Outside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Aleksej Pokusevski has made the largest leap on the Oklahoma City Thunder so far this season.
Just how large of a leap? Well, he’s averaging career highs across the board both with his traditional stats and advanced metrics.
After being one of the worst and rawest players in the league his first two seasons, Pokusevski has suddenly developed into a lanky defender with elite blocking skills that is a threat from the outside.
On the season, Pokusevski is averaging 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists. After shooting 37.6 percent from the field and 28.5 percent from three in his first two seasons, Pokusevski is shooting 47 percent from the field and an eye-popping 39.4 percent from three on 3.3 attempts this season.
Pokusevski is also racking up blocks, averaging 1.6 a game. The 20-year-old is tied for 11th in the league in total blocks this season.
Among Thunder players, Pokusevski has collected the fifth-most win shares at 0.8 and is third in VORP at 0.2. Both of these mark as career highs for Pokusevski as he was in the negatives in each of these categories his first two seasons.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reasons as to why Pokusevski made such a drastic improvement. Perhaps after two NBA seasons, his skills and body are growing accustom to the game. Perhaps undergoing his first normal offseason of his career gave him the proper time needed to improve. Perhaps him averaging a career-low usage rate has helped simplify the game and make it to solely focus on his strengths.
Or maybe what we’re witnessing with Pokusevski is the normal career trajectory for someone who was viewed as a long-term project when he entered the league two years ago.
The wobbly clay dough Pokusevski was his rookie season is hardening in his third season.
Regardless of the reasons, if Pokusevski continues to play around this level for the rest of the season, it’s hard to argue against the Thunder extending him to a second contract this offseason.
Which would’ve been nearly impossible to fathom just two months ago! After a poor Summer League stint, it looked like Pokusevski was on his way out of the Thunder. To his credit, if he was ever going to turn it around, it needed to happen this season and that’s what’s happened so far.
The Thunder are notorious for not allowing young players they really like to hit restricted free agency. The Thunder will have a chance to avoid that this upcoming summer with Pokusevski as he’ll be eligible for a rookie extension.
With that said, what would a Pokusevski extension look like? It’s difficult to pan out because of the unique career arc Pokusevski has undergone. There’s really no precedent for contract extensions with players like Pokusevski.
With that said, I spoke with HoopsHype cap expert Yossi Gozlan to try to guess what a potential Poku extension would look like if the Thunder chooses to go that route.
Poku's agent background
Before we get started, I think it’s important to give a bit of background on Pokusevski’s agents — especially considering their surprising abilities to get their clients handsomely paid.
Pokusevski is represented by Wasserman’s Jason Ranne and Aleksander Raskovic. Going through their client list, it’s filled with international players.
Ranne and Raskovic represent the following players:
- Aleksej Pokusevski ($3.3 million salary — rookie contract)
- Bojan Bogdanovic ($19.5 million salary)
- Bogdan Bogdanovic ($18 million salary)
- Domantas Sabonis ($18.5 million salary)
- Clint Capela ($18.7 million salary)
- Bismack Biyombo ($2.9 million salary)
- Jalen Suggs ($6.9 million salary — rookie contract)
- Rui Hachimura ($6.3 million salary — rookie contract)
- Gorgui Dieng ($2.9 million salary)
- Ibou Badji ($18,226 — two-way contract)
Pokusevski is represented well as his agents do a good job at getting their client’s paid their value. While he won’t get a massive deal like the Bogdanovic’s, Sabonis or Capela, he should still receive an honest salary that reflects how much the Thunder value his future projection.
The Thunder have plenty of funds to give Pokusevski a proper extension that doesn’t shortchange him and only dents OKC’s pocketbooks. During the 2023-25 season — the first year of a potential Pokusevski extenstion — the Thunder only has $61 million tied up to their payroll.
So expecting a team-friendly deal — especially on a rookie extension — is unrealistic. Let’s get into the discussion with Gozlan.
What do you expect a potential Poku extension to look like if he continues to play like this?
“It’s very tough to project right now because Poku’s player type is still fairly novel to the league.
“‘Unicorns’ as in really tall players who have good mobility on and off the ball and on defense, can handle the ball decently, have passable three-point shooters, and have position versatility.
“Players who fit that description include Poku, Bol Bol, and Chris Boucher. So far a lot of these guys haven’t gotten paid yet, obviously the highest end of outcomes would be Kristaps Porzingis who got a max. If Boucher got $13M per year, I would guess that this is where Poku’s floor is this offseason in an extension.”
What are the realistic best-case scenarios for Poku individually and for the Thunder as a whole?
“Still too early in the season to know. If he can be consistent, maybe $18-20M per year could be at his highest end of outcomes. I don’t really think OKC is concerned with how much to pay him as long as he’s good.
“There’s still a lot of questions regarding Poku. What position does he project to mainly be? Which position is his best defensively? Is the three-point shooting this year for real or a fluke? I don’t think it’s a safe bet OKC is 100 percent sold on him being a part of their long-term future yet.”
The Thunder has done a nice job at collecting young talent. A good problem about that is it usually means having to decide on which players to keep. Will OKC think about its other young players during extension talks with Poku?
“I’m sure it’s on the table. This is a make-or-break year for Poku. But I think so far he’s done well enough to garner an extension of some sort.
“They only have one first-rounder this year so I don’t think there will be a roster crunch like this season.”
