Many NBA fans will have heard the name Peja Stojakovic, but not as many will know that his son Andrej Stojakovic is growing into quite the player in Berkley, California. The Cal Golden Bears season has come to an end after an ACC Tournament loss to in-state rival Stanford, but Stojakovic wasn’t going to go out without a fight, posting a new career-high in the narrow defeat.
Andrej Stojakovic Continues to Fly Under the Radar
Andrej Stojakovic, son of former NBA star Peja Stojakovic, is now a sophomore on an average Cal Bears team. However, while the record of the team has not necessarily improved, Andrej’s second college season has seen some tremendous growth.
At 6-foot-7, Stojakovic averaged just under 8 points per game last season, but in his sophomore campaign, his scoring erupted to over 17 a game. His volume in terms of minutes played and shots taken has gone way up, showing the young guard is capable of handling the role of leading scorer and offensive initiator.
While his effective field goal percentage has not increased, that will be the task for next year. Stojakovic has done well to demonstrate a capability with greater volume, and will now need to grow in efficiency and mastery of his game.
Many fans who have not watched Stojakovic will assume that his signature trait would be his three-pointer. After all, his dad Peja was a career 40% shooter in the NBA over the course of a 16-year career with over 800 games played. Andrej’s jumper is still coming along, and he shot just under 31% from deep this year on around 4.5 attempts per game. Instead, his offensive game is much more reliant on all three levels, where he demonstrates a strong craft off the dribble, a smooth shooting stroke, and creativity in the paint with finishes and passing.
The idea of Stojakovic jumping to the NBA this upcoming year is not out of the question, but many experts figure he is another year of improved play away from being a surefire selection in the draft.
Andrej Stojakovic Has Had a Massie ACC Tournament
In Cal’s opening game of the ACC Tournament, Stojakovic put the team on his back to give Cal a double-OT win over the Virginia Tech Hokies. Stojakovic had 29 points, 7 of which came in the ten minutes of overtime. In 45 minutes of action, Stojakovic went 11-20 from the floor, including 3-6 from deep.
The Golden Bears lived to fight another day and faced Stanford, their in-state rival. Stojakovic was up to the challenge once again. The sophomore shooting guard put up a whopping 22 shots, making 13 of them. He went 4-7 from deep, having another strong day from beyond the arc. With 7-8 free throws as well, Stojakovic totaled a new career-high of 37 points.
Andrej Stojakovic is gonna be one hell of an NBA player.
37 pts
13-22 FGThis baseline mid range jumper just shows how advanced his bag is. 3 level scorer with an NBA ready jumper. pic.twitter.com/KsN2YX3tsR
— Brandon Meeks (@MeeksKnowsBall) March 13, 2025
Although Cal fell to Stanford by a final score of 78-73, Stojakovic added another signature game to his season. It was his 5th game with more than 25 points this year, and his third game with 4 or more made threes. Earlier this year, Stojakovic dropped 30 points on a Clemson Tigers team currently ranked 10th in the nation and 3rd in the ACC.
If you want to understand why Andrej Stojaković should be in lottery conversations, watch his first three ACC games against San Diego State, Pitt and Clemson.
Averaging 19.7 points on 60.4% true shooting, 40% from three, 8.3 free throws, 3.3 stocks and 15.4 BPM.#NBADraft pic.twitter.com/09igYwjpHV
— Logan Adams (@LoganPAdams) January 18, 2025
Some fans are expecting Stojakovic to transfer next year and join a better team with a bigger platform to better display his skills for prospective NBA teams. After all, Stojakovic has already transferred once in his short college career, swapping Stanford for Cal. For now, we will have to wait and see what “Baby Peja” will do next.
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