Andrej Mitrevski Scouting Report
I’m Kuzey, 19. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I have been working in Eurosport Turkey for the last 1,5 years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams. I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!
Team: TFT Skopje
DOB: 09.17.2003
Nationality: North Macedonia
Height: 6-foot-3.5
Wingspan: Plus two
Shooting hand: Right
Primary position: Point guard
Secondary position: Shooting guard
Projection: EuroLeague (1), EuroCup & Basketball Champions League (2), NBA (3)
Andrej Mitrevski was born on September 17, 2003, in North Macedonia. He started basketball when he was eight years old thanks to the Macedonian senior team’s success at the 2011 Eurobasket in Lithuania. He played in Feniks 2010 in the EYBL between 2016–2018, many tournaments in Belgrade against notable teams and won gold medals in their Macedonian youth basketball league. Mitrevski’s mother is a medical doctor and his father is an economist. They were both basketball players and AM’s grandfather was a football coach.
Right now, Mitrevski plays for two teams, Feniks 2010 in U18 and TFT Skopje in Macedonian First League. Mitrevski is an ideal player with off-court life. Has a good bond with his family, head coaches, assistant coaches and fans.
In the developing system of Macedonian basketball, Mitrevski is one of the wheels among prospects in my opinion. He played at the FIBA U16 Euro Championship last year and averaged 19 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists while shooting 43.3% from the court in seven games. His favorite meal is fish with potatoes, film is Mechanic and TV series is McGuyver. He is a coachable prospect, listens to his coach but sometimes struggles on practice to advice.
Physical & Athleticism
Standing 6-foot-3 with a developed but need to fill naturally frame and average wide wingspan, Andrej Mitrevski is like a typical Balkanian point guard physically in my opinion. Has not any glorious length or strength but also he is not a player who has significant rooms to improve physically.
Nice width on shoulders which allows him good popping on biceps and triceps. Thin wrists on hands, good finger sensitivity, especially on the right hand, not hollow but not strong chests, stiff core muscles, and pretty strong back. Quick on his feet but legs need a lot of work. Lack of agility, strength, and mobility on his legs. Hips are strong, allow him to dribble spacing, can use it but lack of mobility on hips hurt him sometimes.
The athleticism part is a little interesting. Andrej Mitrevski is not an explosive athlete. Also, he is not an elite smooth athlete. However, while he looks like not a great athlete, Mitrevski makes up for it with excellent body coordination both in the air and on the ground, soft-touch, change of speed, and direction abilities. He also can initiate the contact and absorb the contact by using his shoulders, biceps, and chests. He makes a lot of money around the rim and attacks to closeouts by using these abilities.
However, there is a huge point that may affect his career negatively in the future. Lack of good vertical pop. Andrej Mitrevski is a guard and you may think elite vertical pop is not a needed thing. However, in today’s basketball, a lot of teams use pesky defensive philosophy on the shooters. And the guard or the shooter has to have vertical pop to avoid the block. And as you know, vertical pop is one of the three things fundamentals of shooting. However, Mitrevski is not good on this issue. He struggled to hit some 3-points last year over the defender due to lack of vertical pop. Good laterally and linearly on the defensive end. Can slide easily around the perimeter both offensively and defensively.
The conclusion side is not good from the NBA side. Because today’s NBA looking for a shifty athlete who can split the defensive line by using his explosiveness or smoothness. Mitrevski possesses burst, go-stop-go, sudden stop, and pull-up, absorb the contact abilities. However, lack of pureness hurt him here. From the European window, I think he is already a decent athlete if he can improve physically in a normal curve.
Offense
Andrej Mitrevski is a self-creator who has versatile weapons on the offensive end. He is almost a primary creator thanks to his handling, body coordination, finishing, driving, timing and BBIQ in my opinion. He does his best job offensive by scoring as a pick-and-roll handler.
On the finishing side, nice finisher around the rim with a good soft touch. He uses his body like a snake in tight spaces, passes his opponent with his change of speed and direction abilities, can change the ball hand against the direction of help-defense, uses his knees very well to avoid the block, uses an average jump, and finishes positions with inside hand finishing or getting in front of the defender finishing. He uses the glass very well to increase the momentum of the ball. Against the two defenders in tight spaces, he struggles but if he plays one-on-one against the big man after the screen, he pushes the defender with his right hand, drives the ball with his left hand. Then, he changes the ball direction and goes to the basket like a snake again. Does a nice job shielding the ball on drives. He uses a lot of bursts, body fakes and constant speed changes to draw contact and get to the free-throw line.
While he attacking to the rim, he also showing some forward tricks. He attacks from the left channel to the rim better than the right channel. And while doing it, he shifts his right shoulder to the defender, stops suddenly, takes a mini step with his left foot, uses half-sping, turns to the basket and finishes very well by using his body coordination, timing, awareness (also BBIQ) and soft touch. I saw it 16 times.
