NBA Comparison: Ben Gordon/Rodney Stuckey

Strengths: An explosive combo guard with a wide and strong body … He has a great first step, good leaping ability and long arms, which allows him to turn the corner and make difficult plays in traffic … Extremely confident, he enjoys taking big shots in crucial situations … Plays with an edge that is necessary to succeed … He has become a reliable outside threat, consistently making open and contested shots (48% FG and 38% 3PT)… He shoots with great balance, allowing his shooting range to extend well beyond the NBA arc … Has an array of moves off the dribble (crossovers, behind the back, spins, in & outs), and uses hesitation moves to keep the defense off-balance … He is occasionally given spot duty at the PG position and he has shown the ability to lead a team … His court vision is decent and his passing ability is also fairly good … Defensively his strength and quickness will allow him to eventually defend both backcourt positions …

Weaknesses: Lacks a natural position at the next level, he is an undersized SG and is not a pure playmaker … He plays with a scorers mentality and at times only looks to pass as a last resort … Has the potential to become a deadly drive and dish player, but he needs to trust his teammates more … Plays out of control, forcing drives into heavy traffic and then leaving his feet to make plays … He does not maximize his explosiveness to get by people, rather he plays around with the ball on the perimeter before putting up difficult and contested shots … He is a bit of a ball stopper on offense, wasting dribbles and also putting up bad shots out of the offense and early in the shot clock … His outside shot has been fairly consistent all season, but he has a bit of a slow release as he takes his time getting his feet set ... His release is also low (coming almost off his chin) and he tends to pull the string on challenged shots … Being undersized, the midrange part of his game will have to become a key aspect, but he still needs some major work on it; he is often fading and off-balance shooting pullups, all equalling in very mixed results… Defensively, he is not ready mentally for the next level, constantly loosing sight of his man and getting beaten of the dribble by inferior athletes …

Borko Popic - 3/10/2009