Nenad Miljenovic, the Serbian smile.
http://www.draftexpress.com/article/...an-Smile-3207/Nenad Miljenovic, the Serbian Smile
by: Luis Fernández - Director of International Scouting
May 7, 2009
In a superb weekend, we could witness one of the best Euroleague Final Fours ever in a top-notch city like Berlin, but it was a Serbian kid stealing our hearts at the Nike International Junior Tournament. The 16-year old cadet Nenad Miljenovic came with a strong reputation, but his performance and the impression he left exceeded any expectation.
Let’s say from the start that we’re dealing with an incredibly talented and creative playmaker, one of those extremely rare kids with an unbelievable feel for the game and outstanding skill set. Basketball is easy, natural and enjoyable for him. It was scary to think how comfortable, how effortlessly he delivered his stuff against much more physical kids who mostly were two years older than him (in a stage where two years means a whole lot: think about a high school sophomore facing seniors).
Miljenovic enjoys a fantastic offensive package, starting with terrific handles and footwork to break down defenses and get by opponents with great ease. He shows versatility taking the steps in penetration, emerging very creative in order to unbalance his rivals, attract defensive rotations or create separation from his opponents. He’s automatic finding his teammates anywhere on the court, exhibiting outstanding court vision and ability to identify passing angles. Whether feeding cutters, kicking-out to shooters, dishing after penetration, if there’s a pass, chances are he will find it and execute it with the proper tempo. It’s very instinctive stuff: he doesn’t speculate, he barely needs to think. He acts. The ball is hardly ever frozen in his hands, and you could never label him as a ball hog (according to what we saw in Berlin); he just looks for something to happen for his team.
However, as good passer and selfless as he is, Miljenovic doesn’t pass up on a scoring opportunity and shows remarkable ability to get the ball going through the net. His shot looked pretty good all tournament long, showing nice mechanics in the release, although he stuck for spot-up jumpers from mid-to-long ranges. Despite lacking strength and top explosiveness for the moment, while not being an off-the-charts athlete, Nenad was able to finish near the rim with a variety of layups and short shots, showing excellent ability reading defenses and finding windows for releasing the ball.
All in all, his decision making is extremely hard to question. He certainly takes more risks than other point guards, but it’s nothing out of proportion. He looks in really good shape if we talk about basketball IQ and understanding of the game.
Defense emerges as his biggest weakness. He showed a nose for picking pockets and getting into passing lines, but we’re not going to sweeten the reality: at this point he wouldn’t be able to guard his own shadow. He needs to properly learn the nuances of defense and put a few extra degrees of effort in order to stay in front of his match-ups, while his physical development will greatly help him. Keep in mind he’s a very skinny kid. It’s not only a matter of being 16 years old, but he really looked like a boy among young men. His frame is promising, though. At 6-4 he’s pretty big for a point-guard and there’s nothing wrong with his wingspan or athleticism. Actually, he grabbed a surprisingly good amount of rebounds. That speaks of his nice length, but also about activity and positioning. Again, instincts doing their work.
If his skill set and eventual flashy plays dazzled the audience, his real influence on the games, although perhaps going under the radar for some, was nothing short of impressive.
With his much more experienced teammate Nikola Vukasovic almost monopolizing the leading playmaking duties, Miljenovic looked doomed for a marginal role, indeed not stepping on the court until very late into the third quarter against a surprisingly combative Alba Berlin. However, his impact on the court was automatic. He didn’t deliver any outstanding individual performance in that opener, but he changed the face of the team and the rhythm of the game.
With more playing time, a bigger role on the court and increasingly impressive play, that was the tune during the whole tournament. Vukasovic, as talented as he is, lacks offensive aggressiveness, which usually results in a slower game tempo and a mechanical and predictable style for the team. With Miljenovic on the floor it seems like the whole FMP arsenal is unleashed, even when he shared minutes with Vukasovic, he emerged pretty effective playing off the ball as well. As soon as he hits the court, the ball starts flowing, the pace gets faster, the players become more active and the team runs the floor. I had never seen Dejan Musli running as much as he did these days in Berlin. And it’s hard to imagine any different scenario than FMP’s starring center completely worshiping his point guard fellow, given how ridiculously easily he got production out of Nenad’s hands.
