2021 OKC Blue Season Thread

[ThunderBolt]

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[jake_swivel]

Poku may be the worst player I've ever seen.

That was pretty much my thought when I initially watched his FIBA stuff. It's very, very strange that we could have scouted him and thought he was worth his draft position.

[jake_swivel]

Poku was 4/7 FG, 2/3 from 3, 4 boards, 6 assists, and a steal today in 28 minutes. Didn't watch, but it looks good.

Oh, and Moses Brown put up 26/17. Christ.

[ThunderBolt]

Poku was 4/7 FG, 2/3 from 3, 4 boards, 6 assists, and a steal today in 28 minutes. Didn't watch, but it looks good.

Oh, and Moses Brown put up 26/17. Christ.

It’s hard for me to evaluate g league performances. I didn’t watch this game. I watched their first game and Poku looked pretty bad. The only thing I feel confident about from what I’ve seen is that I like Kuminga a lot.

[ThunderBolt]

I want to believe. I want to be patient. I just can’t see it with Poku.

[jake_swivel]

I want to believe. I want to be patient. I just can’t see it with Poku.

21% fg% in the damn g-league.

Meanwhile Moses is averaging 20/15 58% fg%. And he sucks.

[ThunderBolt]

I want to believe. I want to be patient. I just can’t see it with Poku.

21% fg% in the damn g-league.

Meanwhile Moses is averaging 20/15 58% fg%. And he sucks.

He’s seven feet tall. Dunk it. Obviously jacking up long jumpers isn’t working.

I know Dirk had a pretty horrible first year but this is insane. This guy better be the hardest worker the thunder have ever drafted if he’s going to make it.

[jake_swivel]

He’s seven feet tall. Dunk it. Obviously jacking up long jumpers isn’t working.

I know Dirk had a pretty horrible first year but this is insane. This guy better be the hardest worker the thunder have ever drafted if he’s going to make it.

My biggest thing with poku is that he just doesn’t move well. He feels like a tall guy playing basketball, not a natural athlete. He has guard skills, but he doesn’t have guard agility. And the kind of agility you need to play on the perimeter in the nba isn’t something I see a lot of dudes develop after looking like he looks. Baby deer on stilts.

[ThunderBolt]

He’s seven feet tall. Dunk it. Obviously jacking up long jumpers isn’t working.

I know Dirk had a pretty horrible first year but this is insane. This guy better be the hardest worker the thunder have ever drafted if he’s going to make it.

My biggest thing with poku is that he just doesn’t move well. He feels like a tall guy playing basketball, not a natural athlete. He has guard skills, but he doesn’t have guard agility. And the kind of agility you need to play on the perimeter in the nba isn’t something I see a lot of dudes develop after looking like he looks. Baby deer on stilts.

I hopeful some of that is his hesitancy right now. He is obviously scared to death of contact since he has no free throws.

[Clav]

The Blue are really scrappy team. Wanna focus on 1st Round pick Poku -- looks like he's even adjusting to GLeague speed, but he's an odd player -- naturally instinctive - makes decent plays and passes -- he's just too light to play in post, but he's also not really coordinated when players defend him on a drive - he has to rely on this quick shot 3, it's ... fair..... Off ball he's actually pretty savvy because he makes the right pass and sets okay screens. He has been PF and SF this year

He needs strength, that's the baseline, and a little more comfort with the speed of the game.

Moses Brown putting up big numbers though, he's holding down the offense and rebs because the Blue seem to play him or Yurtseven as C

Antonius Cleveland looks pretty decent, but undersized. Some of these players need to sign themselves in EU bc they are skilled enough for sure. Frazier is alright, Yurtseven seems like a good C for 1998... the Gleague is a strange place - all of these guys are skilled in some way. but none on the Blue are not going to defend at an NBA level this year.

I watched the game where they just flat out gunned to an early lead and held it vs the lakeland magic. It was a good GLeague game, Defense obv suffers because these guys haven't really played with each other, but it was pretty apparent that OKC wanted to get that win and hold onto the lead. It's only a 15 game season for GLEague so every game really matters. Could be worth watching to see who is called up when trades happen after the season ends. Basically after March we will have a good idea who will come play with the Thunder on how they performed for the Blue. Back 2 Poku -- IMO kind of needs to string together games of 10p/5r/3a/3bl+st .... minimum... it's lesser competition and he's one of the tallest players that also has perimeter skills, more scoring and playmaking gotta show up. He is avg 5p/6r/4a/1.6 bl+st in 5 games so far, and not inspiring performances.


Poku games so far --
min fg 3pt ft +/- oreb dreb treb as pf st to bs ba pts
PF 23 2-10 1-3 0-0 29 1 8 9 1 0 0 3 1 1 5
PF 26 2-13 2-8 0-0 -5 2 7 9 5 5 2 7 2 0 6
SF 28 4-7 2-3 0-0 9 0 4 4 6 0 1 5 0 0 10
PF 20 0-7 0-3 0-0 -13 1 2 3 3 0 0 2 1 0 0
DNP
SF 25 3-5 0-1 1-1 -9 1 1 2 4 4 2 2 1 0 8


122 11-42 5-18 1-1 +11 4 22 26 19 9 5 19 4 1 29

19 turnovers vs 19 asts -- can't TO like this -- showed proclivity to TO in NBA too
29 pts on 42(43 w/ FTs))shots - not great at all
1 free throw in 122 minutes
Games like 20 MINUTES 0-for-7, -13, 2 TO 0PTS and 4 AST 3REB won't help his case as an NBA role player, he will be an EU role player at that rate.

