{"id":125278,"date":"2025-09-01T16:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125278\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:49:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:49:04","slug":"atlantas-best-kept-secret-is-the-forgotten-serbian-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/125278\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta’s best-kept secret is the forgotten Serbian sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The saying “basketball is a global game” has never been more true.<\/p>\n

The last decade has seen countless prospects from all around the world develop into formidable weapons – and in some cases, stars – for almost every team in the NBA. The diversity of today’s game, headlined by seven consecutive international MVPs, serves as a stark contrast to the 20th century, when NBA stardom was seldom shared outside of America.<\/p>\n

Amongst the avalanche of international prospects, it seems one has been forgotten – despite being touted as “one of the most intriguing prospects of his generation<\/a>” merely a year ago.<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar with his game, Nikola Djurisic<\/a> is a 6’8 play-finishing forward with a crafty touch around the rim and untapped playmaking upside. His time with the Serbian-based Mega Superbet squad was headlined by dissecting defenses with his equally savvy partner-in-crime, Nikola Topic.<\/p>\n

Djurisic stood out from other prospects during his time overseas not only as a savant running the break or attacking closeouts, but also with his dribble-drive game, creating excellent looks out of pick-and-roll sets – a coveted skill amongst wings in today’s NBA. <\/p>\n

With such creative playmaking ability, wow-factor finishing, and NBA-ready athleticism, one can’t help but wonder – what is holding the kid back from taking the next step in Atlanta?<\/p>\n

A towering barrier shields Djurisic from developing into a star<\/p>\n

Despite his sensational play in other areas of the court and largely untapped potential upside, the NBA has rapidly become a 3-point driven league. If a player lacks a reliable deep-range shot, their likelihood of cracking an NBA rotation (much less, reaching stardom) is slim to none.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Djurisic, his shot has been inconsistent at best. During his time playing overseas with Mega, Djurisic shot a disappointing 30.5% from deep in 69 games across his four years with the organization. To make matters worse, Djurisic was unable to raise this metric last year with Atlanta’s G-league affiliate<\/a>, shooting a brow-furrowing 18.1% on 3.8 3PA across 24 games played. <\/p>\n

There is still hope yet for the youngster, though – his 2023-2024 season at Mega shooting 33.0% from deep and his last season in the G-league shooting a career-high 83.4% on FTA serve as promising signs of a deep-range threat waiting to blossom. Given these promising parameters, Onsi Saleh was keen to buy low this offseason. Djurisic agreed to what was reported to be a 3-year, $6M deal on July 11th (details below).<\/p>\n

Season<\/p>\n

Salary<\/p>\n

2025-2026<\/p>\n

$1.3M (guaranteed)<\/p>\n

2026-2027<\/p>\n

$2.2M (non-guaranteed)<\/p>\n

2027-2028<\/p>\n

$2.5M (team option)<\/p>\n

There have been myriad examples of players in recent years who scouts and coaches alike will look at and say, “If he can just develop a jumper, he’ll be a star!” Nikola Djurisic is certainly no exception, but the player who had scouts raving about his potential not even a year ago is still growing, still developing, still hiding in the talented depths of Atlanta’s rotation.<\/p>\n

Djurisic has the golden opportunity this season to learn firsthand from play-finishing wings such as Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher, all while putting in those extra-early and extra-late hours in the gym, continuing to hone his deep-range ability.<\/p>\n

Don’t be surprised in the near future if the Serbian sensation is getting real burn in Atlanta’s rotation en route to title contention – Onsi Saleh might’ve gotten a good one for the long haul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The saying “basketball is a global game” has never been more true. The last decade has seen countless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-125278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}