Miikka Muurinen's Shocking Move to KK Partizan
Miikka Muurinen's move away from AZ Compass to KK Partizan felt like a hopeful play for the 2026 NBA Draft, but could it be a huge mistake?
We continue to see players take different routes on their way to NBA, and Miikka Muurinen’s latest decision rightfully has drawn a lot of attention. Muurinen has been one of the more intriguing high school prospects over the last few years, so his surprising decision on where to play basketball next year naturally sent some waves in the draft community. We see high schoolers transfer all the time, but Muurinen’s choice to leave AZ Compass for KK Partizan in Belgrade, Serbia came out of nowhere. The initial assumption was that this was a push by Muurinen to be eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft. However, it doesn’t look like that will be possible, which makes this decision all the more puzzling.
Muurinen had been a potential reclassification candidate, since he already turns 19 in March of 2026. If he were an international prospect, that would be enough to make him eligible for the 2026 draft. However, since Muurinen hasn’t maintained a permanent residence outside of the United States for the last three years, he isn’t considered an “international player.” Since that’s the case, at least one NBA season would need to elapse since his high school graduation date. At first glance, it’s reasonable to think that Muurinen would then have until October 21st to complete everything. It’s still a very tight window, but it would probably be doable. The CBA, though, defines the start of the NBA season as the first day of NBA training camp, which is September 29th. We’ve seen crazier things happen in the past, but this makes it nearly impossible to think that Muurinen would be able to reclassify. Muurinen also put out a statement saying he was all in on the 2027 NBA Draft and still wants to have the college experience, so it at least feels like he’s well aware that any chance at the 2026 draft is slim at best. All of this makes me question, why in the world did he make this move?
Muurinen rightfully turned a lot of heads with his size, explosiveness, and shooting with Finland during FIBA EuroBasket this summer. The Finnish forward is listed anywhere between 6’8” and 6’11”, depending on where you look, and his combination of explosiveness and floor spacing is exactly what a lot of teams look for in their modern power forwards. The hope is that Muurinen’s impressive play over the summer is a sign of things to come and the start of an aggressive leap in development, because there’s still a lot of work to be done.
The most bankable skills right now for Muurinen are his spot-up shooting and explosiveness. Per Synergy, Muurinen shot 34.8% on 89 threes across 21 games with Brad Beal Elite, 25.7% on 35 attempts across 12 games with AZ Compass, and 35.3% on 17 attempts across eight games with Finland at EuroBasket. These aren’t overwhelming numbers, but it would be surprising if Muurinen wasn’t a viable spot-up and pick-and-pop threat.
That shooting threat also opens up opportunities for his teammates, but it also creates some intriguing on-ball reps for himself. Whether he’s attacking closeouts or running in transition, Muurinen can be a real force attacking the rim; he had 64 dunks across 50 games with the previously mentioned competitions.
The problem, though, is that almost everything else about Muurinen’s game is theoretical. The most concerning aspect of his offensive game is the lack of ball security. He’ll occasionally make a fun passing read, but the pass is rarely on target. He also has an extremely loose handle that is easy for defenders to poke loose. With Brad Beal Elite, Muurinen had a turnover rate of 18.1% and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.51. With AZ Compass, these figures got even worse at 22.9% and 0.24, respectively.
Muurinen doesn’t have to be a dynamic on-ball creator, but there has to be something else that he’s bringing to the table. While I believe in the shot, he still has yet to prove that it’s an elite skill. Even if the shot continues to make a major leap this year, Muurinen’s lack of handle, passing, and ball security will still make him exclusively a play finisher who defenders will just run off the line. If the shot doesn’t continue to make significant strides, then it could get concerning very quickly.
Where I’m mostly troubled, though, is with Muurinen’s defense. There are some awesome highlights of his defensive playmaking because of his size, explosiveness, and willingness to gamble. However, everything between the highlights is frankly bad. He gets lost in space, doesn’t communicate switches, has bad on-ball defensive fundamentals, and generally looks confused. It’s the type of defense that will drive a coach insane.
The point of the criticisms isn’t to tear the kid apart, because there are intriguing tools to build on, and he should be just going into his senior year of high school. The point of the criticisms is to emphasize this question: why is he making this move? A lot of the holes in Muurinen’s game are fixed through playing and learning in a low-stakes environment, which is not where he’s going.
Partizan plays in the Adriatic League and the EuroLeague. These are highly competitive environments with loads of expectations on players and coaches who have jobs to keep. Their main priority isn’t going to be to let Muurinen experiment and play through a ton of mistakes. If he’s constantly turning the ball over and failing to execute the defensive game plan, he’s not going to play. Partizan has a bunch of former NBA forwards like Isaac Bonga, Jabari Parker, Sterling Brown, and Aleksej Pokusevski, who Muurinen will have to beat out for minutes. Additionally, Partizan’s head coach isn’t exactly known for playing young talent. He’s expecting to win games, so what’s the appeal for him to experiment with a young player who is making mistakes and very likely won’t be on the team next season?
Miikka Muurinen has some interesting tools that could very easily grow into a fantastic skillset. The holes in his game are numerous right now, though, and the best way for most of those to improve is to play a ton of minutes. Muurinen is leaving a situation where that would be possible and instead heading to one where that likely won’t be possible for him. This move feels like a poorly thought-out play at reclassifying for the 2026 NBA Draft. Instead, it could end up being a waste of a year during a crucial time of development. Hopefully, this all ends up looking like silly handwringing and that Muurinen has a tremendous season while picking up a ton of great habits. If not, though, this could join the unfortunately ever-expanding laundry list of bewildering predraft decisions.
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Sometimes, playing is the worst thing for a kid. Couldn’t he theoretically improve by developing a work ethic and improving upon said ball handling and basketball iq?