The age of the last 5 Spurs first rounders: 19, almost 23, 19, 19, 19. They’re drafting younger, for the most part. He fits that. They have a history of drafting Euros, including a young skilled big man with possible motor issues, from a low level European league last year. He fits that.
As for scouting him, the world is a different place this year than last. The Balkan Peninsula was a hot zone, much like our own country. Americans haven’t even been allowed into Europe for months. They could also have just been giving him the Kawhi treatment. They never interviewed or worked him out.
They also drafted 4 similar players between 6’4” and 6’6” in the first round in consecutive years. Drafting another tall Euro with perimeter skills in consecutive drafts wouldn’t even be a mild surprise for me.
I’ve put some thought into this.
"Scouts question desire. Basically just uses size/mobility/DESIRE to hunt for blocks to make plays around the basket"
Didn't want to also mark the contradiction between "flat footed" and "mobility" 'cause it would take away the fun from the most obvious literal contradiction, tbh.
I'm with you. On the second point, I think he's saying he's flat footed on the perimeter but around the basket he has mobility? Maybe someone should ask him about the first?"Scouts question desire. Basically just uses size/mobility/DESIRE to hunt for blocks to make plays around the basket"
Didn't want to also mark the contradiction between "flat footed" and "mobility" 'cause it would take away the fun from the most obvious literal contradiction, tbh.
Uh, PatWill is 19 as well, just to name an example - so why would age be a critical factor for Poku over other prospects? Not to mention they broke the mold with drafting White, who was much older, which I wouldn't gloss over - though I do agree they might be looking for prospects on the younger side. The drafting Euros is lazy, they've drafted European players in the past just as much as they've drafted American ones, they literally split 1/1 last year with Luka and Keldon and selected two American players in DJ and White in previous drafts. Again, no certain indicators for Poku specifically there, or any Euro for that matter. As for the scouting, I agree it's been obviously difficult, but then again, there hasn't been a single mention of Poku's name from anyone even close to the Spurs org - and of course you'll say they like to "keep it down", and I agree, but again there's no clear indicators in favor of Poku there.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to tear down Poku or anything, as a matter of fact I see things in him that are promising enough that if the Spurs pick him, I'd trust them to maximize his talents. But I still fail to see any non-biased indicators that the Spurs might pick him over other prospects; just like you could've made that age argument two seasons ago and be dead wrong when the Spurs drafted White, I don't really think they care about a prospect's age or place of origin as much if they truly think he's the BPA. At least not to the point where I'd try to draw future conclusions because of it.
Did you even read my post? When I listed the ages of the last 5 first rounders, White was the 23. He was actually 22, but turned 23 days later, so I rounded it up, No attempt was made to gloss over his age when picked, and in fact his inclusion kind of stands out like a sore thumb.
Poku fits in two separate groups, youth, and European. That’s called convergence, and it’s a signpost.
You can disagree. It’s your right. I’m just saying that this is the guy that I think the Spurs will pick if he’s on the board. That’s my call. Agree, disagree, whatever. Obviously, I’m not going to convince you, nor you me. Make your own call. I’d be interested to see who you think the Spurs will pick. Not who you want, but try to figure out who will be on the board, and who RC is likely to pick.
OK, since this guy seems to be a very polarizing figure I'm gonna provide my in depth scouting report of Pokusevski, after having seen every full game of his I could find in youtube.
PERSONAL INFO AND MEASUREMENTS
Name: Aleksej Pokusevski
Age: 18 years (Born on December 26, 2001 - barely elegible for the draft by a few days)
Height: 7'0'' (although there are rumours that he has already grown 1 or 2 more inches)
Weight: 201 lbs (also rumours that this has increased too)
Wingspan: 7'3''
Standing reach: 9'1''
STATS
Per game: 11 ppg - 8 rpg - 3 apg - 2 bpg - 1.3 spg - 40 FG% - 32 3PT% - 78 FT% - 23 mpg
Per 36 minutes: 17 ppg - 12 rbpg - 5 apg - 3 bpg - 2 spg
Advanced: 105.4 ORtg - 84.4 DRtg - 25 PER
STRENGHTS (in descending order)
1) Blocking: This is honestly the aspect of his game that surprised me the most. He looked like a prime Ibaka out there in the Greek second division league. Whenever he was in vacinity he either blocked the shot or altered it, very rarely did he get scored on. He gets blocks in all the varietes: chasing down a guy from behind, coming from the weak side, waiting as a rim protector in the paint, closing out shooters on the perimeter and, despite his lack of strenght, even when defending one on one on a guy that is trying to post him up. Besides his obvious advantage in length, Pokusevski displays deceptive leaping ability (specially from a standing still position) and just great position and feel for when going up for a block.
