Andre Kirilenko-esque prospect: Miikka Muurinen

[UcanUwill]

I see lots of dunking but not much else. So yeah, he's tall and can use his height and leaping ability to make some impressive plays. But can he shoot consistently, and with a quality defender in his face? Can he defend at the NBA level? Are his defensive instincts above the median?

He looks impressive for his age and size, but he needs about 30 pounds on that frame.

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

[EmpireFalls]

He’s more Matas Buzelis than Kirilenko

[Roger Murdock]

What made AK47 special was that he was the best block/steal SF the leagues ever seen, with a splash of point forward skills.

You need to be a 1.5/1.5 block/steal wing at a minimum to deserve AK47 comps

[PlatinumState]

Dude is apparently averaging less than 12 ppg as a 18 year old in HS but because he has some nice putback dunks and alley oops with Finland, suddenly he is a potential top 3 pick.

Terrible decision to go to partizan and obradovic one year before the draft

I had no idea he chose Partizan. I dont see him getting more than 10 mpg there. Thought he was a lock to play for a american college team

[Ferulci]

The Tyrus Thomas that was promised.

[Mirotic12]

I see lots of dunking but not much else. So yeah, he's tall and can use his height and leaping ability to make some impressive plays. But can he shoot consistently, and with a quality defender in his face? Can he defend at the NBA level? Are his defensive instincts above the median?

He looks impressive for his age and size, but he needs about 30 pounds on that frame.

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

That might be the dumbest nickname in sports history.

[Dr Aki]

Now gets to play for this guy

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

[LuDux1]

I see lots of dunking but not much else. So yeah, he's tall and can use his height and leaping ability to make some impressive plays. But can he shoot consistently, and with a quality defender in his face? Can he defend at the NBA level? Are his defensive instincts above the median?

He looks impressive for his age and size, but he needs about 30 pounds on that frame.

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

"Laughing Buddha" is pretty good nickname too

[UcanUwill]

I see lots of dunking but not much else. So yeah, he's tall and can use his height and leaping ability to make some impressive plays. But can he shoot consistently, and with a quality defender in his face? Can he defend at the NBA level? Are his defensive instincts above the median?

He looks impressive for his age and size, but he needs about 30 pounds on that frame.

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

"Laughing Buddha" is pretty good nickname too

Thats awful, I would have gone with ''Mean Jesus'', but ''Slim Jesus'' rolls off the tongue just as good.

Also, am I the only one who is a big annoyed AK in a title is called Andre? He is definitely not Andre, one letter makes a difference, thats like far west Euro name.

[Swuul]

Dude is apparently averaging less than 12 ppg as a 18 year old in HS but because he has some nice putback dunks and alley oops with Finland, suddenly he is a potential top 3 pick.

Terrible decision to go to partizan and obradovic one year before the draft

I had no idea he chose Partizan. I dont see him getting more than 10 mpg there. Thought he was a lock to play for a american college team

basketnews.com has an interesting article (behind paywall) and video (basically same article as the written one) free to be viewed.
The article: https://basketnews.com/news-232245-the-real-reason-partizan-signed-miikka-muurinen.html
The video:

Watch on YouTube

;t=552s

Basically the article believes Partizan signed Muurinen because of business reasons (Partizan doesn't really have any youth-program, they need to win, and they need to win now, every night and every year). For Muurinen they claim the reason is that Muurinen and his agent figured out he needs to learn disciplined team-play, and there is no more hard-core place to learn team-tactics than under coach Obradovic.

[-Luke-]

I see lots of dunking but not much else. So yeah, he's tall and can use his height and leaping ability to make some impressive plays. But can he shoot consistently, and with a quality defender in his face? Can he defend at the NBA level? Are his defensive instincts above the median?

He looks impressive for his age and size, but he needs about 30 pounds on that frame.

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

That might be the dumbest nickname in sports history.

Yeah, now that you mention it. The historical Jesus was fat or what?

[sisibilio]

I got other comparisons. Matas Buzelis? Jan Vesely? Tom Chambers?

When we made that Franz pick out of the blue, a couple of those who watched his MICH games said he was like AK47 on defense. No one of us really thought Franz was gonna be an offensive hub.

So why not Miika as a rookie Franz? Before we all found out he had more in his arsenal than just receiving a pass while cutting

Seriously, I think Miikka will be way more of a bigman that Franz. He might end up being a center even, he is born in 2007, probably not done growing yet. I am not sure he can develop perimeter skills Franz has, anticipating that would be very optimistic.

Miikka could be what Tyrus Thomas or Thomas Robinson supposed to be, but never were.

Wagner has legit PG handles, that's not something you can develop out of the blue in your 20s

[Swuul]

Wagner has legit PG handles, that's not something you can develop out of the blue in your 20s

As Muurinen is only 18, I suppose he still has a couple years before he can be declared trash at 20?

[RookieStar]

When we made that Franz pick out of the blue, a couple of those who watched his MICH games said he was like AK47 on defense. No one of us really thought Franz was gonna be an offensive hub.

