Recap: Serbia at U16 European Championship 2019

FINAL STANDINGS

ALL-STAR FIVE

MVP

TOURNAMENT LEADERS

SERBIA STATS LEADERS

SERBIA TOP PERFORMER

Matija Belic | 18.7 Pts |10.1 Reb | 2.1 Ast | 0.6 Blk | 21.0 Eff

Belic was best and the most constant player in Serbia team. He was a true leader and whenever Serbia needed a bucket, rebound, or stop he was there to provide it. Matija played excellent tournement finishing 3rd overall in points, rebounds and efficiency and prove himself like one of the best players on the championship. 198cm tall player from Zitko basket can cover both forward position, but on this tournament he played mostly as power forward. Even though we saw some back to basket and post moves from him he usually played face up strech 4 where he attacked opponents from perimetar using his strong body to absorb the contact when goes to the rim. He may be average athlete and he may lack of quickness and explosiveness but he has high basketball IQ and he using many fakes and catching opponents on wrong foot or out of balance helped him to blow by them and score easy points. Also he proved himself like a very good spot up shooter shooting very good 39% from 3pt line so he is not the guy to leave open on perimeter. Lack of size, lenght and athletism prevent him to be elite defender and rim protector for his position but he compesates it with amazing feeling for rebound where he knows how to position himself and when to jump which resulted his 10.1 rebounds per game (3.0 offensive).
Things that he needs to work on is his offensive versitality. He needs to add something more to his game beside driving to the basket on straight lines. Also he need to work on his finishing to the rim especially with his left hand. Now he doesn’t have problems to finish on his peers with his right hand on both sides but later when he faces bigger and stronger opponents could be a problem. Skills on low post is also something that he needs to improve and where his left hand improving is also from essential importance. Also there is always room to improve decision making, sometimes he is turnover and foul prone but that’s something that is coming with experience. And of course to keep working on his body and atheticsm. From whether he will grow more or not depends his position in the future and he must develop himself to be able to play both forward positions equally.