Andrej Stojakovic: The Revamped Slasher

Rowan Kent takes a look at Illinois' Andrej Stojakovic, who has given a modern spin to the age-old role of the slasher, which could lead him to being drafted in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft.

Outside of scouting the NBA draft, which takes up most of my time, I try to live a nuanced, varied life. From nightly cooking with my fiancé to playing on a recreational volleyball team, there’s a Rowan out there who doesn’t spend all of his time grinding tape or combing advanced stats. More than anything else outside of scouting, however, is my love for horror movies.

Since I had sleepless sleepovers with high school friends in each other’s basements, torturing ourselves with the classics, I’ve been a fan of horror as a genre from movies to TV shows and beyond. While I certainly have my favorite films, I’m not the biggest fan of the straightforward slasher flicks. Sure, I appreciate A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for their defining places in the pantheon of horror. Still, I’m more pulled by paranormal or psychological horror movies.

That doesn’t mean I don’t love a good slasher, however. This time, I’m talking about basketball. The role of a slasher, a player whose whole shtick is shredding his way to the basket, is admittedly a bit less en vogue than it used to be. The rise of the three-pointer has certainly dimmed the spotlight on this particular player’s archetype. However, there’s still a need in every offense for an aficionado at attacking the basket.

That’s Illinois’s Andrej Stojakovic, one of the European stars for Brad Underwood’s foreign-infused Fighting Illini squad. Having honed his craft at Stanford and Cal, Stojakovic brought his portal-mercenary status to Champaign to play alongside the most talented roster he’d ever seen in college. There, he’s not only played well enough to earn draft consideration, but he’s put a fresh spin on the role of a slasher and invigorated it with some revamped flair.

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Hack and Slash

With an article titled “The Revamped Slasher,” I’m not going to waste any time dawdling before getting into Andrej Stojakovic’s best skill for his NBA future. Stojakovic is second on the team in scoring, but is one of five players who are averaging double figures for Illinois. While he isn’t just a scorer, as I’ll touch on later, it is his big-ticket appeal.

At 6’7” and 215 pounds, alongside a rumored 6’10” wingspan, Stojakovic brings an ideal wing build. He’s not the most physically imposing from a strength standpoint, nor does he boast a great vertical, but, like other famous slashers in cinema, Stojakovic’s signature skill is his lethal mastery of his craft.

So far this season for the Fighting Illini, per Synergy, Andrej Stojakovic is shooting a sizzling 65.3% at the rim on 75 attempts. That’s a great number for any player, but given he only has three dunks on the season, it represents the keen skill and craft that he has as a killer finisher at the basket.

I wouldn’t describe Stojakovic as a player with excellent touch or wonderful body control, but his blend of both skills is what makes him great. He can kiss shots off the glass, contort his body enough to get around defenders, and show toughness to finish through contests.

Mostly, however, what makes Stojakovic a slashing extraordinaire is how he wins his reps at the start of his possessions. Brad Underwood has done a splendid job of getting Stojakovic touches on both the wing and the elbow with a cleared-out floor around him, giving him the room to hack and slash to his heart’s content.

While it may be less popular nowadays to go one-on-one against a defender from a standstill position, Stojakovic is an exception due to his jittery isolation package. With savvy head fakes, ball fakes, and a series of potent jab steps that can legitimately move defenders, Stojakovic is hitting a smoking 61.5% of his spot-up two-pointers and an elite 77.8% of his isolation two-pointers on these types of touches.

Call me a sucker for the classics, but it’s refreshing to see a player with such a robust focus on a slashing craft that’s less stylish than bombing from deep. A modern star wing must be good at both driving and shooting, but Andrej Stojakovic isn’t going to be a star in college or the NBA. Instead, he’s a role player who has a clear offensive role of getting to the rim and a real knack for finishing once he gets there.

