Hiding in plain sight in a Madrid U18 league that has proven in the past few seasons to be a fertile ground for the development of future D1 and pro players, 6’3 PG Simeon Stefanovic (Class of 2025) has transitioned to senior level basketball in Spain with a bang and is very much showing that he’s a clear D1 prospect himself.
Stefanovic, who grew up in Finland but has Serbian roots, has always been around basketball. “I started playing basketball at a young age. I got into basketball because my dad was a coach” he tells EuroHoops Scouting in an exclusive interview, and it all progressed from there. By age 14, he moved to Spain, where he joined Joventut Badalona, and transferred the following summer to Baloncesto Torrelodones, a prestigious academy program in the wider Madrid region, where he spent the next three years.
After making his Liga EBA debut last season for Torrelodones, Stefanovic moved this summer to Ciudad de Móstoles, and his game has undergone a qualitative change. Now scoring 17.3 points per game —a top-5 mark in the league, with mostly veteran players ahead of him—, Stefanovic is displaying a much more polished offensive game. He’s not doing this on a weaker team either: Ciudad de Móstoles are 1st in the standings right now with a 7-1 record, ahead of traditional powerhouse Real Madrid.
Stefanovic profiles as an offensively versatile player with the upside to become an on-ball perimeter option driving efficient offense. He indicates that he “can play on the ball and off the ball”, both as a lead ball-handler running pick and rolls and as an off-ball player as a jumpshooter, which enables him to play in two-guard lineups next to other perimeter generators. “I can also read the game pretty well and get my teammates involved and make good decisions on the court”, he adds, and the numbers back that up, with Stefanovic averaging 3 assists through the first two months of competition.
His game is ultimately built around the jumpshot. “I work on it a lot”, Stefanovic says. “Sometimes after practice I stay shooting, and it’s just about confidence and repetition. I’ve been working on it since I was a little child, with my dad”. All that hard work has indeed yielded results. The lack of reliable data on Madrid’s U18 league did not allow for comparisons with similar-caliber shooters until now; however, in his first few games in Tercera FEB, Stefanovic’s combination of high volume and accuracy is on par with some of the best shooters to come through the Spain youth system in recent years:
Boasting a lightning quick release and elite footwork, Stefanovic’s ability to shoot from deep is truly a special weapon and should translate to a college setting too. The Finnish-Serbian guard has shown the ability to square up to his jumpshot both off the catch and off screens; while he isn’t the tallest guy around at 6’3, his release is quick and the footwork to square his shoulders is very polished and allows him to get his off perfectly fine. Although he has mostly had a leading role both in Torrelodones and this season in Ciudad de Móstoles, his skillset should enable a D1 program to expand their playbook to include a multitude of actions, including floppy sets or pindowns in which his ability to catch-and-shoot on the move can provide alternative ways to generate offense.
Perhaps more importantly, Stefanovic is more than just a shooter, and his improvement and maturity as a scorer is what should really convince D1 coaches to take a really long look at him. At 6’3, Stefanovic has perfectly fine size for a PG at a D1 level, and is showing a much-improved ability to score inside the arc as well and operating as the lead ball-handler and main offensive engine.
He’s shooting a blistering 71% from 2, a number that is more commonly associated with athletic big men who’s only job is to finish plays at the rim, usually after being assisted. Stefanovic’s role is the opposite: he’s a perimeter prospect without dominant size and athleticism that is tasked with generating offense off the dribble both for himself and for others. “I used to watch a lot of Kyrie” he admits. “I went out to my front yard and would try to do the moves he does, the pullups, the finishes, all that”, and it shows, as his shot diet includes varied and unpredictable shots: off-the-dribble midrange jumpshots, floaters, runners and contested layups. While this 2-point percentage will likely come down as the season progresses, the way Stefanovic is generating space for his shots seems real, as he’s using his handle, pace on the ball and the threat of his jumpshot to open up shot opportunities for himself inside the arc, and his shot-making ability has remained steady throughout his youth career and should continue shining the rest of the season.
The same maturity that has become evident in his scoring game has also translated to his playmaking. Tasked with plenty of on-ball generation, the game seems to be slowing down for Stefanovic, who is now able to make the right reads and find open corner shooters or the roll man consistently while playing against grown men in Tercera FEB. “I watch Darius Garland lately as well” Stefanovic indicates. “I like how he creates his own shots, and also the decision-making and IQ and how he gets his teammates going.” His 3 assists per game probably underscore this part of his game slightly, as he shoulders quite a big playmaking load for Ciudad de Móstoles and is finding a good balance between scoring and generating offense for teammates.
Stefanovic’s offensive ability was on full display in this season’s main highlight: his dominant outing against a good Baloncesto Fuenlabrada team featuring several youth basketball standouts, finishing with 24 points and notably scoring 14 points in overtime alone to secure a big win for his squad. This stretch was an excellent sample of what this season has been so far, with several off-the-dribble 3s —including the dagger that sealed the game—, some good assists to open teammates in pick and roll and a few instances of forcing fouls in pick-and-roll sets too to score free throws.
It’s still early in the season for Stefanovic, and opponents in a semi-professional, highly-tactical league like Tercera FEB will surely adjust as his name rises up team’s scouting reports. However, the progression in his game seems real, with a newfound maturity that goes hand-in-hand with his traditionally excellent scoring instincts and difference-making shooting ability. Still a bit of a late bloomer physically, Stefanovic has even more room to improve as his body continues to develop, he adds muscle to his frame and his athleticism rounds out. He’s already proving to be a D1 prospect, and his current performance in a Tercera FEB league that has been an excellent stepping-stone for successful D1 careers in the past should make a clear target for D1 coaches as they approach the key stretch for their Class of 2025 recruits.