Q. You've mentioned a lot that your biggest improvement you wanted to make in the off-season was in your physical training gaining some strength. Do you think you were successful in doing that, and how much has that helped your game so far that you can tell anyway?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: Yeah, I think I made some improvements, so I can't wait for the season to start so I can see where I'm at. I can improve during the season, too. But this summer was great for me. I think I had a great -- I did a great job with the whole team behind me.
Q. Poku, what was your off-season plan like, and just because everyone said they had a different plan for you not playing the Summer League, focusing on sort of your body and improving there, what was the summer like for you?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: It was just a lot of practice, and you mentioned not playing the Summer League. They decided because they told me they want me to work on my body, and we couldn't do that if I wanted to play in the Summer League, we had like great two and a half months, I think, of work in the weight room. I improved there for sure. I have seen some improvement, but as I said, I want to see what I can do in the season.
Q. Do you know how much weight you put on from where you were?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: I'm not sure. I put on -- I'm not sure how much, but I think the most important thing is just to get stronger so I can still move, so I can still play my game, but just get into the contact and play stronger.
Q. What has your diet been like? Have you been encouraged to eat as much as you want or as much as you can?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: Just eating the right food but just eating as much as I can. Practicing right, eating the right foods, sleeping right, I think all those things can make you better and improve what you want.
Q. What does that look like as far as how many meals per day?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: I think like -- since I was 10, 11, everybody told me that I'm eating like all day, so I have a lot of meals during the day.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Mark because obviously his first year a year ago as a head coach in the NBA was also your first year. I'm just wondering, it seemed like he was able to really build chemistry with you guys as players. How was he able to do that, and if that's true, if you believe that, how did you see him developing that connection with you guys?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: He's trying to get close with each player. We're getting closer as a coach and a player. But he's trying to make us as a team play together and stay together, not just on the court but off the court, also. Just talk to each other, and we are all the same. Not just players, but everyone in the Thunder. We are all the same. We've just got to have respect for everybody, and that's what we learned last year.
It was a tough season, but we stayed together.
Q. Now that you've gone through a season, how much does that help you know what to expect? This time last year everything was new to you, new country, NBA. How will that help you out this season?
ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI: Last year I didn't have any of this like media day, camp, whatever. Just playing through the whole season, going to the G-League and playing after the All-Star break, playing in the first five, starting five, and a lot of minutes, it helped me a lot to understand the game and everything slowed down for me.
So I'm excited about the next year because I don't have to worry about what's going to -- I know what to expect, so I don't have to worry about that. I've just got to play. I was working the whole summer for the next season, so I expect some things to happen, but we've got to play together as a team and everything else is going to come.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports