During his preseason media availability, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti spoke highly of Aleksej Pokusevski, who is set to enter his critical third season.
The Pokusevski praise was unprompted: Presti was asked about developmental markers for Ousmane Dieng and Jalen Williams.
“Everybody has a different developmental track and needs to be stimulated different ways. I think Poku is a really good example in general because, when he arrived, he was one of the youngest players in the league. The second year he was still one of the youngest players in the league. He was coming from a place in Europe where he wasn’t, like, in a basketball infrastructure, you know what I mean? He wasn’t coming through the — where he was playing, second division Greece, he was behind a little bit, more so than other players that were coming from Europe. So that’s his starting point.
“His trajectory, he’s had two positive years from where he started from. Now, he’s had a lot of volatility in those years. But if you look at it from the balance from where he started — and he had no summer league the first year. The first year at the end of the season, when he came back from the bubble, definite positive. Last year, same thing. By the end of the season, positive.
“I think he’s going to have the same positive trajectory partly because this is a guy — and, again, he’s a great underdog in a lot of ways. He was the youngest. He has obviously like physically he was behind a little bit. He’s had every opportunity to kind of fold, and he hadn’t done that. He’s better. I think he’s had a good summer.
“Now, the minutes will be harder to come by because the team has improved, but I think you have to have an understanding that development is a process and not an event. It’s not something that you can judge day to day. That’s why I think, if you looked at certain points of Poku’s season last year, you would have been like, geez, this is rough. And then there would be other nights where he’d be — by the end of the year, he’s really improved.
“You just have to wait and let it play out. I’m not asking anyone else to do that. I’m not saying to try to take the fun out of it, but objective, rational, thoughtful, historical, that generally helps drain the emotion out of just judging every single thing on the merits. I just think that it’s hard to do that. With development.”
The fact that Presti went out of his way to talk about Pokusevski despite not being asked about him during his two-hour-long presser shows he might be higher on the 20-year-old than most.
If Pokusevski is ever going to put it together, this season would be ideal. Doing so could help the Thunder decide if he’s worth a contract extension next summer. In two seasons, Pokusevski has averaged 7.8 points, five rebounds and 2.2 assists on 37.6% shooting and 28.9% 3-point shooting.
