The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Poku Era, it’s over.
On the same day that the Thunder team invited past Thunder players to return to OKC’s home court for a reunion at the annual “Thunder Legacy Night”, the four-year-old cooperation with Aleksej Pokusevski ended, perhaps just because of it. I need to think more about the coincidence, but when Xiaomei saw the news push late last night, Taiwan time, her first emotion was “It’s not surprising to buy out the contract, but to break up on the day of reunion?! How cruel”…
Since Poku was not sent away before the mid-season trade deadline, it may mean that he is currently unavailable in the player market, but the Thunder team still chose to buy out the contract before 3/1 US time instead of keeping him until the contract expires. Full, retaining the possibility that the team that signed him – if there is one and it is a team that can play in the playoffs – can take him into the playoffs.
In any case, Poku’s future has nothing to do with the Thunder for the time being, but as the first rookie of the Thunder to completely overthrow the reconstruction period, and as the Thunder’s “most famous” player in the past two to three seasons, Poku is definitely worth[Thunder]Under construction]A short review of this series! The following 10 pictures and 10 small-coin versions of “Poku Highlight” review the tall and thin forward who Thunder fans once had expectations and was regarded as a unicorn but has never really appeared – Aleksej Pokusevski.
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2020.11.20 | The first rookie to join the Thunder during their rebuilding era
Strictly speaking, it was the Minnesota Timberwolves who selected Poku with the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft, but on draft night there was news that the Thunder traded up to acquire Poku’s signing rights. The news came true two days later in the Thunder-Timberwolves-Knicks three-team trade, and Poku became the first rookie to join the Thunder in the rebuilding era. Also joining the team in the same draft was Theo Maledon, and now both players have left the Thunder.
Poku was at his home in Belgrade, Serbia, on draft night, with his family present and his girlfriend Joana, pictured here. By the way, this couple with the cutest height difference are still dating.
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2020.12.26 | First NBA game
The Thunder’s 2020-21 regular season begins in Charlotte on the road, which is also Poku’s first regular season appearance in the NBA. Most Thunder fans remember Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s winning long two jump shot before the game ended, but they probably don’t remember Poku’s debut performance at all: all 6 shots he took in the last 11 minutes of the game were three-pointers, and all of them missed. 0 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block.
That day was also Poku’s 19th birthday, at the time he was the youngest player in the league.
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2020.12.29 | First NBA goal
Three days after his NBA debut and in Game 3, Poku finally made a shot against the Orlando Magic at home.The first goal in his NBA career – a shot he didn’t make!
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2021.01.04 | First time missing a game due to injury
There may be many reasons for the end of the Poku Era, and “injury” is definitely one of the important reasons. The first time he missed a game due to injury was just at the beginning of 2021. Poku, who had only played 5 regular season games, was He was hit on the head during training and entered the concussion protection mechanism, which made him miss 1/4 and 1/6 of the games before returning to the team.
According to statistics, Poku is in 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23Missed 11 games due to injury in three seasons. Poku missed a lot because of injuries. That can’t be said to be his fault, but he can’t blame the team that can’t wait for him any longer.
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2021.02.03 | Decentralized G league for the first time
That was the first time Poku was transferred to the G league blue team for training. He did not return to the Thunder roster from 2/3 until 3/11. In total, Poku has played 28 games with the blue team in the past three years, averaging 7.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, with shooting range of 33%-23%-67%… You read that right, Poku is such a special player. He plays in G The results in the league can even be said to be more average than in the NBA XD
But from playing 13 games with the blue team in the 2020-21 season, 11 games in the 2021-22 season, and 4 games in the 2022-23 season, even if there is no chance to play in the NBA this season, the team no longer considers He was transferred to the blue team, which obviously means that he is no longer in the team’s development blueprint.
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2021.03.11 | First NBA start
Poku, who returned to the NBA from the G League, got his first starting opportunity in his career. He scored 14 points and 8 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks to help the Thunder win!
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2021.03.14 | First NBA game with 20 points and 10 rebounds
What’s even more amazing is that 3 days after his first start, Poku continued to start the game in a home game against the Memphis Grizzlies.Scored 23 points, 10 rebounds, and made 5 of 8 three-pointers.! According to Wikipedia records, Poku became the youngest player in NBA history to “20 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 three-pointers in a single game” XD
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2021.05.16 | Scored an NBA career-high 29 points in a single game
At the end of his rookie season, Poku, who returned from the G league, played with sub-optimal efficiency when the Thunder had no record expectations. Thunder fans can look forward to future performance, especially in the final game of the regular season against the Los Angeles Clippers. The team played nearly 41 minutes,Scored a career-high 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 of 9 three-pointers.。
2024-02-24 14:36:01
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