Đorđe Ćurčić 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: Borac — He is playing in the KLS and JLS.
DOB: 7.10.2004
Nationality: Serbian
Height: 6-foot-2
Wingspan: 6-foot-3
Weight: N/A
Shooting hand: Right
Primary position: Point guard
Secondary position: Shooting guard
Projection: EuroLeague (1), Basketball Champions League & EuroCup (2), NBA (3)
Đorđe Ćurčić was born on July 10, 2004, in Serbia. He comes from a cultured family that cares about education. His family cares for him to build a basketball career. He is a point guard but sometimes plays as a secondary ballhandler who very effective in zipper and stagger situations from under the basket to top of the key to use the mismatch and make a score.
Playing in Borac since the beginning of his career, Ćurčić has not yet debuted in FIBA events, but he is doing impressive work for Borac at KLS and JLS levels. He averaged 18.5 points (21/35 2PTS, 5/21 3PTS, 17/26 FT), six assists in four games. He was a factor in his team’s wins against Star, Sloga and Dynamic VIP.
As I learned from a source from the Zadar, Ćurčić has a character who always speaks to his teammates, has high leadership instincts (you can see this often at the court, too) and likes to have fun but also to be disciplined. He has a good work ethic.
From the eye-test window, I can say that clearly, Ćurčić is a leader who has excellent court vision as an off the ball player and on the ball player, communication ability with others and leadership charisma. He has excellent feels for the game, anticipation, plays with his heart and always reacts to positions positively or negatively.
I’ve seen him talk to his teammates many times, support his teammates or express their wrong moves to them, and always support his team when he is on the bench. With his body language and correct decisions (would like to see him more balanced on 3-points shoot selections but not a prone right now) he positively affects his team, his head coaches give him this free space, and his teammates okay with his leadership. As a leader, I think he’s a mature player over his age that many teams would like to see on their roster.
Physical & Athleticism
Đorđe Ćurčić has the potential to be a good NBA player in my opinion but his physical tools and athleticism abilities destroying his NBA projection completely. Standing 6-foot-2 with a lanky frame and plus one wingspan, Đorđe Ćurčić has a lot of serious room to improve physically in my opinion. The width on shoulders and the agility on legs good, also, has good popping on triceps and biceps but I don’t see enough space to grow. I mean, his length is really a huge problem.
Since he is only 16 years old, of course, all the doors are not closed physically for him, he can grow two inches in a few years, but the main problem here is Ćurčić’s genetics, his family background does not good physically. He will also need a lot of time to fill in the length. That’s why I do not consider him an NBA prospect anyway. Lack of physical tools.
The other main problem with his NBA projection is about the athleticism window. Đorđe Ćurčić is quick on his feet, has good, very good first step, has the ability to change direction, has very great burst, go-stop-go and euro step weapons, also good laterally, has the balance on the ground and can use his hands and arms very well to protect the ball when the attack to the basket. However, I don’t define him good from the athleticism window due to lack of vertical pop, guard explosiveness, and elite smoothness. He is a really quick player overall, can run on the full court very well, also can finish in traffic but he has not the ability to slashing clearly. I mean, he can finish in traffic because his court vision, first step, ballhandling, and quickness allow it. So, not thanks to athleticism.
At first glance, this may not seem like a huge problem. I think this is not a big problem for European standards. Because we see that elite guards such as Nick Calathes and Nando De Colo, although they do not have elite athletics packages, they can make up for it with their quickness, balance and other basketball skills (handling, court vision, BBIQ, etc.). But we also know that the lack of athleticism of these players in the NBA pace will be a big problem. I think this is exactly what is true for Ćurčić.
Offense
Đorđe Ćurčić is a really good and very smart self-creator in one-on-one, transition and pick and roll situations. He does get to the basket as much as you would like and he is a definitely solid finisher. He is very comfortable using his both hands around the basket and has versatile finishing styles: Inside hand, bump and fade, over the rim protector and snake finishing.
Đorđe Ćurčić does not miss easy layups around the basket, he shows nice shiftiness around the basket, and knows how to avoid the defender’s block.
In doing so, Đorđe Ćurčić is able to integrate his finishing abilities with his game instinct, court vision, BBIQ, the ability to change drive tempo, burst, and handling. He is really good on change direction and change speed things.
For example, if the defender is a big man when he drives to the basket, Ćurčić bounces the ball closer to the ground, making it harder for the big man tto steal the ball. While changing the angle of the ball, he takes a soft first step and shows his aggressiveness in the second step, and he breaks the body balance of the rim protector and creates an easy layup angle.
If the defender is a forward or guard when he drives to the basket, Ćurčić usually passes his opponent easily after hesitation and finishes positions quickly.
Despite he has a lot of room to improve physically, Ćurčić is a solid finisher in traffic. He cannot absorb the contact always, but, his quickness with the ball, splitting ability and footwork make up it for him very well. But if he tries to finish positions against very good rim protectors or very physically defender, of course, he cannot finish but the best thing here that he is not a forces the game player. He knows when and how he should go to the basket. So, smart, very smart finisher.
Excellent pick and roll player both as a handler and as a passer. From the handling side, he can split the screen easily with a pretty nice hop and makes it really tough to defend him. If the defender goes under the screen, he can manipulate all strong side defensive line easily thanks to his hesitation, ballhandling, quickness and court vision. If the opponent team likes to use drop in PnRs, DC draws the ballhandler around half-court line and passes him by using his crossover ability, then drives to the basket to make a score or give a pass.
