Nemanja Nedović

Player profile

Nedović's strong points are his ball handling skills and elite athleticism, as he proved to be one of the very best athletes in European basketball. He is known for an excellent first step and can play easily above the rim. He was labeled during the 2013 NBA Draft as "The European Derrick Rose" by some ESPN analysts because of his athleticism, explosiveness, versatility, similar size, and ability to play both guard positions. After he was drafted by the Golden State Warriors, Mark Jackson, the team coach, has said that Nedović "is a very good athlete with highly deceptive speed."

Early years

Nedović began to train in Italy with Ascoli basketball when he was 11 years of age. He lived there because his father was playing professional handball locally with the Ascoli Piceno Handball. After that, he trained for two years in Nova Varoš. In 2005, he moved to Crvena zvezda at the age of 15. He had success in the junior competition, as in 2008, when he became champion with the junior team of Crvena zvezda.

After that, he moved to the first team where he finally made a breakthrough professionally. In his first season with the team, he was scoring in double digits, forcing the team management to extend a contract with him for one more season. He stayed in the club until June 2012.

Lietuvos Rytas

In the summer of 2012, he signed a contract with the Lithuanian team Lietuvos rytas Vilnius. In his first Euroleague season with Rytas he averaged 9.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

Golden State Warriors

On 27 June 2013 Nedović was selected with the 30th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He was later traded to the Golden State Warriors on draft night. He is also the last draft pick called by David Stern in his career as a commissioner of the NBA. On 9 July 2013 he signed with the Warriors. During his rookie season, he had multiple assignments with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League.

In July 2014, Nedović joined the Warriors for the 2014 NBA Summer League where he averaged 9.4 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists in five games. On 11 November 2014, he was waived by the Warriors.

Valencia

On 14 November 2014, Nedović signed a two-year deal with the Spanish team Valencia. Over five Euroleague games he played for Valencia, he averaged 8 points and 3.6 assists per game. In July 2015, he parted ways with the team.

Unicaja

On July 2, 2016, the same day when he parted ways with Valencia, he signed a one-year contract with Unicaja. On May 30, 2016, he signed a new two-year contract with the team.

Career statistics

Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season. He also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

Serbian national team

Nedović was member of U20 Serbia national basketball team in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. In 2012 he played with Serbia national basketball team at FIBA EuroBasket 2013 qualification. During Eurobasket 2013, Nedović's game saw many ups and downs as he led a very young and inexperienced, but nonetheless talented Serbia team, showing great performances against Lithuania and particularly France in a 77-65 blowout, in which he outplayed one of his role models, Tony Parker, scoring 17 points on 5/8 shooting for three. Serbia ended up being swept easily by Spain in quarterfinals as Nedović and the entire Serbia team struggled offensively.

He represented Serbia once again at the EuroBasket 2015 under head coach Aleksandar Đorđević, after missing the 2014 World Cup. In the first phase of the tournament, Serbia dominated in the toughest Group B with 5-0 record, and then eliminated Finland and Czech Republic in the round of 16 and quarterfinal game, respectively. However, they were stopped in the semifinal game by Lithuania with 67–64, and eventually lost to the host team France in the bronze-medal game with 81–68. Over 9 tournament games, Nedović averaged 8.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game on 52% shooting from the field.