So, he is a good finisher overall but I would like to see him more aggressive to split the defensive line in some contesting situations. The first stage of the pick-and-roll window. Andrej Mitrevski is not a good passer and I think this is one of the two critical things on his offensive arsenal. However, when he plays as a scorer in the pick-and-roll, he is really good. I wrote his finishing skill-set and now trying to explain his operating ability. He calls the screen on his right, and if the defender biting on right too much, he suddenly goes to the left and attacks in free space. If the help defense comes in free space, Mitrevski can pass the open man on the weak side or the forward that dives in with the backdoor/flash/shallow cut. But he is not a good operator for the roller. Cannot see the court very well, cannot operate advanced and some traditional games. I think he has serious room to develop as a passer and visioner in my opinion.
The other critical thing about his offensive arsenal is the shooting. Andrej Mitrevski is not a bad shooter. Hit 27-of-27 on catch-and-shoot situations last year. 42-of-50 on jump shots. 35-of-37 on spot-ups. However, as you can see, the volume is not too good but also not too bad.
My biggest concern about his shooting is his form. I watched his recent films and some changes are good but still has some major problems.
In hit shots, Mitrevski bends his back well, aligns his knees well, quickly prepares his feet when picking up the ball, focuses his eye only on the target, maintains his elbow point, while giving the ball a good angle with his balance hand, he softens it a little while grasping the ball with perfect rigidity and removing it from his hand.
In cases where he cannot find a hit, his inability to bend his waist well and not align his knees well creates problems. But the biggest problem is, as I said at the beginning of this article, lack of elite vertical pop and strength. Mitrevski has this problem in all shooting types. The ball looks comfortable when it is released, the time takes to release is good, but the momentum and energy he gets from his lower body is a question mark. I think Mitrevski needs to improve in this regard.
Has shooting versatility. Mostly can hit catch-and-shoots behind the 3-points line but also has shown flashes while he creating his shots after burst or off the pick. He can hit 3-points as a DHO runner. In the mid-range, he can create his positions after one dribble or two dribbles. Also, good at some BLOBs and SLOBs as a mid-range shooter. His timing and release look good but the lower body needs to improve on the shooting side in my opinion.
Last note on his shooting ability. Andrej Mitrevski is not a shooter who uses a lot of unnecessary threes or forces the shots. Sometimes did it, yes, but at the end of the day, his ability to control the pace, feelings for the game avoid bad shot selections.
Off the ball scoring and transition situations are not bad but also not good. He has shown flashes as a backdoor scorer and screen the screener scorer but not comes up with high effort as an off the ball scorer. Can push the tempo in transition situations but does some simple TOs due to lack of elite passing ability.
Defense
Andrej Mitrevski is not a good defender in my opinion. He has a lot of significant rooms to improve but there are three good points which I want to talk about.
First, he is a good team defender. Good awareness on the perimeter and despite lack of elite size and frame good awareness on the interior. Andrej Mitrevski’s positional help defense is good. He knows when and how (slide? rotate? talk? fake?) to make helps. Hands are always up and he talks with his teammates always. But he is not a defensive playmaker.
Second, Mitrevski is a smart defender overall. When he guards the ballhandler, he always reads the ballhandler’s footwork. Uses his BBIQ, timing and body coordination to make the correct move. He sets-up his footwork very well and reacts very well to against the ballhandlers behind the 3-points line. However, when the ballhandlers start to drive, Mitrevski out of control. Good laterally but lack of elite athleticism, footwork and length hurt his stock here.
Third, he is energetic in the passing lanes. Comes up to the table with a lot of deflections rarely but nice job anticipating where the next pass will be.
He should work on all other defensive areas in my opinion. Cannot coverage pick-and-roll situations. Not switchable. N/A for rim protection. Reads closeouts well but he is not a player who can run around the screens. Not a good transition defender…
On the rebounding side, he is better than his overall defensive performance in my opinion. His game instincts make him a good defensive rebounder. Also, after the grabbing, he starts the offense quickly.
Questions
How much will he wide and length?
Will he be able to add a pure weapon to his athleticism package?
Will he be better at transferring energy from his lower body in the moving shot mechanism?
Which of his deficiencies in defense will he be able to overcome?
Will he be able to add a few tricks as a passer?
Overall
Basketball academies have been given great importance in recent years in Macedonia. I think Andrej Mitrevski is one of the two players who played in these academies with Teodor Simic and giving good light to the future. The emphasis on prospects in Macedonia and the efforts made for the development of the players there will make Mitrevski a better basketball player. But three things will be particularly important here: Athleticism, passing, and defense. If Mitrevski can develop in terms of vertical pop and fluency, add a few advanced passing tricks, and play with a decent defensive performance, his projection may change positively. I think one of the most important things will be his position.
If Mitrevski can length to around 6-foot-5, he may be better off playing as a shooting guard. Because as a self-creator, he can open huge holes in the opponent’s defensive channels by using his BBIQ, shooting, awareness, and attack to closeouts abilities. Also, making up for his defensive lacks will easier for his team.
At the end of the day, he is just a 17 years old basketball player. Coming up from great family and culture. Hungry to work and improve.
Last note, I really think that he is a great fit for the NCAA. Although his some notable lacks, Mitrevski is a consistent and pure scorer. So, NCAA is a good place for him in my opinion but again, staying in Macedonia will not hurt him.