2) Ball handling and coordination: Pokusevski isn't just one of those folks that displays "good ballhandling skills for a bigman" ala Anthony Davis or Nikola Jokic. No, he displays good ball handling skills, period. He looks like a 7 foot Kyrie Irving out there, doing behind the back and between the legs dribbles effortlessly. Dude has the ball on a string.
3) Passing and vision: To go along with his ball handling abilities, Pokusevski has above average passing skills and court vision. He averaged 5 apg per 36 minutes on FIBA, where the assist keeping numbers are a lot less friendly than in the NBA. His assist to turnover ratio was 1.6 (again, would have been better with NBA style assist stat tracking). Very inventive and unafraid of making mistakes, both in the open field and in pick and roll situations.
4) Rebounding: Same as with blocking, his length and deceptive leaping ability allow him to get rebounds at a great rate. Will win contested rebounds by volleyballing the basketball among enemies' hands. Inconsistent boxing out.
5) Stealing: Length and feel for the game give him above average stealing skills. Agressive double teaming the ball carrier and takes gambles on passing lanes which, when it doesn't work, it leaves the team on a bad defensive postion.
The combination of blocking, rebounding and stealing skills earned him all-defensive team honours from the website Eurobasket.com.
6) Basketball IQ: Poku is definitely a thinker of the game. He's very vocal too. Despite being only 18 years old, and by far the youngest player on the squad, he was constantly seen directing traffic both on offense and defense.
WEAKNESSES (from worst to not so much)
1) Strength: Without a doubt, Pokusevski main concern. Still very young and will undoubtebly put on some more mass in a couple of years, but will it be enough to hang on the NBA? Not exactly the biggest of frames to fill up. Has narrow shoulders.
2) Finishing: For such a talented player, he misses an alarming amount of shots near the rim. Some of them are explained because of the lack of strength previously mentioned, but other times he just lacks touch.
3) One on one defense: On the tighter, less talented courts of the Green A2 league this didn't prove to be a major issue for Pokusevski, but on the NBA he will be seen as an easy prey both on the block with his lack of strength, and on the perimeter because, even though he has good overall mobility and coordination, he just doesn't put enough effort on bending those knees and moving laterally to stay with his man. Many times he would let the offensive player go past him so that he can then strip the ball from behind or block it at the rim. He won't be able to get away with that on the NBA.
4) Unforced errors: Make no mistake about it, Pop would lose years of his life dealing with some of the mistakes Pokusevski would make if he ever got to coach him. For a guy that displays such high basketball IQ most of the time, he commits quite his fair share of boneheaded plays. His two most common infractions: turning the ball over by looking for the flashy pass instead of the efficient one, and getting lost on defense trying to go for the home run play. Luckily these are easy fixes that will come with maturity.
5) FT rate: Dude just doesn't go enough to the line. Needs to learn how to use his body better when attacking the basket.
QUESTION MARKS/NEUTRAL ASPECTS
Shooting: Pokusevski displays a good enough form on his shot (aside from a weird leg movement he does from time to time) but still hasn't proved he can shoot at a high %. Despite shooting only 32% from three, he shoots a high volume on these (5 threes per game and 7 threes per 36 minutes. That's over half of his field goal attempts). Quick release. Will take threes from spot ups, off the dribble and even in catch and shoot situations coming off screens. This is an encouraging sign that paired with his already good FT shooting (78%) projects him as an average to above average shooter at the NBA level (his projected NBA 3pt% is 37%).
As a side note, not a very good off balance shooter. It seemed like everytime he was forced to take and off balance jumper he would front iron it in an ugly way.
Athleticism: Pretty much an average to slightly above athlete. Not overly fast, but not slow by any means. As already mentioned, deceptive leaping ability. Good coordination and mobility although not always makes the best use of them. And the aforementioned lack of strength.
Body language: Dude displays a weird body language sometimes. One play he's all over the court creating havoc and the next he looks like he's barely even trying. Despite playing with great energy most of the time, he can be often seen with his hands on his knees and his head at legs level searching for air. Might need to work on conditioning.
