Ivan Perasovic 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: Split
DOB: 23 April 2002–18.7 YO
Height: 6-foot-7
Wingspan: 6-foot-9
Weight: 210 lbs
Primary position: Small forward
Secondary position: Power forward
Projection: Euroleague (1), NBA (2), Basketball Champions League & Eurocup (3)
Ivan Perasovic was born on April 23, 2002, in Croatia. He is the son of Velimir Perasovic, a famous basketball head coach. He fell in love with basketball watching his father and older brother play, it pretty much became a profession for him when he realized he can make a career out of it. He had offers from the NCAA but did not want to go there. Because wants to stay in Europe. He likes to play video games, especially action games. Also, he is a really good reader. His favorite meal is pizza, movie is the Interstellar and TV show is the Peaky Blinders. He wants to play in the NBA, his favorite city in the USA is that Miami. He another interest area besides basketball is economics & marketing.
Physical & Athleticism
Standing 6-foot-7 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan and well-developed 210-pound frame, Ivan Perasovic has pretty impressive size and frame in my opinion. Because his skill-set and physical tools make him a versatile basketball player, which the modern-era basketball needs much. Perasovic has not the best physical tools in his class but by looking at his progress physically, you would define him as a hard worker. Because two years ago, at Novi Sad 2018 FIBA European Championship U16, he had great length but had no any physical strength. However, right now, has good width on shoulders, this width on shoulders gives him the opportunity to build good triceps and biceps in the future if he puts in the work in the weight room. Not too much impressed with his arms strength but length is good. Strong chest and core muscles give him an advantage on post-up and low-post games. He won a lot of face-up possessions in the last two years by using chest and core muscle strength. Good body coordination, knows when and which part of his body he has to use on the offensive end and on the defensive end. Nice lateral movement, not too quick but knows how to use his foot laterally for slide around the perimeter on the defensive end. Has baby jump on his shooting, nice energy transfer from his hips, this gives him extra energy on his shots and low-post turns in my opinion. Despite has not explosive and aggressive BBIQ, Perasovic showed highlights dunk flashes both in transition situations and self creations (puts the ball on the floor, attacks to the basket and makes impressive dunk). Not too quick linearly, quick on the open floor but without the ball. Legs need more work in my opinion. Thin and slow, I think his legs biggest improvement area on his body right now. Because this lack also creates defending one-on-one situations problems. For the European level, Perasovic has decent physically, not looks like Yugoslavian basketball players but also not looks like high-flying basketball players, 100% versatile.
Offense
Ivan Perasovic does a little bit of everything on the offensive end in my opinion. Despite has not any killer-weapon on his offensive arsenal, Perasovic is a different scorer for his age. He is excellent on flare, backdoor, V, shallow, deep and curl cuts to take his low-post position on off the ball motions. He starts position on right attack area, uses the cross/down screen, cuts to the left low-post, takes the ball uses drop step to the baseline or reverse spin to the flashy basket.
On the finishing side, soft touches but I would like to see a little bit of finger sensitivity on his last touch, because sometimes the ball goes out his hand too hard. Can finish with both hands, solid finisher, does a pretty good job getting the ball quickly, also, does a nice job switching hands when has to avoid the shot blocker/rim protector. Can change direction on the ground but has not strong first step and smoothness. Just a solid athlete. Can not shifty his weight to his opponent to create an advantage but knows how to use his length when he attack to the basket. Can finish his right better than his left, so better finisher around his right shoulders than his left shoulders.
Has not any floater, teardrop on his finishing, also I would like to see him more active to use the glass. Has great BBIQ, does not dribble, or try to finish in intense traffic but if he has to, he can rise off one and finish through contact sometimes. My biggest concern about his finishing ability around the basket is that IP sometimes is too shy. I mean, when he takes the ball under the basket after cut from the weakside to the strong side, he waits, worries about the blocker and this creates a huge timing disadvantage. He has this problem since 2017. Has to be more self-confident. He can finish as a slasher but usually, he is like lob threat (at the FIBA events, he had a lot of lob points thanks to Croatia’s flare cut setup), dunker spot, low-post cutter, quick finishing scorer.
The shooting side is another reason why I called him different. Ivan Perasovic can stretch the floor with his shooting ability. He is not a good mid-range shooter, just spotting up on the left baseline, not middle or right usually. From the 3-points window, he can create his shots and can hit as a spot-up shooter. However, his shooting form is really unorthodox. Shot pocket is almost stuck to his forehead, his right hand is right at his head, his left hand is wide open and he grabs the ball from the edge and gives balance. This makes it difficult to block his shot but also hurts the release.
Perasovic is not an inconsistent shooter, but the ball goes out sometimes very curved and sometimes very flat. If he can keep his left hand a little lower, he can give better momentum to the ball in my opinion. Everything is fine in his lower body, he can transfer energy from his hips, the parallelism between his knees and his feet is good, he also has a nice mini jump. Buying his shoot a little gamble but the best thing here is that Perasovic does not force the shot, almost use true shots every time. Briefly, versatile shooting potential, but yes, has room right now. (By the way, he is a better shooter in the left zone than right zone. Does not try shots in the middle.