It’s not a matter of taking anything out of Musli’s great performance in Berlin, he was really dominant, completely owned Jonas Valanciunas in the final and showed nice improvements in his game. But unlike the NIJT jury, I could have only named Miljenovic as the tournament MVP (he was granted a place in the all-tournament team, though). His influence exceeded any other player’s, and on first glance, his plus/minus stats likely topped the tourney’s by a landslide. Let’s put it this way: with Musli on the floor and Nenad on the bench, FMP was trailing against Alba Berlin; put Miljenovic on the floor and take Dejan out, and the show was still going on.
Going beyond his effectiveness, Miljenovic is a breath of fresh air on the basketball scene. His creativity, even his flashy moves, go along an apparently extremely likeable character. The kid just has fun out there, and regularly offers a smile on his face. I can’t remember anything similar during the past years in the Serbian basketball, even the Balkan area as a whole.
On top of it, he looks like a superb teammate, and acted as you would have never expected from a cadet playing with juniors. He was often the first one receiving his teammates on the bench, he was regularly high-fiving and cheering for everybody, and he went as far as chest-bumping his own coach after he linked a few spectacular plays. We’ve seen FMP for a few years now with this very same coach, usually while they dominated, and never ever witness anything similar. Considering it comes from a cadet, it’s almost inconceivable.
Truth to be told, the kid seems to have a special relationship with everybody on FMP. He was the only player we saw during a game talking with the team president Nebojsa Covic, who was always placed behind the bench and constantly communicating with the coaches (actually, FMP had a bit of a schizophrenic direction, with two guys acting like head coaches and constantly exchanging looks and words with their president).
In a hilarious sequence, Miljenovic delivered a behind-the-back pass on a fastbreak, and looked towards the bench, as if to excuse himself for his flashiness –of course, with a smile on his face-. The head coach turned looking for his president and couldn’t avoid smiling himself. It’s the kind of stuff you rarely see in the Serbian basketball school. Actually, it makes you think how much the FMP staff might be holding back on Miljenovic’s creativity on the court.
Our long-time friend and eventual collaborator Juan Antonio Hinojo brilliantly pointed out how much Nenad reminded him of Sergio Rodriguez. Not only in terms of skills, but also with his body language or easy-going character. It would be interesting to check how much further that resemblance would go if Miljenovic enjoyed the same freedom Sergio had back in his junior days in Spain. Regardless, we can already say that Sergio is the most dominant junior we’ve seen playing on the perimeter, and Nenad is the most impressive cadet we’ve ever witnessed sharing the floor with juniors--with the only possible competition coming from Ricky Rubio himself back in the 2006 L’Hospitalet Tournament.
The future looks bright for him, although uncertainty is a big part of the equation when talking about kids who are so young. Still, nobody will take away the impression he left in Berlin. Every time Miljenovic smiles on a basketball court, basketball itself smiles with this kid running the show.
http://www.europeanprospects.com/199...ards/#more-422Nenad Miljenovic (1m94 – 1993 – FMP Belgrade)
The big surprise of the tournament in my eyes was the great performance and totally deserved All-Tournament team spot for the super young Serbian guard from FMP. Nenad Miljenovic had an incredible showing during the final game of the tournament where he displayed all his talent and lived up to the hype that was coming around him before. His nickname of Serbian Ginobili may be still a bit away but he is certainly one of the most talented players of his generation.
Miljenovic has a great mix of speed, handles and understanding of the basketball game. He barely gets in trouble being on the court, he made some difficult passes out of the press defense or double teams in the corner. He reads the defense pretty well and most of Dejan Musli final points came of drives initiated by Miljenovic. His future position will be highly likely the PG position, he had to play most of the games on the SG position though. He is also a surprisingly good defensive rebounder where you could see him often grab the defensive board himself to go immediately for full court breaks.
For the moment, Miljenovic lacks of course the necessary body and physical force to play on the next level. He has also a three point shot, but mostly in catch and shoot fashion only. You don’t see him so far go for a jump shot out of the dribble either, there is still a lot of ways how to improve. But the general talent level of the player is outstanding and already now, he is the guy that wants the ball during the decisive moments, and takes the right decisions too despite being sometimes a bit too much into the show or difficult passes.
Stats: 8.4ppg (57.5% 2FG) 3.5rpg 3.4apg 3.6topg
he is going to be great. just one concern:
"He showed a nose for picking pockets and getting into passing lines, but we’re not going to sweeten the reality: at this point he wouldn’t be able to guard his own shadow."
Watching again the clip of the final against Lietuvos, I can´t help thinking how true are these words. At the beginnig of the clip he steals a ball and scores. Next thing we see is him losing track of a Lithuanian player, in what could be considered a Drazen Petrovic-esque defensive display.
