European Prospects

The name of Kaloyan Ivanov bounced into the NBA Draft process last year when the Bulgarian PF declared himself to the Early Entrants list before retiring his name afterwards. This season where he is automatically eligible, we did not hear a lot about him so far, so that I decided to check what he is doing and if he can still be considered as a prospect.

Ivanov, who plays currently at Vive Menorca in the Spanish ACB is a physical inside player with excellent rebounding skills. He averaged 7.6rpg over the last 10 games of the regular season in the ACB in only 23 minutes per contest. So you see clearly where his forces are, close to the rim. Ivanov stands 2m05 tall and mainly plays down low. He goes sometimes for a three point shot but this is not his first option at all. His shot mechanics look however excellent for a player of his size.

The problem with him however, is that he has lots of ups and downs in his game which can be explained by his aggressive type of play. Ivanov knows how to bang down low and has a nice physical build to hold off in the post against bigger players. In the low post, he has a nice turn-around jump shot which he can hit when turning to his right side.

The Bulgarian forward had his best game this season at home against Bilbao where he managed to grab 20 rebounds. You can see him during that game with #10 in the clip below.

Currently, I don’t know if any NBA team is still considering him as a possible choice in the Draft.