and better talent around him, there is optimism this can be a breakout season for Pokusevski. He already plays a great help defender role, but has to get something clicking on the offensive end.

Last year, despite his overall struggles, his rim finishing still jump over 10 percent, mid-range improved by one percent, and corner three-point percentage rose by five percent.

As the season draws near are you all in, or all out, on the underdog Aleksej Pokusevski?