On of the most interesting young big men in Europe will probably join Euroleague team Partizan Igokea this week.
According to Eurobasket.com, Milan Macvan is close to join Partizan Belgrade within the next days. Macvan, a 1989 born PF with an interesting Basketball IQ and excellent shooting range impressed in all the different youth tournaments he played so far. He is all about fundamentals and positioning on the court.
Actually, he is playing with FMP Zeleznik, one of the best teams considering prospects in Serbia. In his first season on the Senior level, he is already averaging 3.4ppg and 2.0rpg. The fact that Partizan makes a move in his direction is no wonder as their actual Center force Nikola Pekovic is playing the season of his life so far, and he may leave the club at the end of the season to wealthier places (NBA, Spain,…).
When it comes to positioning and body usage, both players look similar. However, Pekovic lives with more centimeters on the court, when Macvan comes up with a bigger shooting range and excellent passing skills. When I saw him play the first time, in the Albert Schweitzer Turnier in 2006, he impressed me already with his great body control and offensive arsenal. Since then, he always topped my expectations.
Actually, he is not considered as a huge NBA talent because of his lack of speed and athleticism. But the fact that the NBA playing style is changing and will include more and more European elements and that Macvan is only draft eligible in 3 years, this can somehow change. Only the future will tell, but from an European perspective, Macvan looks like the real deal for being a force in the paint for the next years.
Hey man – good posts, but what happened to the ‘lessons learned from game x’ saga ? …
You seem to neglect the euroleague challenge – I was enjoying your insight .. Write some more if you can, it’s developing in an interesting way !! ..
@tom
I don’t know what you mean with “what happened to the ‘lessons learned from game x’ saga ?”
What saga are you talking about?
He reminds me a lot of Slovenian Smodiš of CSKA. Ma?van is developing very similar game as Smodiš’s, thought I don’t know how successfull he will be when he will play against guys in senior competition.
I meant all those posts after EL matches, entitled ‘lessons learned from game 1′ – game 2 etc.. We never saw a game 3 post … Those posts regarding the EL fantasy challenge. I enjoyed those posts, and generally liked your EL fantasy insights and analysis which I ‘ve missed recently
Tom, they saw that i lead the group in Fantasy and don’t want to praise me
Almost all decent Serbian clubs (Hemofarm, Crvena zvezda, Partizan, Vojvodina, FMP) are interested in signing Ma?van on his first senior contract.
If he signs with a team from Serbia, the team will have to pay to FMP only 150.000€ buyout, while if he signs abroad the team which will sign him will have to agree with FMP on the buyout.
Ma?van will be 18 years old on Friday, so untill end of the week everything should be decided.
His agent Goran Savi? (Fame Agency) said to the press that also “all European leading teams” showed interest for this young player.
As the rumours are being spread all over the Balkans’s… Ma?van could sign a multi-year contract with Hemofarm in next few days.
[...] Macvan, about whom we talked already some weeks ago, now signed his first professional contract. But surprisingly, it was not with his [...]