[ThunderBolt]

Spoiler:

The Blue are really scrappy team. Wanna focus on 1st Round pick Poku -- looks like he's even adjusting to GLeague speed, but he's an odd player -- naturally instinctive - makes decent plays and passes -- he's just too light to play in post, but he's also not really coordinated when players defend him on a drive - he has to rely on this quick shot 3, it's ... fair..... Off ball he's actually pretty savvy because he makes the right pass and sets okay screens. He has been PF and SF this year

He needs strength, that's the baseline, and a little more comfort with the speed of the game.

Moses Brown putting up big numbers though, he's holding down the offense and rebs because the Blue seem to play him or Yurtseven as C

Antonius Cleveland looks pretty decent, but undersized. Some of these players need to sign themselves in EU bc they are skilled enough for sure. Frazier is alright, Yurtseven seems like a good C for 1998... the Gleague is a strange place - all of these guys are skilled in some way. but none on the Blue are not going to defend at an NBA level this year.

I watched the game where they just flat out gunned to an early lead and held it vs the lakeland magic. It was a good GLeague game, Defense obv suffers because these guys haven't really played with each other, but it was pretty apparent that OKC wanted to get that win and hold onto the lead. It's only a 15 game season for GLEague so every game really matters. Could be worth watching to see who is called up when trades happen after the season ends. Basically after March we will have a good idea who will come play with the Thunder on how they performed for the Blue. Back 2 Poku -- IMO kind of needs to string together games of 10p/5r/3a/3bl+st .... minimum... it's lesser competition and he's one of the tallest players that also has perimeter skills, more scoring and playmaking gotta show up. He is avg 5p/6r/4a/1.6 bl+st in 5 games so far, and not inspiring performances.


Poku games so far --
min fg 3pt ft +/- oreb dreb treb as pf st to bs ba pts
PF 23 2-10 1-3 0-0 29 1 8 9 1 0 0 3 1 1 5
PF 26 2-13 2-8 0-0 -5 2 7 9 5 5 2 7 2 0 6
SF 28 4-7 2-3 0-0 9 0 4 4 6 0 1 5 0 0 10
PF 20 0-7 0-3 0-0 -13 1 2 3 3 0 0 2 1 0 0
DNP
SF 25 3-5 0-1 1-1 -9 1 1 2 4 4 2 2 1 0 8


122 11-42 5-18 1-1 +11 4 22 26 19 9 5 19 4 1 29

19 turnovers vs 19 asts -- can't TO like this -- showed proclivity to TO in NBA too
29 pts on 42(43 w/ FTs))shots - not great at all
1 free throw in 122 minutes
Games like 20 MINUTES 0-for-7, -13, 2 TO 0PTS and 4 AST 3REB won't help his case as an NBA role player, he will be an EU role player at that rate.

I've given up seeing any consistent meaningful contribution for him this year. I think the best thing that can happen is his struggles light a fire under him for an offseason of hard work. The thunder seem to be heavily invested in their own picks, even to a fault some times, but that should bode well for his opportunities.

[thedoppelganger]

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The Blue’s twitter account has posted a few more of his highlights, but this has been far and away his best game so far + scoring in the paint

[ThunderBolt]

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The Blue’s twitter account has posted a few more of his highlights, but this has been far and away his best game so far + scoring in the paint

That’s encouraging. Of course there was also this.

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[jake_swivel]

By the way, the above play with him holding his hands up is one of the things that is super irritating about poku. He was trying to get his teammates attention to pass to the dude in the corner. He’s a know it all that sucks on defense, turns the ball over, and shoots 20%. He did that stuff in euro ball, too. Someone is gonna punch him some day.

[ThunderBolt]

By the way, the above play with him holding his hands up is one of the things that is super irritating about poku. He was trying to get his teammates attention to pass to the dude in the corner. He’s a know it all that sucks on defense, turns the ball over, and shoots 20%. He did that stuff in euro ball, too. Someone is gonna punch him some day.

I saw it differently. I thought he thought the guy was going to pull up and shoot a three and he was raising his arms to show the shot was good, like a referee does. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, hopefully he doesn't do it again.

[thedoppelganger]

By the way, the above play with him holding his hands up is one of the things that is super irritating about poku. He was trying to get his teammates attention to pass to the dude in the corner. He’s a know it all that sucks on defense, turns the ball over, and shoots 20%. He did that stuff in euro ball, too. Someone is gonna punch him some day.

I saw it differently. I thought he thought the guy was going to pull up and shoot a three and he was raising his arms to show the shot was good, like a referee does. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, hopefully he doesn't do it again.

The most bizarre thing is that when he’s on the bench he’s sitting down 99% of the time, doesn’t even get up to celebrate a big play usually. Just stays sitting down and claps. No idea why he was up for that play, but he really doesn’t have a grasp yet on American basketball culture/what you’re supposed to do as a teammate.

[thedoppelganger]

Poku with the completely intentional assist of the year

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[ThunderBolt]

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[thedoppelganger]

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The Blue are legitimately fun to watch, especially the starters. Surprising how good of chemistry they seem to have for only being together for around a month.

[retrobro90]

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This one was unquestionably intentional and he definitely tried to keep the above one in play too. Everyone here entitled to their opinion but it'd be nice to see more positivity about a 19 year old whose confidence and game are continuing to grow before our eyes. Kid has a chance to be one of our best players someday.