The Detroit Pistons began the night selecting a player on the top of everyone’s mind in Cade Cunningham, and they ended the night selecting a player few knew existed in Balsa Koprivica. And the two happened to be teammates at Montverde Academy.
The Serbian big man stands 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-3.5 wingspan. He also allegedly has a developing shot, solid touch around the rim, can score with either hand near the rim and shot 63% during his two seasons at Florida State.
He started 20 games in his sophomore year where he averaged 9.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks. Not only does he have solid form on his shot, but he can also apparently handle the ball a bit for a big man.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s tough to find solid info on Koprivica because he didn’t make many site’s draft profile list. But here are some highlights from his days at Florida State.
However, he had some supporters in the draft analyst and advanced analytics community. Jon Chepkevich, an NBA draft researcher for proprietary analytics firm Stats Perform was happy to see Koprivica drafted, calling him an elite finisher and rebounder.
Was pleased to see Balsa Koprivica selected at the tail end of the draft.
Graded out much higher in our @StatsPerform NBA Draft model than his consensus scouting ranking.
Elite finisher + rebounder.
Also a notably impactful switch defender per our AutoStats tracking data. pic.twitter.com/5PbG5Aky1F
— Jon Chepkevich (@JonChep) July 30, 2021