Aleksej Pokusevski, Oklahoma City’s project pick to end all project picks, is off to his best start. Although the stats may not seem like it.
At 20-years-old, Pokusevski has had a rough go in the NBA thus far. He’s looked out of sorts and, at times, out of place.
But just eight games into his third NBA season, things seemed to have slowed down for the Serbian 7-footer.
His stats won’t tell you the whole story: just 7.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game on 38 percent field goals and 27 percent three-point percentage. But Pokusevski has become a legitimate connector in the Thunder offense.
At 7-foot, he’s been able to take some legitimate defensive attention away from the rest of the Thunder crew, especially with the ability to space the floor, albeit inefficiently.
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After a rough start to the season, Pokusevski averaged 10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 46 percent from the field and 31 percent from three in his last four games prior to his shoulder flare up.
Most notably, he averaged 2.0 blocks per game in that span, functioning well as a roving rim protector.
Even more than his stats, Pokusevski looked noticeably more in control. At times, of course. There’s still spurs of mishap, but are often followed up with some net positive players or a quick benching.
Pokusevski has now sat two games with shoulder bursitis, but I for one am looking forward to more of the Pokusevski Experiment when he returns.
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