djFan71 wrote:Not a big Djurisic guy since he can't shoot or defend yet (tho he could always develop)
I watched Djurisic pretty closely this season. He struggled shooting early in the season but then seemed to adjust his shooting pocket, raised the shooting pocket slightly so he wasn't shooting it from right in front of his face anymore - got his release more fluid too - and less robotic looking.
If we look at his last 20 games (last 15 games during 23-24 season for Mega + 2 scrimmages at draft combine + 3 scrimmages at EuroCamp), he shot 38.8% from 3 on 3.6 attempts per game. He was also right around 80% FT over the 2nd half of the season.
We have to also factor in that he was one of the primary ball handlers/shot creators for Mega..once Nikola Topic left the team in December, Djurisic was pretty much *the* go to guy on that team so defenses loaded up to try and stop him, he had the other team's best perimeter defender on him (often times was a 28 year old former NBA player so a much harder matchup than who the college guys were going against..and many of his 3's were off the dribble and well contested, rather than open catch and shoot looks that someone like Jalen Bridges or Pelle Larsson got to take.
I think Djurisic is decent on defense as well. He usually gets after it pretty good on that end..has some strength, can force some turnovers. Had some issues on D but I'm not too concerned, considering he was only 20, playing in a top pro league vs grown men and also had to carry the team offensively after Topic left the team that it made it hard sometimes for him to have enough energy on the defensive end..
Plus there were many games where he was playing like 33+ mins per game..often times he looked completely gas'd out there from the heavy mins and being asked to do so much on both ends of the floor as a 20 yr old kid in a pro league. He played 38 mins in a game vs Red Star (a EuroLeague team) and in another game vs Red Start played 37 mins.
