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Pokumon wrote:
Thanks for the welcome! Poku is my favorite player but I will try to be objective!

Glad to have some international fans on the board. Most of the Adams fans have disappeared over the last couple of years. We had a few with Sabonis but that was short lived.

Pokumon wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:

Pokumon wrote:Does he have a skillet?

Elite ball handling for his size. Elite passing for his size. High level 3pt shooting off movement for his size. Elite shot blocking.

When you have to qualify every statement with 'for his size' it's a red flag. Especially for a guy who can't do the things a normal guy 'his size' is expected to.

Its not a red flag if he's actually that size. Which he is. What was shaq's skillset, if you ignore "for that size"? Or Prinzingis or any big man.

Shaq had an excellent post game with great touch and insane athleticism.

Judging from poku's highlights and stats, and again I'm definitely no expert on him by any means this is just quick impressions, but he definitely doesn't have an elite handle. He's a good straight line guy with the ability to grab and go. He isn't a great shooter, he's an okay three point shooter with no ability inside the arc. His passing is good, but nothing advanced and has limited usefulness unless his handle gets a lot better and he gets a lot stronger. And I'm not buying the shot blocking until I can see it against guys who aren't plain bad competition. 7 footers are going to block shots against those guys always.

He has no nba base at this point in time. When a guy has to improve literally every aspect of his game AND his body it's a real uphill climb.

spearsy23 wrote:Shaq had an excellent post game with great touch and insane athleticism.

Judging from poku's highlights and stats, and again I'm definitely no expert on him by any means this is just quick impressions, but he definitely doesn't have an elite handle. He's a good straight line guy with the ability to grab and go.

Shaq only had elite touch and athleticism for his size

I don’t think you can discount how good someone’s skill set for their size. Size is really important.

I don’t think it’s fair to say Poku is a straight line guy. He actually does have pretty good wiggle and is very creative with his ball handling. Too creative sometimes, although I think some of the turnovers he had in fiba wouldn’t be turnovers if he had better players to catch his more difficult passes.

I really think everything in regards to his skill set is moot if he can’t stay on the floor due to being a god awful defender and I think that has more to do with his terrible body control than bad mechanics/knowledge/motor which I’m not optimistic about him being able to improve by the end of his first contract, if ever.

I don't know what he'll amount to, probably nothing most of them amount to nothing, but if you all have watched any of these clips of this guy and haven't been immediately impressed given his age and yes given his size, I think you should check your priors.

Go watch all the college basketball you can this season. Take note of how many dudes 6'10" and above have any handle and face up game at all. Further more, how many are true freshmen, 18 years old.

I think you'll conclude that this kid would probably be a standout on all teams outside of Duke and Kentucky. If you're building off this as a foundation, yes he's got a long ways to go, but he's got a pretty large headstart at this point over all but only the most elite level prospects as of right now.

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Old Man Game wrote:I don't know what he'll amount to, probably nothing most of them amount to nothing, but if you all have watched any of these clips of this guy and haven't been immediately impressed given his age and yes given his size, I think you should check your priors.

Go watch all the college basketball you can this season. Take note of how many dudes 6'10" and above have any handle and face up game at all. Further more, how many are true freshmen, 18 years old.

I think you'll conclude that this kid would probably be a standout on all teams outside of Duke and Kentucky. If you're building off this as a foundation, yes he's got a long ways to go, but he's got a pretty large headstart at this point over all but only the most elite level prospects as of right now.

That was my impression from watching highlights as well, but when I watched full games it became obvious that there was more to the story as is often the case with highlights. I think he’d have trouble staying on the floor in any of the big 5 conferences. His defense is really, really bad and it’s not like he makes up for it by scoring the ball at a high rate. He’s also one of those guys who disappears on offense for long stretches.

I’m tellin ya, he’s going to be really annoying to watch play, at least at first.

Additionally, I think his attitude is going to rub people the wrong way. He corrects his teammates when they mess up despite him not being flawless in decision-making. He shows his frustration when they screw up sometimes really demonstrably. And he whines at the officials a bunch as well.

I want him to succeed but found myself kinda wanting to give him a wedgie, too.

I really think we need to be patient and not make too much of the very limited film we have.

Poku saying bye to his team. He switches to English halfway:

ThunderBolt wrote:I really think we need to be patient and not make too much of the very limited film we have.

You’re totally right, of course, but combing over details from the nba draft equivalent of the zapruder film is part of the fun of being a fan of a rebuilding team with few high level prospects.

jake_swivel wrote:

ThunderBolt wrote:I really think we need to be patient and not make too much of the very limited film we have.