Let´s hope he is intelligent enough and well coached to realize he still has a lot of work to do.
The biggest concern for me is his ankles,because he already had problems with them.Hopefully he will be ok in the future.
Pep you must take in consideration that he played against older and stronger competition.
UZEO SI TROFEJ MACVANE MACVANE MACVANE!!!
Originally Posted by Srle
yes Srle, you are right.
But what I don´t like about Fernández´s article (and I really like Fernández work and consider him a true expert when it comes to bball prospects) is that he seems to imply that FMP coaches are sort of stopping Nenad from fully developing.
I watched Sergio Rodríguez play many times when he was a junior and he enjoyed that freedon Fernández talks about: he was a genious, granted. And he´s become an inconsistent player. an NBA player, I know, but inconsistent all the same.
(Someone might say that he´s right and that FMP´s coaches do something wrong after all: FMP is well known for producing good players but not a single great player. But then again, it takes good luck, not just good work, to come up with a star)
I think there are a couple things to consider:
First, the article doesn't say anywhere that not enjoying that freedom is a negative thing for Miljenovic, just wonders about how his game would look like with more freedom on court. Then we can especulate about whether it would be good or not, which I don't think it's clear at all (I actually think there are good and bad things about it). It would be an interesting subject for debate.
Second, we can't fully evaluate Sergio's development for various reasons. The most important one, he left for the NBA too early. Related to this one, he hasn't found a coach that understands his game and trusts him (which is pretty difficult, and that's a big reason why he made a mistake leaving for the NBA so early).
Yes,Nenad is good.But i am also born in 1993,6"6' tall;200 Ibs and playing point guard.I have great leaping ability,can put up some good dunks.
Nenad is doing great at the Nike International Tournament in Paris.
In the second game against Split, he even won the game with an amazing buzzer beater and get a new nickname "little Kecman".
http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_gKVU7...frontpage.html
PaulBall: Serbian Youngster Makes His Mark In Paris
For the majority of the ball fans who flocked to Paris to see the usual glittering array of basketball stars gracing the Euroleague Final Four, the focus was fixed firmly on two very different things. Primarily the pursuit of the biggest prize in European club basketball and secondly, a pesky plume of volcanic ash which quite literally threatened to cast a cloud over the weekend.
However they do say every cloud has a silver lining and as the massed hoards left Bercy Village with their travel plans at the mercy of nature and perhaps still trying to come to terms with one of the most anti-climatic championship games in Euroleague history, some of us could at least still raise a smile at what we had witnessed.
For somewhere deep in the bowels of the vast Palais Omnisport complex, the potential future stars of European basketball had been working hard all weekend to prove they have what it takes to one day move themselves up to top billing - not only at a future EuroLeague Final Four event but perhaps most importantly, for their respective senior National teams.
The action at the Nike Junior Tournament definately provided another timely reminder that we have a terrific summer of youth tournaments lying in wait again this year. Not only the annual FIBA Europe tournaments complimented in 2010 by FIBA World Championship action at youth level too.
For those who followed the U16 Division A and Division B European Championships last summer, several players showcasing their skills in the French capital for their respective junior club teams were instantly recognisable as some of the most impressive participants from the tournaments that took place in Lithuania and Portugal.
In the end it was the French INSEP (Institut National De Sport) team who came out on top and stopped FMP from claiming another title in this competition. One player who was definitely watched very closely throughout the tournament was Serbian prospect Nenad Miljenovic - a member of the U16 All Tournament team in Kaunas last year while playing for his country.
The FMP player is one of the latest ‘batch' of youngsters to roll slowly but surely from the incessant and constantly impressive basketball factory production line in Serbia. He produced one of the most memorable moments of the entire weekend when he nailed a game winning shot over KK Split on the buzzer. That in itself had people at the event clamouring to tag him ‘Mini-Kecman' and on with that type of miracle shot in the last second, it was hard to disagree.
While perhaps not quite always at his absolute best in this particular tournament (though relatively impressive nonetheless) the guard was not too disappointed with losing the final and is now looking forward to the FIBA U17 World Championships in Hamburg.
He said "It was still a great tournament for us. Our goal was always to get to the Final. In the tournament I had my first experience in an important game of hitting a game winning shot on the buzzer and there have been some incredible emotions for me."
"It is tough losing the Final because I didn't expect to lose, I didn't want to lose."
