Stanford signee Andrej Stojakovic selected to McDonald's All-American game
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Stanford's highest ranked commit in their 2023 class, five-star forward Andrej Stojakovic, has been selected to the McDonald's All-American game as one of 24 high school All-Americans, as announced on ESPN on Tuesday.
Widely viewed as the most prestigious All-American game at the high school level, the McDonald's All-American game has hosted some of the sports best players of all-time with names such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and LeBron James among many others all having participated in the illustrious event.
In terms of Stanford's history with the McDonald's All-American game, Stojakovic marks the 10th Stanford player to make it, and the third in the past four years.
The Sacramento-area native has been rapidly rising through the recruiting rankings after being virtually unknown just a year and a half ago. The son of NBA All-Star Peja, the sharpshooting forward has wide variety of skills he is bringing to the Farm as broken down by 247Sports' Adam Finkelstein:
Stojakovic is a highly skilled wing who has good positional size, is able to score from multiple levels, and even initiate offense as a guard. The son of former NBA all-star Peja Stojakovic, Andrej is a proven shot-maker like his dad with a full assortment of threes, pull-ups, and step-backs. Also not unlike his dad, he is working to perfect his own, semi-unconventional release, that comes up on the left side of his body. He’s very comfortable in the mid-post and mid-range areas where he creates separation and uses his positional size to score over top of smaller defenders. He’s not a naturally explosive athlete and while he’s going to have lots of opportunities to attack close-outs, he could better weaponize his handle in order to get paint touches more easily as a playmaker. He’s also not totally explosive at the rim or yet physically strong enough to absorb a lot of contact as a finisher. From a statistical standpoint, the 37% he shot inside the arc during 3SSB play was a pretty glaring outlier in terms of an area that needed improvement. Equally notable, are some current liabilities on the defensive end of the floor. Overall, the crux of the long-term evaluation and projection on Stojakovic depends on whether he is done growing yet. He’s already a bit older for his grade, having turned 18 this summer, but has he big feet, strong legs, and the type of undeveloped upper-body that suggests his frame could still be stretching out. If that proves to be the case, this is a prospect whose ascension might only be just beginning. Even if not, his combination of size, skill, and shot-making is already very rare, and taking his game to the next level just depends on the progression of his frame and consequent ability to pose more of a scoring threat inside the lane and effective presence on the defensive end of the floor.
The game will take place Tuesday, March 28, at the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets.
