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Another point to add to this: isn't the league he was playing in before he was drafted supposedly better than gleague compe ion? Or at least that's what I remember people saying pre-draft...
I wouldn't pay too much attention to how high Poku was picked. OC has so many picks to burn that it makes sense to use some on very high-risk gambles. I see him as a second-round flier taken in the first.
Another point to add to this: isn't the league he was playing in before he was drafted supposedly better than gleague compe ion? Or at least that's what I remember people saying pre-draft...
Two years away from the G-League it seems. The last one this far off was Bruno Caboclo.
can you imagine the anger on ST if the Spurs drafted this dude instead of Vassell
Wasn't that the guy that one of the announcers at the draft said was two years away from being two years away? I remember the comment (made me
Eh, I was one of the least-taken-in folks this side of Drew, but it was insane to expect him to come in and dominate the d-league. First, it's obviously a step up in compe ion. I don't think anyone thought it wasn't. Second, his skills weren't going to directly and immediately translate. Anyone who knew anything about basketball knew that. He needed to get his offense up to an NBA level before worrying about like his defense or strength. That doesn't and shouldn't mean he is going to be in the d-league for years. I expect him to keep getting big-club minutes after this Gubble business is over. It's just a way to get him a lot of minutes in a short period of time.
Yeah, it was about Bruno. Still some time away, it seems. But he's at least still hanging around and flashed some potential.Wasn't that the guy that one of the announcers at the draft said was two years away from being two years away? I remember the comment (made me
I could only find footage from his NBA play. Seems like whoever was gathering Poku footage gave up after he went to the gleague.
From these videos, his issues look to be:
1) soft on offense, would rather chuck ill-advised 3s
2) constantly being blown by guards on the perimeter
3) at ude? Yanking rebounds from his own teammates
Sure, he's not dominating the d league but that's not why I bumped this thread.
The problem is, he's not even doing "OK". This thread was bumped because he's doing -poorly-. It's a red flag and you know it.
I've seen quite q few games from Poku until he went to the G-league. His problems have bee all been on the offensive side of the ball. On defense he has been way better than expected. In fact, he's posting positive metrics on that side of the ball. That's pretty wild for a rookie bambi toothpick from overseas.
His problems on offense seem to be all confidence related. The role he's playing has something to do with it too. Here, for obvious reasons, he's not handling the ball as much as in Europe and when he does, he seems scared to up. He's not even looking to attack, that's why he chucks so many ill advised 3's, which results on his abismal FG%. You couod still see flashes of his potential here and there. I think the G-league will do wonders for him (if the Thunder develop him like the Spurs do). He needs to be given the ball on his hands with all the confidence in the world to up as much as he wants. Once he gets a good game and his confidence level rises he won't look back. According to most he was always a 3 years project anyways so it's not like he or the Thunder are in a hurry to make it work right away.
Dude...
It's not a red flag for anyone expecting it to take him years to develop. He's having the same production in the d-league as he is in the big league. So if he's looked fine up there, there's no reason to be worried that he didn't instantly look good (or okay). The Gubble is a weird situation, and he wouldn't be the first player to start his d-league experience off slowly. There's no way that you can simultaneously think he's two years away while also having a short fuse with his development.
Does that mean he's not going to be a bust or at least not the great player some folks assumed he be? Obviously not. He could well continue to look bad or give up and wash out or whatever. I'm not even defending the dude. I didn't push for PATFO to draft him or anything like that. But four games into the g-league in the most unstable season in NBA history isn't exactly a clear sample to judge a player's future.
It says a lot when you suddenly change your tune on developmental players when you wouldn't budge for Luka. Weird double standard, but okay. Also absurd to have no higher expectations for a player to raise his level of play against lesser compe ion.
No free throws in 300 minutes = unheard of
Developmental or not, playing poor in the g league and then panning out is rare. Name one decent prospect who followed a similar path.
I'm not burning the bridge to Poku ever being good. But to blatantly ignore poor play is preposterous to me.
Best case scenario: the thunder give up on him, the Spurs pick him up and develop him properly.
I might be talking out of my ass but I think I recall Dejounte not doing too hot in the G-league either to start off.
I "wouldn't budge"? I was hoping he'd be a starter before pre-season. My "anti-Samanic" takes aren't about whether he can be a good player. They're about a) Whether him eventually being a better player than Thybulle or Clark would necessarily mean he was a better pick than those would be and b) Whether it matters that his skill-set could've made him a top-five pick the next draft or whatever. I was NOT one of those people who jumped on him every chance I got. I famously wanted Clark. That didn't happen, so I want Samanic to succeed. I expected him to be a rotational player in his second year and am disappointed he's not. I think PATFO is or should also be disappointed. His skill-set would've made him a valuable member of the starting lineup. But they'll have to try again next year, and they shouldn't be afraid to draft a PF or sign a young one in free agency. Samanic shouldn't prevent the team from trying to fix that position.