You’re totally right, of course, but combing over details from the nba draft equivalent of the zapruder film is part of the fun of being a fan of a rebuilding team with few high level prospects.

I agree and I love the discussion. I’m probably irrationally optimistic for rookies at the beginning.

spearsy23 wrote:

Pokumon wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:When you have to qualify every statement with 'for his size' it's a red flag. Especially for a guy who can't do the things a normal guy 'his size' is expected to.

Its not a red flag if he's actually that size. Which he is. What was shaq's skillset, if you ignore "for that size"? Or Prinzingis or any big man.

Shaq had an excellent post game with great touch and insane athleticism.

For his size!

jake_swivel wrote:Poku saying bye to his team. He switches to English halfway:

Watch on YouTube

Vassilis Spanoulis and Papanikolaou! Hoping Poku has a better nba career than them...

jake_swivel wrote:That was my impression from watching highlights as well, but when I watched full games it became obvious that there was more to the story as is often the case with highlights. I think he’d have trouble staying on the floor in any of the big 5 conferences. His defense is really, really bad and it’s not like he makes up for it by scoring the ball at a high rate. He’s also one of those guys who disappears on offense for long stretches.

I'll defer to you having put the time in to watch whole games. I'd just ask you to consider what someone, even a halfway decent player like Yor Anei, would have looked like against that competition and playing that role. Some of these guys in college are just really bad, especially the project big men that get playing time at the non-blue blood schools.

jake_swivel wrote:Poku saying bye to his team. He switches to English halfway:

Watch on YouTube

That’s one really un-athletic looking team.

/photo/1

ThunderBolt wrote:

Read on Twitter

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First Thunder since Adams to wear the same number as his draft spot.

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Pokumon wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:

Pokumon wrote:

Its not a red flag if he's actually that size. Which he is. What was shaq's skillset, if you ignore "for that size"? Or Prinzingis or any big man.

Shaq had an excellent post game with great touch and insane athleticism.

For his size!

Uh, no. Nice try, but shaq's athleticism was elite at any size, and having an excellent post game 'at his size' would just be an excellent post game...

Pokusevski has an excellent ball handling for that height , its not just him bringing the ball to the other half of the court , but there is a more serious issue with him than improving his basketball skills and thats him being so physically weak , that he wasn't able to dominate even against his peers at FIBA European Championship last year , I hope Thunder can somehow fix him and make him ready for NBA action.

spearsy23 wrote:

Pokumon wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:Shaq had an excellent post game with great touch and insane athleticism.

For his size!

Uh, no. Nice try, but shaq's athleticism was elite at any size, and having an excellent post game 'at his size' would just be an excellent post game...

This is a difficult thought experiment you all are engaging in here. Part of what made Shaq's athleticism so impressive was just seeing a guy that big move like that, jump that high etc. Would it have seemed impressive if he'd been 6'5"? Objectively compared to other human beings, yes. Compared to numerous other NBA wings though? Seems unlikely.




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Old Man Game wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:

Pokumon wrote:
For his size!

Uh, no. Nice try, but shaq's athleticism was elite at any size, and having an excellent post game 'at his size' would just be an excellent post game...

This is a difficult thought experiment you all are engaging in here. Part of what made Shaq's athleticism so impressive was just seeing a guy that big move like that, jump that high etc. Would it have seemed impressive if he'd been 6'5"? Objectively compared to other human beings, yes. Compared to numerous other NBA wings though? Seems unlikely.




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Strength is part of athleticism.

spearsy23 wrote:

Old Man Game wrote:

spearsy23 wrote:Uh, no. Nice try, but shaq's athleticism was elite at any size, and having an excellent post game 'at his size' would just be an excellent post game...

This is a difficult thought experiment you all are engaging in here. Part of what made Shaq's athleticism so impressive was just seeing a guy that big move like that, jump that high etc. Would it have seemed impressive if he'd been 6'5"? Objectively compared to other human beings, yes. Compared to numerous other NBA wings though? Seems unlikely.




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Strength is part of athleticism.

Okay, sure. How strong would alternate universe 6'5" Shaq have been? It's unknowable which is why this seems like a difficult question to me.

Re: Poku, he seems especially frail, and lacking in explosiveness in several off these clips I've seen which is what is concerning. Like athletically he may not even be an average athlete. His height will make up for some of that. How much is the question.

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