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Here are full games of Poku he wears #2
https://youtu.be/vrME9utGq3w
https://youtu.be/i2FvqDCzBSI
https://youtu.be/v66p_YnWfxE
https://youtu.be/HNsin-o0Lpg
https://youtu.be/kpCyonwnY4s

Really love this pick. At this point in time in Thunder history we don't need role players, we need stars and if everything goes well for him he has all-star potential.

7footer with tremendous mobility, very smooth and coordinated. Very unselfish, excellent passer with flair and a high bball iq. Knows how to play the game extremely well offensively. To me the biggest things he needs to work on offensively is his shot to become more consistent. He is a good free throw shooter so the potential is there.

Defensively is very active anywhere near the ball and his wingspan makes it so he gets a lot of hands on the ball. Solid mobility but not great lateral quickness, would have a problem guarding quick twitch athletes out in space, nothing much he can improve there except getting stronger to help at the rim. He also gives up on defense more than I would like if he thinks he can't make a play, I'd like to see more hustle to be honest. But then again, he generally knows where to be and is a smart defender. Solid rotations and is a good weakside shot blocker, doesn't foul too much either.

Also love his confidence, a lot of tall lanky big men have confidence problems, not him.

Getting stronger without losing mobility, try a little harder on defense and improve his shot are my 3 biggest improvements he can make imo. I really think we have a very good role player or all-star depending on how hard he wants it.


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ThunderBolt wrote:

Read on Twitter

Looks like Russ dressed him.

Watched the game versus finland.

Defense:

- Closes out like a baby deer on stilts. Really, really bad in space.
- Loses track of his man when the ball goes up.
- He's going to block a lot of shots. Has a knack for it.
- Looks to deflect passes in the gaps and turn it into a fast break.

Offense:

- Brings the ball up a lot and does a really good job. When he rebounds, he immediately tries to start the break.
- Very, very good ball handler.
- Directs traffic. Always pointing and understands spacing.
- Doesn't look for his own shot, but when he shoots, he does so without hesitation.
- Also decisive in his passing. He's creative, but also makes the right pass most of the time.
- If he posted up at all, I missed it. He's a perimeter guy.

Overall-

- Questionable motor.
- When he gets bumped, he goes flying. He's as weak as you'd expect.
- He knows the game in a way that you can tell he enjoys it.
- Confident

So, uh, watched one of the two Serbia/Germany games, and, it was....bad.

Poku was completely disinterested in playing defense. His closeouts were similarly terrible to the first game. I have a hard time seeing how he could ever defend an NBA player on the perimeter. He's just slow and awkward in space. The rest of his defensive repertoire consisted of reaching and looking distracted. Offensively, he missed all of his shots, and some of them were pretty high school level bad shots. Couple of weird, off-balance turnarounds.

While he was on the court, his team was down 2-10. When he left the game, they went on a run and it was 27-28 when he came back in. His play was similarly terrible to his first stretch, ending with him driving to the basket, leaving his feet and throwing a pass to no one. His coach yelled at him and took him out, down 27-32. He didn't make a shot.

Poku didn't play the entire second half. His coach was clearly pissed. Serbia ended up winning.

The pointing I mentioned in the first post is really quite irritating when he's playing that bad.

Real bad game. Real bad.

jake_swivel wrote:So, uh, watched one of the two Serbia/Germany games, and, it was....bad.

Poku was completely disinterested in playing defense. His closeouts were similarly terrible to the first game. I have a hard time seeing how he could ever defend an NBA player on the perimeter. He's just slow and awkward in space. The rest of his defensive repertoire consisted of reaching and looking distracted. Offensively, he missed all of his shots, and some of them were pretty high school level bad shots. Couple of weird, off-balance turnarounds.

While he was on the court, his team was down 2-10. When he left the game, they went on a run and it was 27-28 when he came back in. His play was similarly terrible to his first stretch, ending with him driving to the basket, leaving his feet and throwing a pass to no one. His coach yelled at him took him out, down 27-32. He didn't make a shot.

Poku didn't play the entire second half. His coach was clearly pissed. Serbia ended up winning.

The pointing I mentioned in the first post is really quite irritating when he's playing that bad.

Real bad game. Real bad.

Well it’s probably best to not get too high or too low based on one game. However unlesshis game is much more nba ready than we realize, I’m kind of hoping he spends most of his time in the g league. It seems like he needs to learn good habits before he’s in the nba. The thunder have let their rookies play with the roster the past few years but they also had good veterans on the roster. I worry that giving too much freedom too quick could lead to bad habits. Maybe coach D can avoid that.

Lithuania/Serbia:

Poku had 5 first half TO's and 6 for the game. His defense is just really bad. If the offensive player does anything but drive the ball directly into him, he's toast. A pump fake and drive gets him literally every time and he can't recover because his momentum takes him out of the play.

