Pokuokic wrote:People are seriously sleeping on Filip Jovic his level of toughness/positive energy/hustle is on a god tier level despite him being undersized pound for pound he's one of the strongest players (basketball strength)I have ever seen and probably one of the best Serbian leapers ever (obviously not on the tier of the Americans but above average), if he could even hit like 33-35% from 3 he would be an amazing spark plug at any level of basketball.
He reminds me of a plus athlete Eduardo Najara with a small splash of D.Sabonis with strength/finishing around the rim (not talking about post game). He could really be a nice add as a late 2nd round/undrafted type.
Markovic has looked really good as well the first two games really showed his all around skills. He's a late 1st round pick at worst. 6'11 with a great motor and good skills will get you places a modern day stretch/skill 4.
As far as Mirkovic goes I watched him all last season and had no idea he was even an NBA prospect and have seen one game this year where he was very bad I will keep watching maybe it's something I missed about him still very young.
Yeah I'm probably sleeping on Jovic and slow to catch up here. I thought he might be more restrained in his role since Jelavic and Markovic seem to be the nominal starters, but I think Jovic is still probably going to get plenty of opportunity and he's productive with it. I'd still like to see him be a more consistent finisher and shooter myself but he sure does seem to have no problem making good looks for himself. I still think it's probably Jelavic and/or Markovic that enter the draft this year and Jovic the following or something, but I definitely don't mean to write him off.
I think Markovic still had some things to work on defensively and with his turnover rate coming into this season. It's awesome to see the efficient start he's had, if I had to guess I don't think there's any doubt he's an NBA prospect. I'd have to think it's just a matter of when and how highly regarded.
As it is, I have been loosely updating my mock draft and just haven't gotten around to posting it here yet and the latest version I made does have Bogo at 27. I personally don't necessarily view him as a "surefire" first rounder, at least yet, but I definitely do agree with the idea that's a fair range for him at the moment.
I think I'm probably a bit higher on Mirkovic than most, and that's probably the result of most of the tape I've seen of him being the clips from one of his best performances in the season last year. I think only some outlets seem to project him in 2025 draft boards, though certainly some do and I think he is often considered a first rounder by those outlets. I know the Grizzlies took some time around the 2024 draft/Summer League to scout him, so he's 100% on SOME radars.
I happen to think his playstyle is very much like Julius Randle's. I think that can be polarizing, because Randle DOESN'T look pretty and often plays on a knife's edge- he kinda seems too comfortable losing control and just happens to have gotten quite good at steering through potential disaster with good court vision and quick reflexes. But it certainly doesn't always work.
I think Mirkovic isn't quite as chiseled but has similar strength/size/mobility and just the fact that he COULD sometimes play bully ball with skilled adults as a 17 year old is intriguing to me. I think he's developing some solid shooting and iso skills, such that I think he could be more like the Julius Randle of today than even Julius Randle himself was entering the league.
And while he was pretty darn good in the Montenegrin League and I think he did genuinely warrant playing time in the ABA last season, I don't think he was on the right side of efficiency-- I do not think he was able to quite successfully balance on the knife's edge in the ABA the way Julius Randle somehow manages to in the NBA. He didn't stink, but he has a ways to go. And so in that regard I don't think he's by any means a "sure thing" in the NBA, because I think that's a playstyle that can go very wrong if the player isn't downright amazing at it. But I think the potential is real. I think if I'm not just completely wrong and the (almost stark IMO) comparison to Randle isn't baseless, that's something teams ought to have lottery interest in.
But yeah he had a terrible debut game this season. I could simply just be wrong. Heck, the fact that he isn't STARTING for Derby somewhat surprises me, although perhaps it shouldn't. I did drop him down to 23 in my most recent mock.
