The Thunder are trying to avoid throwing their rookies into the fire the way so many other tanking teams often do and often fail at.
The Phoenix Suns didn’t have anything to show for the effort when they did this with Josh Jackson, Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender. The Cleveland Cavaliers have won 19 games both seasons since drafting Collin Sexton. The Chicago Bulls are still hoping youngsters Lauri Markkannen, Zach LaVine and Coby White take the leap and propel them forward.
These examples aren’t written with the intention of putting blame on the players. This is the failure of the teams to not provide the proper veterans for on-court leadership.
Many tanking teams want the young prospects to be the primary players immediately. It takes truly special talent for that to work. Heck, All-NBA-level players Kyrie Irving and Karl-Anthony Towns weren’t able to get their teams into the playoffs in their early days without veteran help in the forms of LeBron James and Jimmy Butler, respectively.
The Thunder, though, already have their main core: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort and Darius Bazley. They have veterans who will be main pieces, George Hill and Al Horford, unless they are traded.
This is a long-winded way of saying No. 17 pick Aleksej Pokusevski and No. 34 pick Theo Maledon will not have pressure to lead a team out of the gate. That is a good thing.
So what will their roles be? Pokusevski looked confident in the preseason, not afraid to shoot and to take on a ball handling role (which at times worked well and at times did not at all). Theo Maledon showed poise and sharp skills like getting his defender on his back or hip similarly to what he did in the pro French league.
When asked about Pokusevski’s preseason performances, head coach Mark Daigneault said in part:
“At end of day, what he does on the court right now is irrelevant as it compares to how well he internalizes those experiences and how much he can take the experiences and improve for the next time out.”
That’s more applicable to the preseason than the regular season, but that mindset may remain over the course of the year. How much Pokusevski and Maledon learn and improve behind-the-scenes is more important than them trying to take the mantle.
So, how will they play? There are a few trajectories they could take.
Pokusevski looks extremely raw coming out of the second-division Greek league. He needs to put on weight, hone his ballhandling and learn the NBA systems and verbiage. If Daigneault and the coaching staff are successful in finding and developing the areas he’s good at now, he can be productive this year.
Maledon, with professional experience, needs to either learn the NBA or prove he doesn’t need to change his tendencies and show his style can flummox opponents. There’s a non-zero chance the 19-year-old, once viewed as a lottery prospect, plays well enough that the Thunder are intrigued enough to insert him into the starting lineup should Hill be traded at the deadline.
If those two improve enough to have an established role heading into next season, this year can be deemed a success. Ideally, they’ll get consistent minutes this year. That goal doesn’t seem far-fetched.
They’ll get plenty of opportunities this year to show they deserve a rotation spot. Luckily, they will not have to be the focal point of the team in 2021.
This is the second of a three-article series heading into the Thunder’s 2020-21 season.