A perplexing NBA mystery: can Aleksej Pokusevski become a star? / News - Basketnews.com

Aleksej Pokusevski's NBA career has been marked with ups and downs so far. Glimpses of immense talent are followed by episodes that are hard to explain to a regular viewer. The Serbian is in his second year in the NBA and has all the tools needed to become an elite player, but can he?

Aleksej Pokusevski

MIN:19.96PTS:7.46 (43.21%)REB:5.07As:2ST:0.64BL:0.59TO:1.46GM:59ProfileNBA2021/2022

Augustas Suliauskas from BasketNews takes a look at the Oklahoma City Thunder'stalent and analyzes whether Pokusevski has the potential of having an All-Star career ahead of him.

You can notice right off the bat that Pokusevski's elite size and wingspan are his biggest strengths at the moment. However, his thin frame is one of his limiting factors as well.

Long strides allow him to effectively use the euro step in the transition. That seems to be the Serbian's go-to move since he is not strong enough yet to take in some contact and wants to avoid it at any cost.

This has led to some insane levels of absurdity - a guy who can almost touch the rim while standing is missing an open dunk or an open layup.

Nobody can deny that the Serbian has an incredibly high upside. In order to grow as a player, you have to stay on the court. However, to stay on the court, you need to demonstrate something promising apart from your physical talents.

Pokusevski currently doesn't have a clear role on the floor. He was the 17th pick 2 years ago and came into the league described as a forward with a guard's skill set.

Playing as a guard is far from reality, though, as Poku lacks the speed to defend guards on switches and lacks the explosiveness to beat opponents one-on-one or dribble past them in closeout situations.

Aleksej missing open shots is the reason why he hasn't been successful playing at the 4, where he spent the biggest amount of his minutes so far. This isn't particularly beneficial for Pokusevski's playing time because with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey, OKC need 3-point shooters around their main duo to have good spacing.

Aleksej Pokusevski

Team:Oklahoma City ThunderPosition:SF, PFAge:20Height:214 cmWeight:94 kgBirth place:Belgrade, SerbiaProfileNewsStatistics

All in all, the Thunder seem to have found a way to use their European talent. They involved the 20-year-old in a play, which in Europe is more known as the Spanoulis play.

Spanoulis' play is perfect for Aleksey: he is not super quick, but the first screen and the handoff already create separation on the catch.

Using the play, Pokusevski can get inside the area easily and then make a good decision or a fancy pass. With the Serbian's size, great feel for the game, and the patience he shows once he gets inside the area, he can create advantageous situations for his teammates without much effort.

Poku's lack of strength and physicality in the paint proves costly against bigger opponents. He now falls into the category of those players who are "2 years away from being 2 years away".

Oklahoma is in full rebuild mode and can afford to wait, but Sam Presti has a plethora of draft picks that might be more worthy of playing time already next season.

If Pokusevski doesn't step up in the next couple of years, we might witness a similar story to Dragan Bender's, where an intriguing European talent comes back to Europe sooner than we could have expected.

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