Report: Hornets expected to sign Aleksej Pokusevski

Report: Hornets expected to sign Aleksej Pokusevski

Days after getting waived by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Charlotte Hornets are expected to sign forward Aleksej Pokusevski, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report Tuesday.

The Charlotte Hornets are expected to sign F Aleksej Pokusevski, sources tell ESPN. The Oklahoma City Thunder waived him this week. Pokusevski was the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 27, 2024

The official terms of his contract have yet to be disclosed. As of the time of this publishing, the Hornets already have a full 15-man roster (per Spotrac) with all three of their two-way spots (Amari Bailey, Leaky Black, Nathan Mensah) occupied. Though one of their 15 players on a standard contract–Marques Bolden–is on a 10-day contract, which is set to expire this week.

Assuming a deal is finalized Friday, the most the Hornets can offer him via the minimum is approximately $541K with a cap hit of ~$522K. They could also offer him their full prorated non-taxpayer mid-level or biannual exceptions if wants to.

Thunder waive Aleksej Pokusevski

Once again, I am surprised the Thunder did not move Pokusevski in the Gordon Hayward trade ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Perhaps the Thunder weren’t going to extract an extra second-round pick from Charlotte, but OKC was already quick to sign Bismack Biyombo for the rest of the season anyway.

General manager Sam Presti is one to capitalize on asset management, so I was surprised, even though it would’ve likely yielded a modest return.

Pokusevski was the second top-20 pick of the 2020 Draft who was cut ahead of the deadline–the other being Killian Hayes, who was recently waived by the Detroit Pistons. 

Pokusevski had a hard time staying on the court due to myriad injuries, even though he offered an enticing skillset for a 7-footer. He logged 150 career games, averaging 7.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and a pair of assists on 38.7 percent shooting and 29.9 percent from 3-point range. 

He only appeared in 60 minutes with the Thunder. Now, he will have a chance to build back up some value on one of the worst teams in the East looking for any semblance of contributors. 

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