He is an excellent passer in all terms. My favorite takeaway about his passing about his game awareness. There was a possession where he split the screen and the ballhandler defender comes up behind DC. In this possession, DC drives on right attack zone and looks like he will give a pass to right corner shooter. But he sees the defender who comes behind him and he changes the ball’s direction quickly to left corner shooter, and this shooter hit a very critical 3-points shot.
An unselfish player, Đorđe Ćurčić is an all-around passer. He can give all kind of passes: Drive and dish to the open man or interior, great to manipulate the defense and create space for the roller in PnR situations, does good job on skip passes particularly, can change the team’s offensive geometry quickly and smartly, does see the full court very well, has excellent finger and hand sensitivities, uses his hip turns to protect the ball (think what Facundo Campazzo does, he uses his back) and can give a pass after turn his face to the basket quickly, excellent BBIQ, deep creator, does a really good job at keeping his head up and knowing where his teammates, can operate transition situations easily. I can give five stars on his passing abilities for sure. And I think he can translate this ability to higher levels because he really feels the game and shows his advanced BBIQ. So, he is not a passer who can make a lot of assists just because his age group.
On the ballhandling side, he has a variety of styles and he uses what he needs in possessions. He is not the best shifty ballhandler in the world but his burst, change of speed abilities, timing and court vision increase his value as a ballhandler. So, average shiftiness/craftiness and good deceptiveness on his ballhandling in my opinion.
Đorđe Ćurčić does a really good job at using his handle to create space for his layups and shots. He can drive to the basket, can handle the ball with his two hands.
Despite having significant physical cons, Ćurčić does not too much TOs, thanks to the precision in his handle and ability to change the ball’s direction against physical defenders. I just would like to see him more aggressive as a ballhandler, he splits the screen very well but when he does it, he usually uses his footwork, not handling. Anyway, it is not a big question mark. I think he is an above-average handler.
Ćurčić’s ability to shoot is one of his worst weapons in the offensive end. Overall, he is an inconsistent shooter. He can create his shot, and also, has shown flashes as a catch-and-shooter behind the 3-points line but his shot versatility is not good. Not a good mid-range shooter, has not any threat as a shooter in detailed sets like stagger 2–1, red ram, 1–4 floppy line, etc. However, as a creator, he can create his shooting space easily by using his footwork, handling and BBIQ.
The main problem with the shooting is his form. Has two motions shooting form, looks comfortable in this form but some major problems here. Elbow points are good, eyes always on the target and can bend his kneecaps very well with good alignment. But he does not a good job on bends his back, loads the ball, and gives momentum to the ball from his left hand. Has a problem with last touch, too hard. Above the head release and it is hard to contest his shoot both thanks to his BBIQ and release but I would like to see him faster in his form. Last note on his shooting: As I mentioned, Ćurčić is not a forces the game player but sometimes he uses a lot of unnecessary shots. Really forces the shot, trust his shot too much but I don’t think he is a huge threat as a shooter for the defense. But also, you cannot leave him alone behind the 3-points line.
I don’t think he is a good on the offensive end as an off the ball player. Has great BBIQ, talks with his teammates and always active but he is not a player who can make deep cuts to create his off the ball spacing. Just stationary.
Defense
On the defensive end, Đorđe Ćurčić is really active and engaged defender. He is very good in the team’s harmony. However, he is a limited defender because of size and length.
Đorđe Ćurčić’s team Borac uses the full court press frequently, such as every team in U15, U16, U17, U18 levels. Đorđe Ćurčić’s role in this press is to cut off the ballhandler’s dribble angle using body coordination, active hands, BBIQ, anticipation, and quick reactions, and an intense defense on his opponent.
Ćurčić can also do these works in half court one-on-one defense. He can guard point guards and shooting guards in a pesky way with the abilities I just mentioned, but he becomes a weak defender against the opposing team’s actions such as PnR, zipper, Nash 21, DHO-based mobility due to the lack of elite physical tools.
He is a good team defender who takes smart risks to steal the ball. Two hands are always active, head looking to see deep things and he is fast to rotate along the perimeter. However, there are times where gambling does not pay off (results is usually good) and sometimes he watches the ball a lot and this hurts him as an off the ball defender but overall, he is a good defender with leadership skill — not a defensive playmaker.
The good words about his defensive skills are finished in my opinion. He has a lot of serious rooms to improve on the defensive end but I don’t think he can be a better defender without any improvement physically. Because he has discipline closeouts, and smart with rotations but he cannot contest the offense’s shooting due to lack of elite arm’s length. He really fights in the opponent’s PnRs to make good rotate but cannot runs well around the screens. In these cases, he reminds me Malachi Flynn who standing 6-foot-1 with plus two wingspan and a 185-pound frame. But Flynn has really good width and flexibility on his upper body, and has good legs. DC is standing 6-foot-2 with plus one wingspan but lack of width and flexibility really hurts him as a defender.
From the technical, willingness and BBIQ windows, he is a good defender, but in the practice part, he is a defender with low limits. Therefore, the ceiling he will reach physically will affect his level on the defensive end.