So why not Miika as a rookie Franz? Before we all found out he had more in his arsenal than just receiving a pass while cutting

Seriously, I think Miikka will be way more of a bigman that Franz. He might end up being a center even, he is born in 2007, probably not done growing yet. I am not sure he can develop perimeter skills Franz has, anticipating that would be very optimistic.

Miikka could be what Tyrus Thomas or Thomas Robinson supposed to be, but never were.

Wagner has legit PG handles, that's not something you can develop out of the blue in your 20s

Yeah... but when we got him, we didnt know he had em. His rookie year almost all his points cane from cutting and being at the right place at the right time.

We never let him have the ball.

[UcanUwill]

They call him "Slim Jesus", so hopefully he doesnt fill up too much

That might be the dumbest nickname in sports history.

Yeah, now that you mention it. The historical Jesus was fat or what?

It is probably the joke, like "I am white Larry Bird'', but I think its a great nickname.

[lambchop]

I still don't understand the logic behind joining partizan as opposed to playing on a Eurocup team, in Italy or Germany and having a huge role. He was a DNP coach's decision last game. It won't hurt his draft stock, but I never understand the rationale behind choosing to go where you won't play.

[GrindCityHustle]

Ak47 was the perfect fantasy player. He did it all

[Swuul]

I still don't understand the logic behind joining partizan as opposed to playing on a Eurocup team, in Italy or Germany and having a huge role. He was a DNP coach's decision last game. It won't hurt his draft stock, but I never understand the rationale behind choosing to go where you won't play.

He will play lots more than what he would in highschool, under the most demanding coach and most demanding crowd there is. Partizan plays a crapton of matches per season, around 90 matches in all in three different tournaments they are taking part in (of which he prolly won't have much playing time in the Euroleague matches, because frankly he isn't good enough yet to play in Eurolegue full time) plus he will play with the national team (the World Cup qualifiers start this winter). In all he will prolly play around 70 matches before next June, plus some spot minutes in a dozen or so Euroleague matches (if he learns the system, and when the inevitable injuries happen).

Playing in a weaker, non-Euroleague team (like Wemby did, for example), he might get slightly more minutes per game (but fewer games in all), but he wouldn't learn all the tactical things he will/should learn with Partizan. Muurinens great weakness currently is that he has always played in teams where he has clearly been the best player, and thus his tactical awarness pretty much suck (he makes errors on defense, goes for every pump fake, is slow on help defense, etc). He isn't the best player in Partizan, and he won't be the best player in his NBA team when he gets drafted; eventually he needs to learn how to be useful for his team, and apparently he and his agent thought the best time to learn those things are now.

It is risky, for sure. Partizan, their insane crowd and their tomato-head coach, they can be ruthless. If he constantly fails to grasp things, it might break him mentally. Sitting in the dog house game after game and the crowds showing their disrespect, those are not good things to happen for a young kid. So far Muurinen has been having his honeymoon period in Partizan, the crowd loves him even when he doesn't play, they show crazy support even after missed shots, and go absolutely bonkers when he actually succeeds with something. But all that might change very fast, if things go wrong.

[Mirotic12]

He will play lots more than what he would in highschool, under the most demanding coach and most demanding crowd there is. Partizan plays a crapton of matches per season, around 90 matches in all in three different tournaments they are taking part in (of which he prolly won't have much playing time in the Euroleague matches, because frankly he isn't good enough yet to play in Eurolegue full time) plus he will play with the national team (the World Cup qualifiers start this winter). In all he will prolly play around 70 matches before next June, plus some spot minutes in a dozen or so Euroleague matches (if he learns the system, and when the inevitable injuries happen).

Playing in a weaker, non-Euroleague team (like Wemby did, for example), he might get slightly more minutes per game (but fewer games in all), but he wouldn't learn all the tactical things he will/should learn with Partizan. Muurinens great weakness currently is that he has always played in teams where he has clearly been the best player, and thus his tactical awarness pretty much suck (he makes errors on defense, goes for every pump fake, is slow on help defense, etc). He isn't the best player in Partizan, and he won't be the best player in his NBA team when he gets drafted; eventually he needs to learn how to be useful for his team, and apparently he and his agent thought the best time to learn those things are now.

It is risky, for sure. Partizan, their insane crowd and their tomato-head coach, they can be ruthless. If he constantly fails to grasp things, it might break him mentally. Sitting in the dog house game after game and the crowds showing their disrespect, those are not good things to happen for a young kid. So far Muurinen has been having his honeymoon period in Partizan, the crowd loves him even when he doesn't play, they show crazy support even after missed shots, and go absolutely bonkers when he actually succeeds with something. But all that might change very fast, if things go wrong.

Obradovic isn't the most demanding coach in Europe. For example, if we narrow Europe down to just EuroLeague coaches, then at least Ivanovic is more demanding than him.

And some others like Messina are debatable. There are probably some other coaches in Europe that are in non EuroLeague teams that are as demanding or more demanding as well, like Zdvoc comes to mind.

I'm sure Obradovic is probably something like the 2nd to 5th most demanding or something like that.

But Ivanovic has got to be the #1 in that category.

[GeorgeMarcus]

AK was one of my favorites. I'd love to see another guy in his mold