Recap: Belgrade AdidasNGT 2020

Fourth and last qualifying Adidas Next Generation Tournament was held in Belgrade. Partizan won the title and secure the ticket for F8 in Cologne by beating CFBB Paris in the final 79: 67. Tournament was very quality and we had chance to see a lot of exciting games and a lot of talented players. We will focus on evaluating Serbian players that stood out on this tournament.

 

Nikola Radovanović
SF | 2003 | 204cm | Partizan

Nikola was one of two domestics players who are members of All-Tournament team. He averaged 15,8 points, 6,5 rebounds and 1,8 assists per game and statistics he was the best player in Partizan on this tournament. What makes him special was devotion and great fighting on the court. With his 204cm, good ball handling and very good athletic predispositions with good footwork and fast first step it is very hard to defend him in isolation game. Because of that such attacks finishing with layup or foul on him. He is very active on defense and he helps a lot on the defensive rebound. There is also a lot of possibility for progress in 3pt shoot. Generally on this tournament he shooting only 17,6% (3/17).

 

Luka Paunović
SG/SF| 2002 | 195cm | Mega Bemax

Luka is also a member of All-Tournament team and he averaged 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists and he was second in rating index in whole tournament right after the tournament MVP, Daniel Batcho. Probably one of the most pleasant surprises of all Serbian players. The most consistent Mega Bemax’s player on this tournament. He is strong and athletic guard with long arms and quick and very active hands. Because of those abilities he is often in charge to guard best opponent guards. Fearless rim attacker. Very good stands contact while driving. Runs the floor pretty well, with and without the ball. Very active on rebound on both ends of the floor. Improved his spot up shooting abilities. Become bigger threat from 3pt line then before (5.5 3pt attempts per game with 50% accuracy). He also showed some improvement in ball handling, decision making and finding open teammates, but there is still room to be more efficient with ball in his hands.

 

Lazar Stefanović
SG/PG | 2002 | 198cm | Partizan

Lazar is the only domestic player that will play in the ANGT tournament this season. He is coming from a senior league and it is evident that he has experience playing basketball, which makes him one of the leaders of this team. He averaged 15.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in this tournament. Lazar is a catch and shoot player and 3pt served him well during this tournament, with 47.1% shots made (8/17). There is still space for improvement with the shot technique. He improved a lot in P&R game. He is using screens very well and that helps him create space for his teammates and himself. He played his best game against Red Star where he scored the winning point at the end of the game and took Partizan to the tournament finals.

 

Mihailo Mušikić
C | 2002 | 212cm | Mega Bemax

One of the most intriguing prospects on this tournament and he definitely justified expectations averaging 17.3 points, 4 rebound and 4 assists. Mihailo is 7’0 tall big men who runs the floor like guard.  Had some very good transition finishes and even he started few transitions by putting the ball on the floor right after grabbing the rebound which is unusual for players of his size. He showed much more toughness then last year, and he still a lot of room to improve in that segment. Has good hands and touch around the basket  and he is not that much clumsy like before, he showed good coordination and control on small space. Low post game seems to be upgraded. Especially positioning even though he prefers to attack defender by facing-up. He still get pushed away when he plays back to basket because of his high center of gravity. He gave us only a glimpses of his shooting potential with tournament 2/2 from 3pt line, which he takes much more in domestic junior league. Overall good tournament for him even though Mega Bemax failed to achieve better team result.

 

Nikola Manojlović
SG/SF | 2002 | 200cm | Crvena Zvezda

Nikola is leader of this Crvena Zvezda team. He averaged 13.8 points, 5.3 rebound and 4.8 assists. He has big and strong body quite developed from a muscular standpoint, both his upper and lower body. Thanks to such a good physicality he is absorbing and finishing through contact really well. Very dangerous on the open court. He excels in coast to coast situations thanks to his ability to change directions and pace really good. Very often plays with ball in his hands mostly because of his high basketball IQ and offensive skillset.  At the moment only average shooter and he must work on his leader abilities and being more aggressive especially on offense.

 

Other players notable mentions:
Petar Živojinović
Mihailo Petrović
Petar Kovačević
Marko Andrić
Stefan Todorović

 

 

Photo: (adidasngt.com)