It’s not just from a standstill where Stojakovic does his damage. Whether galloping in transition with a timely filled lane or using his fabulous fakes to create space in the pick-and-roll game, Stojakovic is more than just a spot-up driver. He won’t be called upon to dominate the ball on offense, but he’s more than worth a solid share of possessions for his future NBA team.

It’s uncommon for NBA teams to start players with such a pigeonhole focus on scoring unless that player is a true star. Given that Stojakovic won’t be that, It’s a bit difficult to see him becoming a starter at the NBA level early on in his career. That’s due not only to his limited scope as an offensive player, but also due to his other weaknesses on both ends of the floor.

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A “Nightmare” on South 1st Street

I’m reaching with the title of this section by sticking with the slasher aesthetic of the column, as Andrej Stojakovic is far from a nightmare for the Fighting Illini. He’s one of their best players and had a significant role in their marquee win against Texas Tech on both ends of the floor. Even with his importance and positive play, however, Stojakovic has some aspects of his game that make him less of an imposing horror-movie slasher and more of a vanquishable villain.

Let’s start with the most obvious place where Stojakovic has a hole in his game: his shooting. It’s been a consistent theme since his time at Stanford and Cal, despite his father’s basketball shadow looming over him, but Stojakovic is not a good floor spacer. As a career 31.0% shooter from beyond the arc who has never topped 32.7% from three-point range in a season, Andrej Stojakovic is not someone the other team has to worry about shooting from deep.

As a role-playing wing, that’s a massive problem. Suppose he can’t hit shots off the creation of the stars around him at the next level; Stojakovic will have a hard time even getting on the floor to slash his way to the cup. The shooting issues for him aren’t insurmountable, but they are steep. He has a flatter release, rarely gets balanced on his looks from deep, and doesn’t shoot the ball quickly enough to avoid contests.

Notably, Stojakovic is also still almost entirely a spot-up three-point shooter, as the lion’s share of his touches are inside the rim. He’s not someone with a ton of on-ball juice as a ball-handler and certainly not someone who can pull up from deep to stretch a defense. Stojakovic has shown better touch on his mid-range jumpers, but they are still a bit low to be a threat.

Per Synergy, across his three seasons, Andrej Stojakovic has made 59 of 168 dribble jumpers, or just under 36%. While that’s rated as “Average” on the database, it isn’t enough of an efficient look for him in the modern game to be anywhere close to as applicable to him as a slashing threat.

Stojakovic’s shooting woes aren’t the only issues that he faces on offense. As a creator for other players on any of his three teams, Andrej Stojakovic has consistently been subpar. That’s not a total knock on his passing, as he can dime up his teammates on designed plays, but some lazier feeds, alongside the more major issue with his game, make him hard to depend upon outside of scoring for himself.

In my scouting summary, the most debilitating part of Stojakovic’s game is not his shooting, but instead his handle. For a player known for attacking downhill, that may sound surprising. Still, I saw too many stripped drives and careless careening into set defenders to ignore this area of concern. For someone who is hailed as a downhill scorer, Andrej Stojakovic has to be better with the ball in his hands when heading toward the hoop.

This isn’t an every possession problem for Stojakovic and isn’t even a major detractor from his offensive game for Illinois. If it were, he wouldn’t have his killer reputation at the cup nor his key role within Brad Underwood’s squad. That being said, if Andrej Stojakovic wants to make it to the NBA and play an early role there, he’ll have to tighten up his handle to survive against better defenders.

Speaking of defense, as I’ve dodged it for long enough, Andrej Stojakovic is a solid defender who has a clear hole in his defensive game that he also must patch before he makes it to the big leagues. As it stands, Stojakovic is a promising defensive wing with one big problem: he struggles to fight through screens.

It doesn’t matter whether Stojakovic has time to set himself up or he has to rely on instinct. No matter who is calling out the incoming pick to him, the result is often Stojakovic getting pinned to an opposing player, either forcing a disadvantageous switch or getting back behind his man much too late to be a stopper on defense.

