By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net*
Until the late ‘80s the road for any European player to the NBA was almost closed. Any talent from our continent had a hard time in the NBA draft even by the time that Dirk Nowitzki proved that there are diamonds overseas (read the excellent analysis on the matter by Grantland). Still, all these years a lot of players had the chance to live the NBA dream, but for the first time a European team has to chance to see three of its players to be among the 60 players of the draft.
Vasilije Micic, Nemanja Dangubic and Nikola Jokic come from Serbia and played with Mega Vizura. According to the mock drafts all three of them are among the 2nd round picks and ready to make history. Eurohoops tried to discover who is each one of them and to presents them to you with the help of their coach, Dejan Milojevic, and many other people who watched them play.
Micic: “The biggest prospect”
The most known player is Vasilje Micic who talked on Eurohoops some days earlier about his dream to play under Dusan Ivkovic in Efes Anadolu. Furthermore, the 20-year-old commented about comparisons about him: “It sounds good to be compared with Papaloukas, but my favorite player is Diamantidis and Milos Teodosic”.
Dejan Milojevic is one of those who think that Micic’ style is close to Teo Papaloukas: “He’s a great passer. He has excellent vision in the court and the only problem that he has is on shooting”. The coach of Micic gave us the scouting report of him: “I saw him first time in 2010 when I was manager in Serbian national youth teams. Since the first moment I realized that he had something special. He’s a tall point guard with vision, body control, strength, who can change direction quickly even though he’s not fast. Misko and I decided to give him the chance to play in the first division with Mega Vizura. He grew up well and every season he improves himself. He’s a competitor and plays in the games always like he practices. He’s gifted and can play excellent to the low post, the pick ‘n roll and one-on-one. Generally he’s great attacker and good defender but he can improve”.
Moreover, as many people from Serbia say, Micic for many years is considered a top prospect and seems destined from greatness. He had a knee injury three years ago but he recovered quickly. He understands the game and looks like Papaloukas but mentally he’s closer to Diamantidis. In his young age a lot of times he was compared with Teodosic but he’s much more controlled than him. Also, in the World Championship against the Americans (a lot of them will be among the draft picks) he was driving them crazy with his basketball IQ.
Dangubic: “The most athletic player”
The next one who is expected to be drafted is Nemanja Dangubic. The 21-year old guard (2.01 m.) and plays for Mega Vizura the last two years. He comes from Pancevo and started his career with the youth teams of Hemofarm. He was the choice of the owner of the team, Misko Raznatovic, the well-known agent. Dangubic has great physical abilities and as the coach says “he is the most athletic player I’ve ever seen. He’s very quick and he sure can play everywhere. He’s intelligent, work ethic and there wasn’t even one practice that he didn’t give his 100%. I don’t know any player with his abilities and really I didn’t know him before his transfer to Mega Vizura. He didn’t play so much with Hemofarm”.
His scouting report reveals that he jumps high, but he isn’t a constant shootier and has poor playmaking abilities. When he was younger, he was compared with Bodiroga but when he grew up he looks more like Hezonja or Lucic. He needs to work in order to be also a good scorer. In the Eurocamp of Treviso he was the MVP and turned many heads. But of course, in the NBA there are many players like him with the same skill set and athletic abilities. He must improve his fundamentals, but he has motivation and works a lot. When he’s in good shooting day, he can destroy every opponent.
Jokic: “The playmaker in center’s body”
The third one among the golden generation of Mega Vizura is Nikola Jokic, the younger one (he’s just 19 years old) who has potential to become a new Nikola Vujcic due to his playmaking skills, though he plays as power forward and center. On the other hand, Dejan Milojevic thinks that he can be a combination between Mark Gasol and Boris Diaw. He’s too young and probably he’ll stay in Europe to improve himself because he may have more pure talent than the others. In Prague during the U19 World Championship he started as a role player but game by game he played better and better and finally against the USA he was amazing. Then he appeared in the Nike Hoops Summit and impressed everyone. He’s great shooter, intelligent and understands basketball in an amazing way. He doesn’t jump high and he is not so strong, but shoots great.
His coach mentioned about Jokic that “he started playing basketball recently, so he has great room for improvement. He’s not strong because he didn’t do weights until two years ago. He must develop step by step. He has great sense of basketball and is great that in the offense he’s a playmaker in the post”.
Finally, Dejan Milojevic talked about the project of Mega Vizura, a small team in Serbia that decided to exclusively develope young players and not hire veterans. Misko Razantovic one of the most successful agents in Europe bought the team some years ago and invested in local talents. “Our plan is to develop players. We try to have balance with some experienced players in our roster also and we are satisfied. We are the youngest team and next season we ‘ll have even younger roster. This is the only way for any team that comes from a small and poor country with talented players” said Milojevic.
*Photo rights: Jovan Azdejkovic