SO, SHOULD THE SPURS DRAFT THIS GUY?
It all depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a guy that can start contributing right away and who is less of a risk at never stepping foot on an NBA court, then you might be better off looking elswhere. However if you prefer to go for the home run and a shot at drafting your franchise player for the next 15 years, then Pokusevski is definitely your guy. I would even argue that his ceiling is higher than the top prospects in the draft. If the Spurs were drafting in the top 4, then the risk of drafting Poku might be too much, but at 11 I feel like they are at the perfect spot for taking a flyer on possibly the most talented player in the entire draft.
Last edited by DAF86; 08-29-2020 at 05:17 AM.
DAF86
"Height: 7'0'' (although there are rumours that he has already grown 1 or 2 more feet)"
LMFAO that's ing tall
lol I obviously tried to mean inches.
Yeah, of course I realized White was the 23, that's exactly why I said that taking things like prospects' ages and trying to predict future picks on that alone isn't very reliable, since White is an obvious contradiction to the "young, Euro" mold that you think the Spurs will abide to; and again, Dejounte, Lonnie, Keldon all fall out of the Euro mold, which I personally think is overplayed anyways and one of the remnants of the Big 3 era.
Agree to disagree it will be, that's fine. In my personal opinion, and even though I'm not super high on him, I see the Spurs picking PatWill - he's projected to be available, he's young, he's raw and looks like he could be molded into a solid player. High character, "Spurs-y" at ude from the stuff I've seen on him, no off-court drama, high IQ player. That's a lot of "convergence" like you called it. The other prospect I could see the Spurs taking is Hayes, for many of the same reasons, but I don't think he'll be available. And as for who I'd personally want them to take, that's Achiuwa, but for some reason I don't see the FO picking him even though he's projected to go at most #12-14 by most sites I've seen so far.
Thanks for the high quality content. I like Poku in the "go big or go home" sense of a pick, even though I personally wouldn't select him for the Spurs this year.
Basically says that he stat-hunts for blocks (which you apparently agree with if you say he looks like Ibaka, who was one of the most empty-calorie defensive bigs from the last decade). The "scouts" are saying the hard work of staying with a man on the perimeter is something he's not interested in. That's actually not that bad. If he CAN defend on perimeter but just has motivation issues, that can be fixed. If he lacks mobility and can't stay with folks away from the basket, then that wouldn't be fixable at all."Scouts question desire. Basically just uses size/mobility/DESIRE to hunt for blocks to make plays around the basket"
Didn't want to also mark the contradiction between "flat footed" and "mobility" 'cause it would take away the fun from the most obvious literal contradiction, tbh.
Well, damn, Ibaka surely didn't feel like an empty calories defensive presence on all those playoffs series vs the Spurs.
Nor is that what his defensive metrics or on/off numbers indicate, tbh.
I think you want to be really esoteric about evaluations in an attempt to ward away opposition. I don't mean that to be particularly offensive. There are definitely aspects to scouting that are about the eye-test, and that's something I pretty much don't really do when looking at prospects (I'll do it for actual Spurs when they're on the team, but not to project). That's why I'm not trying to contradict what you're actually saying about Poke. You're taking the time to do that, and I think that's valuable to the board and a commendable skill to want to hone. But that doesn't mean that I am going to agree with what you're saying about how evaluations are contextualized. Evaluation is supposed to be a holistic process, and you rely so much on "what you're seeing watching him play" to your own peril.
I actually have a point-by-point response in another tab. At this point, the amount of multi-quotes is beyond absurdity, but I can post it if you want. There are points I concede, points where I feel that I "got ya" and points where we just disagree (the usual). But we're like two months from the draft and there are other things to talk about.
To your second point, I think it's too vague. There could well have been players that came out of lower leagues and went undrafted or got drafted but never came over. That definitely happened with high-school players. But of the ones that were coveted (because players can come out without teams trying to draft them, and without lower-level domestic pro leagues, a lot of straight-from-HS players skipped college for the money), a good deal of them were at least rotation players who played for years.
His shot-blocking was pretty empty calories. He went for blocks at the expense of rebounding and would block shots that had little chance of going in at hit them out of bounds. He wasn't he worst defender in the league, but he wasn't Tyson Chandler.Well, damn, Ibaka surely didn't feel like an empty calories defensive presence on all those playoffs series vs the Spurs.
