Welcome back, Hoop Ballers, to our International Spotlight weekly feature where we will be taking a look at Serbian forward Aleksej Pokusevski, the international man of mystery who ended up with the Thunder after the 2020 NBA Draft and is making a name for himself in Oklahoma City as a jack-of-all-trades potential unicorn.

Basketball Running in Another Serbian Family

Pokusevski’s dad is a former professional basketball player and a coach while his older brother Onjegin is also a professional basketball player who struggled with injuries early in his career. The family had to move around due to the situation in former Yugoslavia, and Aleksej ended up with Greece’s Olympiacos’ youth academy in 2015 after having already shown glimpses of his potential. In 2017, scouts put him under their watch when he participated in the Jordan Brand Classic camp, while in the next year he played at the Basketball Without Borders Europe camp in Serbia before debuting for their senior Olympiacos team in 2019, at the age 17, becoming the youngest EuroLeague player in club history.

Poku was eventually a highly regarded name in scouting circles but outside of a small group of people, not many had the chance to watch him play as he participated in Division II of the Greek Basketball League, the same place where Giannis Antetokounmpo made his first steps on a basketball court. The Thunder were one of the teams really high on him during draft night and they showed no hesitation to trade for him and commit to bringing him stateside immediately.

Intriguing Skills

The scouting report for Poku is pretty much a blueprint on how to build a perfect two-way player for the modern NBA with a few asterisks due to his undeveloped body frame, which leaves him unable to post up, and a lack of competition at the highest levels. He’s a quick and long, clumsy-looking teenager with a fluid jump shot that is hard to block, a great playmaker and ball-handler with exceptional size (7’0”) that can create for himself and an excellent off-ball and help rim-protector who can also rebound and score in traffic.

In 41 games and 24 starts so far in his rookie season, Pokusevski has already hit a few milestones, becoming the youngest player to ever make seven triples in a game (still just 19 years old), which is also a Thunder record for a single game by a rookie, topping the mark of six held by four different players, while he recorded a career-high six blocks in a Thunder loss to the Raptors, eclipsing Serge Ibaka’s previous record of five blocked shots in his first year.

As expected, his game has looked out of control very often but he is still able to manufacture plenty of highlights mainly due to his ability to operate as a very fluid point-forward who can see the open lanes like only a handful of guys in the NBA today. Look at this possession where the Thunder almost commit the turnover before Poku drives to the basket and finds Moses Brown with an accurate pass below the rim.

The Importance of a Quick G League Trip

The Thunder didn’t hesitate to throw Pokusevski into the fire upon his arrival to the US, even though there was no Summer League and a limited training camp period before the start of the year. Regardless, he is a confident kid by nature but he struggled to find the balance of being aggressive and confident, but still investing in the offense and blending into the team while choosing his spots in his first month as an NBA player. The mental lapses were evident and the game looked too fast for Pokusevski, who had many ups and downs in the first 15 games of the season.

Teams obviously attacked him relentlessly in the low post where he looked very fragile and was unable to put a body on bigger and more experienced guys. Look at this mismatch where the Aaron Gordon is having a feast against the rookie, forcing him to commit the foul.

With the Thunder affiliate participating in the midseason G League bubble, Poku was sent down in order to get more playing time and slowly build his confidence back. He shot just 31 percent from the floor and 27 percent the from 3-point range in 13 G League games, while he recorded almost as many turnovers (48) as assists (52) but he showed progress in his first game back with the Thunder in more than a month, showing the necessary focus and the resilience that he lacked early in the year, mainly due to the organization giving him the freedom to run the offense and operate as their go-to-guy.

At this point, it’s quite obvious that the front office for the Thunder has been executing their franchise rebuild to perfection. Oklahoma City already has budding star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in place and the next step of their journey is to fill out the roster around him with competent role players and high-upside talents, a job that the organization has been working on the last couple seasons.

Darius Bazley and Lu Dort have been some exceptional finds by Sam Presti, while with 34 total picks, 17 of which could come in the first round, all the way through the year 2027, the Thunder could easily rebuild their team to become a contender in a few years. Still, the most important aspect of this process has been player development, with the Thunder already seeing the fruits of the labor by developing young guys like Isaiah Roby and Moses Brown, with Pokusevski becoming the epicenter of this strategy.

