End of Season Thunder Awards: Most Improved Player

Oklahoma City saw improvement across the roster this season, but none more than Aleksej Pokusevski.

The season wasn’t perfect for any Oklahoma City player, especially Aleksej Pokusevski, but the Thunder saw improvement across the board.

For Pokusevski, his improvements were enough to earn him the title of Most Improved Player for Oklahoma City this season.

Pokusevski, a second year hybrid, has long been a project in the making for Sam Presti. But this season he began to show why Presti took a shot with drafting him.

While his scoring went down from 8.2 points per game to 7.6 points per game, his efficiency and shooting was markedly improved.

His rookie season he shot 34.1% from the field, a disappointing mark for a young prospect, but this season he improved the number to 40.8%.

The number still leaves plenty of room for improvement as his career pushes forward, but shows the amount of progress he has made.

After playing just 45 games in his rookie season, Pokusevski played in 61 of the Thunder’s games with a short stint in the G-League in the middle.

Alonzo Adams / USA TODAY Sports

When Pokusevski was called back up to the Thunder, he began to play in larger roles, and the improvements were clear.

His shooting, rebounding and passing ability was a major part of the Thunder’s efforts at the back end of the season.

Pokusevski finished the year averaging 7.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, but the best of his play came at the end of the season when he began to crack the starting lineup.

His improvements started to show significantly in February through the end of the season.

Pokusevski played just one game in April, but with that game and his extensive play in March he played three games with less than 10 points in that stretch.

Pokusevski’s defensive ability also helped the Thunder down the stretch. While the Thunder still lost the majority of the games his development was on display on both ends of the court.

Pokusevski is a young prospect with a large amount of untapped talent at just 20-years-old, but he showed immense progress in his play this season. 

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