Jelena Mitrovic (C 6’9”, 2001) from Serbia. After Udine 2016 FIBA U16
As a huge knowledge of women basketball said, “Jelena maybe is not the faster player I have never seen”, but Jelena has a huge body and knows about the game. Her size (6’8”) is really impressive at this stage, but her athleticism and mobility are still growing. Although she struggles running up and down, she is able to play for a long lap-time. The Serbian also has big hands (of course) to catch rebounds, but has not leaping ability and sometimes, although she usually keeps high the ball after the catch, she shows not enough intensity to retain the ball after the grab. Although she doesn’t display a great quickness, her footwork is really good playing back to the basket. Jelena also possesses an interesting passing skill set and a good enough vision court/knowledge: she is able to pass the ball (inside/outside) both in double team situations and finding a teammate cutting the paint. Mitrovic struggles putting the ball on the floor and sometimes lost her body balance when she is guarding from the contact (in fact she always is guarding from the contact, and has a huge patient…) Jelena displays a great shooting release from a FT’s range (reliable but bit slow release), and she is really good shooting from the block after a pivot-spin. Inside the paint, Mitorvic shows a soft touch in the bank shots. Despite of her lack of (great) mobility, her wingspan, size and knowledge allow Jelena to be a great shot-blocker and rim protector. From the weak side, Mitrovic is a quite good defender deflecting passes due to her knowledge. Jelena is a prospect with a huge body and good knowledge/fundamentals who only needs to improve her athleticism in the correct way. Her mood is always a fact to follow carefully.
YoungBucketsBL 