Nor is that what his defensive metrics or on/off numbers indicate, tbh.
EDIT:
Here is a source for some "advanced stats": https://www.bball-index.com/2013-14-impact-metrics/
It only goes bad to 13/14, and you can argue that Ibaka has his best year before that.
I finally got around to watching the whole game, and a few things stood out to me. First, Poku is playing SG on offense this entire game. He's the secondary ball-handler, the best passer by far, and almost exclusively a perimeter player. He's also usually positioned to be the first guy back on D for misses, to stop fast breaks. In the second half especially, I think his court vision and passing are spectacular. I agree about the freelancing on D, but it's hard to know what instructions he's been given by that coach. Generally he seems to be guarding forwards on D and playing SG in the offense. Interesting stats: For that FIBA U18 tournament, he was third in scoring on his team, but lead the team in all of the following categories: Efficiency, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. And honestly, most of the categories weren't even close.
http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u18/2019/team/Serbia
Last edited by R. DeMurre; 08-29-2020 at 02:07 AM.
I watched a vid where they said he shot like 26% in U18 but raised it to 32% in Greek league so they said should be a good 3 pointer not great like Bertans but good. They also commented that they asked him if he would change something about himself he commented “No I work hard am not lazy and will not tolerate lazy people around me”.
One thing that I like about the potential players we can pick they are all smart and look like they will be very professional basketball players. Poku, Prescious, Williams.
I'm getting more lukewarm on him.
Spurs couldn't figure out how to use a weapon like Bertans, and Bertans could actually make his shots. Sure, Poku passes incredibly at the lower levels, but Bertans was already a competent NBA passer for his position while in Europe. And he's an underrated passer still. But guys getting the ball in a player's hands to have the freedom to make plays is harder the bigger the player is. Would Poku get opportunities to be a playmaker even during his rookie deal?
I wonder how tall he'd be if he had a Keldon neck and not that Attack of the Clones he has now. Maybe right there with Bertans or close enough?
So what is Poku buy out I heard it was if he is drafted top 20 the buy out is 1 million is this true?
That's on Pop, tbh, not the player. Only thing he needed to do is give him minutes over the lesser players he preferred to play like Mills, Forbes, Belinelli and ing Cunningham.
Last edited by DAF86; 08-31-2020 at 08:02 AM.
As much as I like Davis, he isn’t Poku. Just because they’re both white and from Eastern Europe, doesn’t make them the same. Davis was not a shot blocker, competent rebounder, or high level playmaker. He had one real NBA skill, 3 point shooter.
I like this kid.
But that was a real NBA skill. Bertans was one of the best shooters in the world, at a time when guys is height weren't known for being good shooters. That was always going to get him a shot. Had he been drafted by a team that wanted to bring him over right away, Davis would've been able to play spot minutes right away. Poke doesn't have any NBA-level skills as far as we know. Objective was pointing out that bigger players don't tend to get perimeter play-making roles, and that's not simply because coaches are dumb. Biomechanically speaking, guards tend to be better at that. Poke has to show he has a floor game comparable if not better than the average NBA guard to get the ball in those situations. For Bertans, nothing about his shooting depended on level of compe ion, especially back in 2011 when the NBA used a lot more spot-up shooting to provide spacing.
Well, but that argument only strengthnes the fact that the Poku/Bertans comparisson isn't a good one since they are different type of players.
If Pokusevski doesn't make it on the NBA it won't be because he is similar to Bertans, it will be because his game just didn't translate. Actually, showing reservation regarding Poku by comparing him to Bertans is kinda strange, since Bertans is a perfectly fine NBA player, tbh.
I never said they were the same. I am saying that saying Bertans was basically "only a shooter" while Poke is a more complete player mischaracterizes their NBA prospects. Being one of the best shooters in the world will get you on an NBA team. Happened for Bertans. Happened for Neal. Happened for Forbes. It'll happen for Nesmith too if his foot isn't Anderson'd. That's a really safe projection unless there's something biomechanically ed up about the shot like with Jimmer. It shouldn't be thought of as an insult or easy to have one or two NBA skills, nor is it more desirable to have more skills but none as specialized. This isn't an anti-Poke thing. That's whatever at this point. It's just a rule for NBA players in general.
Changing subjects, watching Poku developing in Austin would be pretty fun, tbh. Depending how the San Antonio season goes, we might actually get more excited about G-league games than NBA ones.
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