Screen navigation is a skill that can be taught and isn’t an ironclad accurate indicator of a problem defender. Still, for a player so one-dimensional on offense, it is a problem he needs to solve. To make it to the league and show off his revamped slashing, Stojakovic will have to be just as good at defending slashes as he is at doing them.

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Not Quite Dead

If the last section was more doom and gloom, let this section serve as Andrej Stojakovic’s movie-like rise from a supposed demise in the climax of the article, like any good slasher of yore. In this case, it’s less of Stojakovic finding new ways to attack and more about what else he can show teams for the next level.

I touched on the most challenging part of Stojakovic’s defense above, but that’s a nitpick when you look at the whole picture. Stojakovic isn’t a stopper yet, but he’s one of the most sound perimeter defenders on this Fighting Illini squad and one of the more critical pieces of the team’s defense, which, per BartTorvik, ranks 37th in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Like everything this year in Champaign, it’s been a team effort for the Illini, but they couldn’t do much of their scheme without Stojakovic’s length and smarts. It helps that he has a clear plus wingspan, as he can contest shots and force turnovers, but Stojakovic is also impactful as a player without cranking out the counting stats.

No one, myself included, is going to claim that Stojakovic’s numbers portend an impactful statistical defender because they don’t. With a career 1.2% steals percentage and 2.4% blocks percentage, neither of which is a strong enough indicator to expect that at the next level, I’m more ambivalent to the opportunistic plays that Stojakovic makes when trying ot jump a passing lane or chase down a driver.

Instead, I’m more bullish on Andrej Stojakovic becoming a solid team and individual defender who can be a powerful piece of a good defensive puzzle. Whether deployed on wings his size or let loose on smaller guards, Stojakovic has shown across his three years of college basketball that he can be counted on to flummox and frustrate whoever he has to guard.

That extends to actions that are on or off the ball, as he has reasonable, albeit limited, percentages on shots against him on spot-ups and drives. That speaks to Stojakovic’s keen use of his length without fouling, a skill that will keep him on the floor, and to the big game potential that he can deploy like he did when locking up Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson Jr. in their marquee match-up from earlier this season.

The primary calling card for Stojakovic will still be his slashing offense, but the defensive tape as a steady wing defender isn’t as far behind as some may have been led to believe. Andrej Stojakovic won’t wow you with his defensive tools or tape. Still, he is rarely out of position, plays up to the moment, and has shown more than enough on film to warrant credence for the possibility of scaling up his defense to an NBA level.

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The End… Or Is It?

As far as good slashers go, Andrej Stojakovic has it all: he’s inevitable when getting to the basket, doesn’t waste his movement before going in for the kill, and has more tricks up his sleeve than just one slashing gimmick. While he might be more of a pure driver than a multi-tool threat, any draft prospect has to clearly show an NBA team what they can do at a professional level in a winning environment to earn a spot on draft boards.

That’s what Stojakovic didn’t have in his past seasons, as neither Cal nor Stanford was ever able to string together enough wins to make Stojakovic’s production appear impactful. There are always players on bad teams that put up dubious stats, but now that Stojakovic has shown the same skills on a winning team like Illinois, there should be fewer doubts about his game.

Instead, the conversation should focus on what Stojakovic can be at the next level. If he’s purely a slasher, it may be a while before he sees the floor outside of mop-up minutes on a disciplined team. His driving skills are too tempting to shelve totally, but there are too many holes in his game on offense to earn him a consistent role at the NBA level.

With his defensive chops, however, there’s enough on both ends to see a player who could push for some early bench stints and slash his way into a team’s rotation. It may be messy at times, but that’s just what good slasher does to expectations. After bouncing around the transfer portal, Andrej Stojakovic has finally found the proper stage to showcase his slashing and cut through the red tape to contend for a selection in either round of the 2026 NBA draft.

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