"This was an important tournament because preparations for the World Championships start with a training camp for the Serbia National team and for me, I just have to go step by step."
"Firstly I am going to rest but then I am going to practice harder than ever before and this is definitely my motivation right now."
"I really hope we can get a trophy when we get there"
One big decision the rising star has to make is whether he can also head back to Lithuania this summer for the U18 European Championships. For those who continue to watch his development closely, they will be hoping he can make it to again showcase his skills but according to the player himself, nothing is set in stone.
"I am not sure if I will definitely go just yet because the tournaments are so close to each other. I hope so and I hope I can have the energy to play both but of course, with so many games right now it is important to be careful with how I rest my body."
Like all young players, Miljenovic knows he still has such a long journey ahead of him in terms of his development although at this point he claimed to be relatively happy with his progression so far.
"I am feeling really happy with my game right now but I think I still have to improve my physical capabilities a little and also my defence."
"I am most happy with how my shot has developed this year because I made a big change to my technique. I really started to try and make jump-shots a lot more and I am very please with what has happened so far."
Mention the rich tradition of his nation when it comes to basketball and not least the EuroBasket silver medal and also the presence of Partizan on the main Euroleague Final Four bill and you might expect Miljenovic to say yes when asked if he feels pressure to follow in some pretty big footsteps.
"No I really don't -definitely not. Of course the eyes are on me, my team and some of the other players, I know that. But really I feel no pressure."
"The only pressure I ever feel is the pressure I put on myself when I am training and at times in games when we need to be the best and we need it most like a game winning shot. Things like this just make me proud."
The almost permanently smiling Miljenovic was just one name from many that we might get the pleasure of seeing perform at higher levels in the future and having written about Esben Reinholt in some detail recently during a feature about the Denmark Federation, it was particularly pleasurable to see the KK Split guard in action too.
The same could also be said of Tournament MVP Livio John-Charles who was obviously excellent throughout while of course many of us immersed in the Junior tournament probably had to remember that Rafael Freire of Unicaja has already played several games in EuroLeague proper.
Finally it's always nice to leave any major basketball event with a smile and some happy memories. While the Junior tournament certainly helped with this, there was one other particular reason. It came when I headed towards the media exit at the Palais Omnisport to grab some fresh air on the Final day.
As I approached the door of the Arena, I could see water pouring down and so I relayed this information to a media colleague walking behind me. In frustration, he reached for his phone and cancelled his post game plans which I believe had involved the intention for a long and dare I also say, ‘romantic' walk along the Seine.
Preferring not to head back courtside with him as he looked quite upset, I continued outside and then suddenly realised to my absolute horror it wasn't actually rain at all but merely the sprinkler system which waters the grass clinging to the side of the Palais Omnisport building.
Yes, oh dear indeed and on reflection I probably should have went back and told him -and I bet you thought it was only the Olympiakos players that had left upset on missing a big opportunity last Sunday night.
Die Liebe wird eine Krankheit, wenn man sie als eine Heilung sieht
Artificial Nature
Nenad Miljenović turned 18 on April 8th, which gave him the right to sign first pro contract and he decided to leave FMP, not signing with them. That was known for quite a while and now it's official... The rumor is that he'll probably sign with Partizan. That would be awesome for them, looking at his talent and abilities, only concern is his weak structure and injury proneness... And it's not that it can't be fixed.
We'll see what will happen...
I had a privilege of watching this game live and it was basketball at it's best... Simply brilliant. And I would say that it was definitely the best game of the group stage...
Last edited by SunOverHStreet; 04-19-2011 at 04:06 PM.
Partizan have good coaches. They will put a good 10-15 pounds of muscle on him within the next year. He'll be about 6'5/6'6 and 200 pounds when he reaches 20-21 years of age.
And he will do windmill dunks Dominique Wilkins style
UZEO SI TROFEJ MACVANE MACVANE MACVANE!!!
He will get some good coaching at Partizan. Good move
Nenad Miljenovic led Serbia U18 in win over Bosnia U20 (77:75) with a 3 point buzzer beater in the last second. He was the best scorer of the game with 18 points.
Appears as if Miljenovic has slightly added weight. Particularly arms.
3rd from left
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basketi...57627741870744
Raduljica too seems to have added some weight, but particularly belly in his case
(but when he gets in shape I expect him and Pekovic to become the best couple of centers in Europe)
40 minutes, 21 points (FT: 3/3, 2p: 6/9, 3p: 2/5), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 5 turnovers, 7 drawn fouls (eff: 31)
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