Point-Forward Prototype

The Thunder are a somewhat modern organization so there haven’t been many second thoughts about utilizing Poku as a point-forward, while the team is already committed to playing positionless basketball, and the league is moving towards that direction. Passing is the one special element that categorizes the Serbian forward as a potential unicorn since not many guys with his set of skills can create offense so easily.

With a crafty combination of deception and hesitation maneuvers, Poku has shown the ability of catching his defender off guard, allowing him to make his way past them to either look for his own shot or bring on a double-team where he can dish it to an open teammate. Look at this possession where he has a wide-open triple but decides to skip the shot and attract two defenders, leaving Lu Dort in the corner where he is able to find him with a laser. Tremendous!

Defenders have got to stay close to him due to his ability to shoot from anywhere on the court and that forces defenses to operate with very little room for error. Here is another play where Poku realizes the defense collapsing on him before the ball even arrives, swinging an almost no-look past to Isaiah Roby for the easy dunk.

The examples of frontcourt-built players who can handle the rock and pass range from Ben Simmons and Nikola Jokic to Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo, and it’s evident how drastic of a shift the league is taking when it comes to putting guys on the floor that have size and vision together. Poku has shown the ability to pass with both hands and is an already an above average passer so the experiment has been going well and it’s almost certain that the Thunder will continue to utilize his ball-handling skills in their offense going forward.

Areas of Concern

After getting heavily exposed to the NBA game in his rookie year, it’s really not difficult to identify the parts of Poku’s game that will have to be polished in the next few years. His percentages have been atrocious, both below 35 percent, but what is encouraging is that he is a solid free throw shooter and the Thunder have given him the green light to shoot it from anywhere in their effort to grow his confidence. In a year where the team is simply experimenting, it’s obvious that he is taking way more shooting opportunities than what a typical rookie is expected to be burdened with.

There are signs that he is adapting to the style of play and he is excellent at reading the court and identifying the right plays so we need to be patient and trust Oklahoma City’s plan to develop a winner. The following sequence is most characteristic of Poku’s ability to dominate on the offensive side of the ball, even though he often looks like he is completely out of control. The Hornets put Devonte’ Graham on him in a full court one-on-one pressure scheme but he is able to quickly blow past him with his ball handling only to run at full speed to the rim and miss the dunk while also committing the offensive foul.

Defense is also a major point of emphasis as he simply gets overpowered and is often forced to commit fouls in order to stop his opponents. OKC has been creative in their efforts to avoid mismatches and they have the right defensive-minded bodies like Lu Dort and Kenrich Williams to put next to Poku and provide help defense. On top of that, Pokusveski has shown that he is a very willing defender that can come from the weak side and protect the rim and he has already made plenty of winning plays so far this year. Here is poor Devonte’ Graham thinking he has an open drive to the basket only to see Poku block his shot from behind.

Fantasy Implications

Poku has already been a fantasy marvel this year with multiple games where he posted drool-worthy stat lines and the much-needed money-counters. His ability to make triples, rebound and block has put him on the fantasy radar and the upside is immense as long as he is able to limit his turnovers and stabilize his percentages. His per-36 stats wouldn’t make someone believe in his ability to improve but we have to take into consideration the fact that he is a teenager who was put in a position to be one of the primary offensive weapons on a young and rebuilding team. Therefore, I surely believe he can be a nice complementary piece who doesn’t have to launch so many shots on a night-to-night basis.

The Thunder look totally invested into him and even though the transition to the other side of the ocean has been anything but smooth he is primed to be a cornerstone of the franchise moving forward. A combination of miscellaneous injuries and Oklahoma City’s cautious approach to their guys have limited him to just 41 games this season so it’s unlikely that he has had much impact on your playoff squads but he is a player to hold on and target in dynasty leagues.

Sports Cards Corner

With all the recent madness about sports cards selling at all-time high (a LeBron James card was just sold for $5.2 million) I just wanted to also introduce you guys to the logic behind investing in a sports card. It’s so simple and it’s the same as fantasy basketball! You just target a player with a low ADP that you believe that will surpass his ADP later in his career. A perfect example was Darius Bazley, whose base

cards last year were selling for just a dollar but this year have skyrocketed to $20 due to his development. Can Poku be the next best thing and see his value jump next year? I believe!!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s article and feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @philysstar and stay up to date on all the breaking news and rumors posted on our website and on our Twitter account @HoopBallFantasy.

Stats are courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com and are accurate as of May 8^th.