Thunder Exercise Options on Bazley, Jerome and Pokusevski
The Oklahoma City Thunder have exercised the contract options for the 2022-23 season on forwards Darius Bazley and Aleksej Pokusevski, as well as guard Ty Jerome.
The announcement was made on Monday by general manager Sam Presti.
All decently important cogs in the Oklahoma City rebuild, Bazley and Pokusevski have both been high upside projects, with Jerome providing valuable scoring and efficiency off the bench.
Bazley has played in 119 games for the Thunder, starting in 67, He’s averaged 9.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 24 minutes per game.
Bazley has started in all three contests of the 2021-22 season, averaging 9.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 block per game.
Pokusevski, who’s had a rollercoaster type tenure with the team, spent some of his first season with the Oklahoma City Blue before finishing the season off with the Thunder.
Pokusevski is averaging 7.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 48 NBA contests.
Pokusevski has averaged just 12 minutes in his three 2021-22 contests, averaging 4.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
Ty Jerome hasn’t seen much run in the latest season, but was arguably OKC’s best shooter last season, scoring 10.7 points per game while shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc.
Jerome has yet to crack the rotation this season, seeing just 15 minutes of action in one blowout loss.
Oklahoma City now looks to back-to-back home matchups in Paycom Center versus Golden State and Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday.
