Bogoljub Marković Scouting Report

As one of the youngest draft-eligible prospects, the ABAFutureStars MVP comes up as this year's mystery man in the draft community. What's the NBA intrigue? Find out more below.

Marković won MVP of the ABAFutureStars final tournament earlier this month. At 18 years old, he’s one of the top Serbian prospects of the last two summers. He was the leader in the 2023 FIBA U18 European Championship after a decent outing at the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup.

At 961 minutes in 35 games, Marković found valuable reps this season, mostly in the Serbian KLS league, where his team ended the year in 10th place. An important measurement to determine success as a pro is production early on when given the chance. Marković ended the season with 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists while shooting 57.6% from the field.

Physical Profile

At 6’11”, Marković offers size and positional versatility for his NBA role. Despite his lanky frame, he’s a good athlete with a good first step and decent mobility for his size. He slides his feet well enough for his current level of play, opening the door to guard several positions at the next level.

At 195 pounds, Marković continued to fill his frame this season. He still has to get stronger to see consistent NBA minutes. However, he does play with a level of toughness that comes with the fundamentals-heavy Serbian youth development. To take the most out of his physical tools, Marković will benefit from an NBA strength and conditioning program.

Offense

Marković will serve as a perimeter option for teams who like to run four or five-out sets. His ability to attack closeouts with his combination of timing and decent lateral quickness make him a dangerous scoring option in the future. However, at a 47% finishing rate on 249 attempts near the rim in the last three seasons, Marković shows his glaring need to improve his touch at the rim.

In the first play below, Marković does well to attack the middle of the floor but looks phased by the presence of the big man who is planted near the rim. With no defensive three-second rule in FIBA-organized games, it’s an important nuance to his low rim-finishing rate of 47%. However, his plays on that end show that his touch is inconsistent as Marković looks more confident on straight-line drives, as shown in the second and third plays below.

An important measurement to showcase his aggressive style of play is his 76.2% free-throw shooting on 5.7 attempts this season.

While projected to play in a low-usage role, Marković has to show that he can knock down open three-pointers. If he doesn’t, then the value added by his floor-spacing and perimeter play at 6’11” will be mitigated to a risk to a team’s offensive rating.

At 35.4% on 3.2 three-point attempts this year, the outcome is good. Especially when considering the lack of spacing in Europe, compared to the American game. While looking at this shooting mechanics, Marković shows a high-arching release and does the little things needed to come to a quick release, like moving toward the ball, as shown in the second and third plays below.

He is a team-first type of player. Despite Marković being one of the team’s most important players, he has no issues in settling to a role in the corner or playing without many ball touches. That’s a positive an NBA decision-maker should add to their report when evaluating his profile.

What gives Marković a solid base as a scorer is the variety of ways of him finding looks for himself. He’s a decent screener. Not good, but improving and good enough to be an effective player in a lower-level Serbian KLS league. His screening has to improve to see consistent NBA minutes. That’s something an NBA decision-maker should consider adding to his developmental plan.

In pick-and-pop sequences, Marković stands out with his shot selection. He shows that he doesn’t have to attack every closeout that comes to him, but he’s very selective in his three-point shooting. That’s a positive, especially when considering the aggressive nature of his scoring game.

In the first play below, Marković does well to collapse the defense by attacking the rim. He could have chosen to kick the ball out to an open shooter, but he went for the finish himself, utilizing the height advantage he had over his defender. In the second play, we see him shoot on the catch with the amount of space he has. Shot selection is key for projected low-usage players, and Marković shows good things.

Another NBA translatable skillset for Marković is his passing. He’s a decent passer who recognizes plays and can create passing angles for himself. But he’s not a good passer yet.

In the second play, the pass was a tad too wide, forcing the shooter to correct before the launch. In the first play, we see Marković showing flashes of short-roll playmaking and his hitting the big man near the dunker spot was a good decision. However, in the future when his court vision improves, he’ll be more comfortable hitting the corner shooter on kick-out passes. Regardless, the pass was a good decision, but it separates being a great and good passer in this case.

With the league valuing passing big men who can dribble and shoot, Marković offers offensive versatility on that end by being used as a ball-mover or playmaking hub in the interior on four-out styles of offensive sets.