So he can stretch the floor, a good fit for the small-ball lineup and also has a good interior scoring package, active on off the ball motions, has off the ball BBIQ which is very important for all 18 years old basketball players in the world and has good length. But why he is not a “hot” prospect?
Very simple reasons: Ballhandling, passing, responsibility and pick-and-roll scoring. Ivan Perasovic has a lot of room to get improve on all these areas. He knows how to protect the ball and how to take steps to attack while going to the basket but has not any crafty, shifty and extra things. Just a normal dribbler, handler, also, passer. He is not even a good read-and-reacts passer. So he knows that and plays as a third ball handler (was the fourth ballhandler in Croatia NJT because of Roko Prkacins’s ballhandling ability).
He can not score in pick-and-roll situations. Knows when and which style he should try to make something on the offensive end but he is not someone I would like to give the ball in clutch time if he is not the best scorer in the game.
Defense
Ivan Perasovic is not a defensive playmaker and does not intense defense consistently. However, his team awareness, off the ball defense and closeouts make him a good defender in my opinion. His defensive skill-set is out of charts. Has not dozens of steals, blocks but he really can be a factor on the defensive end in my opinion.
Good BBIQ, possesses good awareness. Not too many talks on defense but this is not a “has to” situation for him. Because he knows when and where to rotate, slide, help defense. Slides really well around the perimeter against fake screens. The Croatian prospect also does a good job tagging the cutter in help and getting back to his man later.
Almost excellent off the ball defender. Despite he has room to get stronger, Ivan Perasovic does a good job through screens when necessary but his best job on off the ball defense is zone control. I mean, while he guarding his man on the weak-side he also watching strong-side actions. If the ball comes to his zone, Perasovic does nice help-defense without gives a free space on his man. If the ball comes to his man, he really does a nice job sticking close to his man, shoulder to shoulder fight. So he can limit the opponent’s spacing. The biggest bad factor here is his lack of quickness on the defensive end. He runs well, follows well but if his man quicker than him, and has good slashing ability, Perasovic cannot in front of him. Despite he slides laterally to cut off the ball handler with absorbing the contact and has active hands, lack of quickness hurt his off the ball, actually, general defensive package in my opinion.
Closeouts defense is really good. Ivan Perasovic does a pretty impressive things closing spacing on the shooter by using his length, vertical pop, active hands, BBIQ, timing and stop ability. I mean, when he runs for closeout, he can stop very well in front of the shooter and avoid the foul. Can rotate the hips, but sometimes biting on pump and burst fakes. He forces his man by pressuring the ball, can control the attacker and force him to expose the ball bu using his BBIQ.
Needs work on the ball defense. He is better when defending on top of the key attacks. However, when the offense play against him from left or right zone, his efficiency on one-on-one defense is down. Probably the biggest reason here is his lack of quickness. I mean, the court’s space limits his zone. Plus, he can guard quicker players. He even can guard physical players thanks to his strength but cannot do it against shifty, crafty players.
Has not any pick-and-roll and post-up defensive abilities. Interesting switch potential. He showed that he can guard PGs, SGs, SFs and PGs. Not super quick but hips, length, anticipation, BBIQ and active hands make him a good positional defender. However, he has to be work on 1v1 and PnR (he just slides well on off the ball screen games, cannot do it on classical PnR games) defenses in my opinion.
Last and best probably. Has great rebounding ability. He will find a man on shots to block out, or he will run down rebounds. He is not afraid to mix it up against bigger and stronger players during defensive rebounding situations. On the offensive end, he likes to mix under the basket to create an advantage for his team, this is pretty impressive in my opinion.
Questions
Ability to compete at the NBA level and adjust to the NBA’s level of physical play and defensive rules?
Able he plays as a power forward at high-levels to stretch the floor?
Able to play multiple pick-and-roll situations?
Most important, will he add a little above the average ballhandling skills?
Overall
Ivan Perasovic is an 18 years old basketball player with versatility wise. Has impressive BBIQ for his age. Active on off the ball motions, can stretch the floor, has post scoring, knows how to use his length on the offensive end, defensively, comparative and gives everything. However, his lack of handling, scoring consistency (he is not a hot scorer), passing and elite athleticism tools and shooting threat limited his projection in my opinion. I do not think he can be an NBA player due to these problems. But from the European window, he has the potential to play in top EuroCup or low EuroLeague teams. Because he already has BBIQ, good team player, has good off court life, average shooting threat, can score on post zone and under the basket. Split’s youth system is not the best but above the average. And do not forget that, Perasovic has the basketball gene. He used to work, learn about basketball. So he may not be able to enter the NBA with a draft. But he can do this when he is 24–25–26 years old like dozens of European basketball players in my opinion.