Not really. It's not rare to have four poor games in a row. It's just not. It's self-evidently not. Stats for individual d-league games are disturbingly hard to find for prior years, so it's hard to see a breakdown of how players improved over their time there. But it definitely takes players games to get into the final form when they're clearly too good, and not all of them graduate beyond the d-league in one season. The dude is taking nine shots a game, which is insanely low for a featured prospect. That could mean that he's NOT the main focus of OKC's d-league team. (In fact, he's only sixth in FGA per game and eighth in FGA per minute on that squad.) It's hard to compare that to guys like Samanic, Walker and Murray, who were at least top-2 options on their squads. Maybe that IS an indictment on Poke's ability; maybe OKC is actually poor at running their d-league team as a developmental organization. Right now, Poke is really just sort of being there. I don't take anything from the Gubble games yet.Developmental or not, playing poor in the g league and then panning out is rare. Name one decent prospect who followed a similar path.
I'm not burning the bridge to Poku ever being good. But to blatantly ignore poor play is preposterous to me.
Eh, as I mentioned above, the d-league stats are crazy hard to get when trying to find individual games from the past. But from what I could see, most guys are able to score in the teens on meh efficiency pretty quickly. They just don't get to the point where they're threatening triple-doubles on the regular until later on.
It’s hard for college guys to transition to G League it’s even harder I would think for a foreign player to come over and play in G League. I am not sure if he is even fluent in English but as most said this guy is a Long Term Project not expecting anything good until year 3 to be honest.
Are you even paying attention to Thybulle? His numbers are almost as bad as Poku’s.
Everyone who liked Poku agreed he was at least two or three years away. I repeatedly said three.
Remember the guy many said was the most NBA ready player in the draft, the guy who would start and contribute immediately and be the odds-on favorite to win Rookie of the Year, Obi Toppin? He's currently averaging 4.9 ppg & 2.4 rpg for the Knicks.
He doesn't seem to be a good fit for this Spurs team. He may have more potential than glass cannon Bertans, but they are similar in providing the meat and gristle they'd need in bigger players.
For the 99999th time, no one is saying he isn't a few years away. Obi isn't shooting 20%, he has shot a free throw, and he's not doing that in the g league. This thread doesn't get bumped if Poku was averaging 1 ppg, 1 rpg, 1 apg on NBA minutes.
Poku had yet another horrid outing yesterday in the g league for the 5th consecutive time.
Last edited by Dejounte; 02-20-2021 at 08:44 AM.
The Thunder took a flier on him at 17, and if he pans out, it’s going to take a while. They can afford to wait and take risks because they have so many damn picks.
At least they didn’t take a combination of Dion Waiters & James Flight White with the first pick. Though the Wolves are on pace for another top pick ... oh wait, that’s going to the Warriors.
For the 100,000th time.... Ahh forget it. No one likes to read.
It only goes to the Warriors if it isn't top 3. They must be praying they win the lottery.
I finally have access to a computer.
Five games now. How far back do you need to go? G League stats go all the way back to 2007-2008. If you can't find a player since then, you're not going to find one at all. Whether he's the main focus or not, the dude isn't coming off the bench, he's a starter. He SHOULD be finding ways to contribute, but the reality is, he's not. He's being benched in g-league the same reason Kylor Kelley gets benched-- he is mismatched on defense and perimeter players take him to school. Again, it was popularly known that he was playing in the "big leagues" or professional league overseas, he should be looking like a NBA player in the *g-league* at the minimum.
To everyone else:
Iam
Merely addressing the fact that he is playing poor against g-league compe ion. Unheard of for successful NBA players, even for developmental players like Poku.
Last edited by Dejounte; 02-20-2021 at 11:07 AM.
Happy to hear it.
I'd say he looks like a decent NBA prospect in real NBA games. Sure, I do agree as more games pile up, fewer excuses will make sense. But I also don't think you're using the right methods for judging him. Poke is underdeveloped physically. D-league players are not. There are a huge number of players down there with legit NBA bodies and athleticism. It's not like college, where a lot of players are still growing. It's not NBA compe ion in terms of skills and intelligence, and there is a higher athletic average and ceiling in the big league. But I doubt OKC expected Poke to obviously outshine guys immediately in terms of production. The Thunder's Gubble team has a number of mature borderline NBA players on it as it is, and for some reason they are the ones eating at the top of the pecking order. It's a big deal when trying to evaluate his stats in comparison to guys on say, the Toros, who were featured players from jumpstreet.Five games now. How far back do you need to go? G League stats go all the way back to 2007-2008. If you can't find a player since then, you're not going to find one at all. Whether he's the main focus or not, the dude isn't coming off the bench, he's a starter. He SHOULD be finding ways to contribute, but the reality is, he's not. He's being benched in g-league the same reason Kylor Kelley gets benched-- he is mismatched on defense and perimeter players take him to school. Again, it was popularly known that he was playing in the "big leagues" or professional league overseas, he should be looking like a NBA player in the *g-league* at the minimum.
And again, it's not clear that the stats are as weird as you say. Any historic d-league stats that I've found are for whole seasons. Right now, the sample of Poke has isn't nearly big enough to fairly compare with guys who got to have a whole season of development there to bring up their averages.
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