Defense

As a pick-and-roll defender, Marković has to improve in the next few years. He’s playing differently than most drop-coverage types of big men. He’s comfortable in going over screens, hedge, or even blitz ball handlers when he has the chance.

In the first play below, Marković corrects himself from going over the screen, seeing that he’s switched to the ball handler. However, this led to him losing his balance and thus the ball handler blowing by him for the finish at the rim. In the third play, we see Marković tag screeners, which he does often when he’s playing closer to the ball handler.

In the fourth play below he’s yet again switched to the ball handler, but did well in dropping enough to still contest the midrange pull-up jumper.

While defending against closeouts, Marković looks comfortable in sliding his feet as he forces ball handlers to beat him off the dribble. In the third play below, we see a sequence of him aggressively trying to overtake the play in the corner in a more isolation-based setting.

On an NBA floor, he’ll have to do this more often when considering he’ll play on a floor with better spacing compared to Europe. A risk in his profile is that he’s struggling against quicker guards as shown in the first play below. This is something an NBA decision-maker must take in mind when evaluating his profile, as he hasn’t seen much athleticism of the average North American guards, compared to a more fundamental and craft-based European style of play from guards.

While defending against cutters, Marković shows that he has to improve as an off-ball defender to be able to play NBA minutes in the future. While he’s a decent to good on-ball defender in pick-and-roll sequences or when he’s defending against closeouts. We see teams targeting him in the more European-styled utilization of post-players.

This is one of the reasons why he did well to stay in Europe and not play college basketball. While we see less and less traditional post players in the NBA, it’s something an NBA decision-maker must add to his evaluation. Especially in playoff settings, a team will take anything to gain advantages on offensive sets. And in Marković’s case, it’ll be teams switching and targeting him inside the arc. A solution to partially mitigate the above-mentioned is for him to get stronger in the next few years. Despite his aggressive style of play, he isn’t built yet to defend effectively against stronger NBA centers.

In the first play below, he’s out of position by getting lured to leave the paint and position himself closer to the perimeter, with a simple entry pass being enough to lose two points. We see the same in the second play, but luckily for Marković, the entry pass wasn’t good, leading to the opponent’s turnover. In the third play, it’s clear that Marković is too focused on responding to off-ball cuts rather than sticking to the defensive scheme. When he’s positioned inside the arc or in the post, he should have benefitted from a non-existent three-second rule.

For the NBA that’s less of a worry, but it does show that Marković needs many reps to improve as an off-ball defender, lowering his draft value.

Another area of development for Marković is his help defense. He’s so focused on what the ball handler does in the first and second plays, that he subconsciously moves too much on the court, leading to too much ground to cover when he has to close out against shooters.

Being too reactionary to what the ball handler will do, and at times ball-watch too much leads to defenses collapsing in Marković’s assignments having room for backdoor cuts, or simply making them the forgotten man for defenses.

In the third play below, Marković is confused about who has to rotate, which is another bad sign for his future as an off-ball defender. An important nuance is that these plays were from the summer of 2023, however, while he has shown improvement in the meantime, it’s still an area an NBA decision-maker must figure out in the future, giving it a more prominent role in their developmental plan for Marković.

NBA Draft Projection

Marković will still be 18 years old on draft night. His size combined with his ability to dribble, pass, and shoot are big value risers of his profile. He’s a good passer who will improve on that end in the future. Opening up his potential as an offensively versatile frontcourt piece who can play on several NBA teams that value four or five-out playing sequences.

However, his off-ball defense, as described in the last two parts above, is his challenge. That’s the crucial area of his game to develop to see consistent NBA minutes. Another area Marković has to work on is getting stronger in the future. By further filling his frame, he’ll be able to defend against average NBA frontcourt pieces.

In the NBA, Marković has a variety of ways to score, mainly focusing on shooting off the catch or making plays out of closeouts. His handles aren’t good, but improving as he’s mainly focused on straight-line drives, rather than playing with creativity.

Based on the above-mentioned pros and cons, I expect Marković to possibly be a late second-round stash pick who will play in Europe for at least one more season before moving to the States. He’s more suited to be on a two-way deal to improve in the G League, rather than seeing an NBA floor early on in his career.