The second half Serbia was down and Poku led them to a comeback. Hit 4 threes in the 4th quarter. For a 5 minute stretch he actually looked engaged on defense. He still wasn't any good at it, but it looked like he cared, which is different from the other two games I've seen from him.

He posted up at least 4 times that I saw. Had a sweet up and under on one of them. I'm not sure it would have worked if it wasn't a 6'5 Lithuanian guarding him, but it worked.

His motor is a real problem.

He's going to get torched on defense in the G-league. The dude I've seen so far would be the worst NBA defender of all time. That's not hyperbole.

I'm not seeing the games on youtube. Where are you finding them?

ThunderBolt wrote:I'm not seeing the games on youtube. Where are you finding them?

I’m watching the links from the first post in this thread.

Great Britain/Serbia:

First half is my favorite half of Poku so far. He scored more in the second half of the Lithuania game, but he was pretty well rounded while also being in control and not a total eyesore on defense. He wasn’t actually good on defense. I think the guys he was guarding weren’t good. He was off ball all half. He only had to close out once (guess what happened!).

But he hit a few buckets and had four or five assists. Some of them were great passes.

He was pretty much invisible the second half aside from a couple nice passes.

Finished with 12 and 10.

I didn’t realize how bad FIBA under 18 basketball was.

Every day I'm vesely, every day I'm vesely, every day I'm every day I'm every day I'm vesely.

Just realized it's actually Yi I was thinking of

jake_swivel wrote:Great Britain/Serbia:

First half is my favorite half of Poku so far. He scored more in the second half of the Lithuania game, but he was pretty well rounded while also being in control and not a total eyesore on defense. He wasn’t actually good on defense. I think the guys he was guarding weren’t good. He was off ball all half. He only had to close out once (guess what happened!).

But he hit a few buckets and had four or five assists. Some of them were great passes.

He was pretty much invisible the second half aside from a couple nice passes.

Finished with 12 and 10.

I didn’t realize how bad FIBA under 18 basketball was.

I just completed that game. I'm honestly not sure how to evaluate international games. He had some good passes finding the open guy out of a double team. He had a couple of bad ones too. He gets his shot off pretty quickly but sometimes it doesn't seem like he follows through. I kind of feel like nothing stood out for better or worse.

spearsy23 wrote:Just realized it's actually Yi I was thinking of

That makes more sense. Vessely was actually kind of athletic.

I was all for this pick draft night but this reads like a bust to me. The first poster noted that his lateral movement wasn’t good on defense, but it’s not just that. All of his movement is awkward unless he’s running straight ahead, and even that looks awkward because he doesn’t have the body control to stop.

He’s not playing more than 10 minutes a game next year. And I think he spends the majority of the year in the g-league.

My experience watching basketball starts at the college level, so maybe I just don’t understand how much better 17 year olds can get. But he’s just so uncoordinated in anything he does other than dribbling (including on the run), shooting uncontested jumpers, and blocking shots at the rim.

ThunderBolt wrote:I just completed that game. I'm honestly not sure how to evaluate international games. He had some good passes finding the open guy out of a double team. He had a couple of bad ones too. He gets his shot off pretty quickly but sometimes it doesn't seem like he follows through. I kind of feel like nothing stood out for better or worse.

Yup, I’m four games into the Poku-experience and when something stands out, it’s usually not good. I’d say it’s impressive how he handles the ball on the break. He has some pretty passes. Nothing else jumps off the page.

He says he grew since then. Which is good, except he's already awkward as hell. Can’t imagine that will help him on that front.

jake_swivel wrote:

ThunderBolt wrote:I just completed that game. I'm honestly not sure how to evaluate international games. He had some good passes finding the open guy out of a double team. He had a couple of bad ones too. He gets his shot off pretty quickly but sometimes it doesn't seem like he follows through. I kind of feel like nothing stood out for better or worse.

Yup, I’m four games into the Poku-experience and when something stands out, it’s usually not good. I’d say it’s impressive how he handles the ball on the break. He has some pretty passes. Nothing else jumps off the page.

He says he grew since then. Which is good, except he already is awkward as hell. Can’t imagine that will help him on that front.

You’re probably more down on him than me. I agree that he doesn’t look like Durant but I’m going to hold off on anything until I see him in person. I would probably be more skeptical if everyone out there was playing beautiful basketball besides him. It kind of looked like a pick up game at the Y at times.

I wouldn't be too down on this pick. The fact he's that height with some semblance of ball skills at that age while playing against grown men is a good omen.

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Also keep in mind that those fiba games were over a year ago. Kids improve a bunch when they are 17-18.

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Poku is also the youngest guy in the draft. The second youngest kid in the draft is Patrick Williams who went number four despite average stats and coming off the bench. Youth in itself isn’t any guarantee but we were watching a 17 year old kid.

there's a reason he went 17th and not 5th. this is a swing for the fences pick. i watched a couple games and saw all the things jake mentioned. you make a pick like this hoping you can coach / train the bad habits out of him while building on the unusual skillset. it's boom or bust.