Good Q&A. Said he expects to be in Lexington within a week or two.
New Andrija Jelavic interview
- Thread starter The_Catfather
- Start date
I posted in another thread.. one of the other teams in the euro league that Jelavic was in.. has Yogi Ferrel, Rasheed Sulaimon and 2 other higher level college guys. It was basically a team that you could argue is going to be better than any team he will face in college.
ESPN doesn't have a rank for him.. but I think its pretty impressive that he was basically putting up 10 and 8 in a league that has a lot of talent. I think another thread made a post wondering where they THINK he'd be ranked.. and several said right in that 30th range, which makes sense to me. Theres no way this guy is some low ranked 3 or 4-star.
ESPN doesn't have a rank for him.. but I think its pretty impressive that he was basically putting up 10 and 8 in a league that has a lot of talent. I think another thread made a post wondering where they THINK he'd be ranked.. and several said right in that 30th range, which makes sense to me. Theres no way this guy is some low ranked 3 or 4-star.
I'm really very curious to see how he translates to the college game.
The absolute biggest thing he could do for us is to become an incredibly reliable 3FG shooter. Help us space the floor from deep because Mo D and JQ probably won't give us a ton from deep, and who knows about BG.
If AJ can become a 40%-45% 3FG shooter on decent volume (let's say 3 attempts/game), we're going to be super dangerous and versatile in the frontcourt.
His passing seems great as well.
But our front court has elite defense already with JQ, Mo D and probably Garrison. It has elite rebounding as well. It has guys who can make plays off the dribble. We really need an absolute sniper from 3.
If AJ can give us that, the sky is the limit!
I like that we will have a guy who was not part of the US's broken AAU system. He very likely has a high work ethic and was playing against grown men like Yogi Ferrel. But he's also not young either, just turning 21. I think every team can use a few euro players. The only thing will be how he adjusts to what I imagine are non-FIBA rules that he's used to playing, and just the different style of ball he will see here, as opposed to in Europe.
When he gets here someone ought to have food delivered from
A La Turka Kebap House on Winchester road.
A La Turka Kebap House on Winchester road.
Jelavic looks sturdier than Z. Hopefully, Pope makes sure he finds good food in KY. Hell, he found Wetabix for Williams.
Since rankings factor in potential pretty heavily, he obviously could be perceived to have less potential than more intriguing prospects who are developing NBA body types at 16-18 years old. He doesn’t really have an NBA body type, but I see his ceiling as +20 pounds and become a Bojan Bogdanovic type player. To me, he doesn’t project as an NBA draft pick, unless he develops All-American type skill at the college level within 2 seasons. It’s tough to predict what undrafted and late 2nd round players will catch on, but obviously he’ll have a ton of eyes on him at Kentucky.
Top 25 are usually the guys that insiders know the NBA has already honed in on as NBA prospects. That’s always been the reason for baffling rankings over the years I think, where a dude ends up being a bust in college, but then they usually get at least a shot in the league because a handful of teams invested years into scouting that player and want to see if they have a tool that translates to the NBA level.
I think that puts Jelavic around the 40-50 range. That’s usually a player that’s a coin flip on if they can catch on Freshman year, but typically if they stay in college, they’ll figure it out at that level and become pretty dominant as upperclassmen.
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