Ones To Watch: David Mirkovic
Historically, the Balkan Pensinsula is a territory who gave birth to a hundred of generational basketball players such as Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Predrag Danilovic (to quote many). This has led to create a movement for future generations and with the split of Yugoslavia most of the new independent countries kept the influence produced by that national team. Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia have developed talents exporting them overseas; years later Bosnia, North Macedonia and especially Montenegro tried to reduce the gap with the above mentioned: actually, they have at least one player in the NBA or in the EuroLeague.
Small country of Montenegro is where I focused my attention last summer, more appropriately on the U16 basketball national team. There were a lot of talent involved in the group selected by coach Rajko Krivokapic for the European Championship played in Skopje (North Macedonia), but one of them got my attention on court.
I’ve decided to throw myself inside Montenegro’s gameplan to carefully study how important was this kid for his national team. Montenegro ended the U16 European Championship in ninth place, winning 54–64 against Latvia; one of the standout performers of this competition (and the best by far for his team) was him: David Mirkovic.
David Mirkovic is a 16 years old (born 6 january 2006) 6'9” power forward who is currently playing for SC Derby (Košarkaški klub Studentski Centar) in the ABA League and Prva A Liga. He had a very good European Championship averaging 22.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.0 block per game. He’s known for his tenacity, but also for his soft touch; he’s a reliable shooter from behind the arc (36.1% in U16 European Championship with 1.9/5.1) and he has no fear in taking clutch shots during the last moments of a game.
Outside the court he is a very nice guy who works a lot to achieve every single goal of his young career. I had the chance to have a pleasant chit-chat with David Mirkovic: I asked him about his game, his improvements, his basketball heroes and of course what representing Montenegro in a FIBA competition means.
Me: “Who had the chance to see you play noticed some ‘Jokic vibes’ in your game. I saw a skill power forward who can shoot from any position: a menace under the rim and inside the paint, a player with great court vision, but first of all a tough one to play against. How can you define your game style?”
DM: “You described my game style very well, but I have to add something more to it. Since I started playing basketball, everyone compared me to Jokic and I really love it. I prefer to attack basket from the perimeter rather than low post and because of that a lot of time I played as a point guard or a shooting guard for my team. My position on court has not been determined yet, but in senior basketball I would like to play as a modern point forward or small forward”
David Mirkovic shooting abilities are uncommon for a player of that size, so this brought me to think about some aspects of Nikola Jokic shot selection. In this clip we can clearly assert that Mirkovic way of shooting was inspired by the Jokic’s Sombor Shuffle; it seems very easy for the young guy to convert it in two points.
He said he prefers to attack the rim starting from the perimeter: in Skopje he has shown a raw but good ball-handling and great abilities in running the court before scoring a bucket on a fastbreak or through the traffic.
Me: “Which aspects of your game you want to improve the most? And in which one you have worked the most this summer?”
DM: “I want to improve every aspect of my game and bring it to the highest level, but mostly I’m working on my athleticism. Last summer I have worked hard on my jump-shot and on my body strength”
Inside the paint Mirkovic is a living mismatch for every sort of opponent, especially at 16 years old. Thanks to his footwork he can play a quick low post to pass over defenders and score; the fact is that David Mirkovic hasn’t a weak hand, so he can turn left or right and find the bucket even against double team pressure.
He has worked on his body strength because he tend to go down against smarter and physical opponents. Sometimes he takes rushed decisions and most of them end with a failed shot or with a block (second part of the clip); working on these “mental” aspects of the game will bring out Mirkovic skills in shooting under pressure (second clip: scores at the buzzer after a blocked shot).
Me: “You played a very good U16 European Championship, averaging 22.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game being on of the best power forward of the tournament. Do you mind to tell me your sensations, your feelings in representing your country in this type of competition as the leading player of the team?”
DM: “First of all, it’s always an honor to represent my country in the big european scene so I was really happy an excited to play the European Championship in Skopje. I think we showed the right quality to stay in Division A, even though our ninth place was a big surprise because we were a sort of dark horse in the competition”
We saw Mirkovic offensive abilities, but we can open an empty page and describe in details his defensive dominion. He is a really good perimeter defender and of course an outstanding one under the rim, where opponents have to engage a tough battle to beat him; he is quick, he can move fast his feet and recover the gap if he loses the attacking player on the first step. He is great in one on one defense and when challenged in low post; but what struck me the most is his focus on the game, because he is always fully committed in what he is doing and ready to help the team to transform a defensive possession into an offensive possession.
Me: “Who are your favourite european and/or NBA players? Are you inspired by someone in particular?”
DM: “My favourite players are Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, but my biggest inspiration is Kobe Bryant because of his mentality and his work ethic”
Me: “Last, but not the least: have you set some goals for this upcoming season or do you prefer to set goals step by step during the season?”
DM: “I didn’t set any goals for this season. In general my goal for every season is to be the biggest worker out here, improve myself every single day on all the aspects and be the best version of myself also out of the court”
I said he is a nice guy and he really is both on and off the court. If outside is kind, available and ready to lend his hand we can easily say the same when he is playing basketball. He developed his passing abilities because once Toni Kukoc said “one score makes happy ONE player, one assist makes happy TWO” and I’m sure this quote fits perfectly with David Markovic. His flashes as a passer are intriguing, he is able to create for himself but also for his team and in this aspect is very similar to Nikola Jokic. He has great court vision and the skills to try high difficulty coefficient passes; in the U16 European Championship he averaged 3.0 assist per game with a maximum of eight against Poland.
Overall, David Mirkovic could follow the path of other great balkan players who have written pages and pages of basketball histories in the NBA but most of all in Europe. At 16 years old he has a lot to learn about life, but his attitude is not common for a young kid who is heading into a higher level of professional basketball: he knows he has the talent to compete with everybody, however he remains humble and he still work hard to achieve his goals.
Personally I think David will be an interesting player to keep an eye on and I hope to see him play in european competitions in the next future. Regarding a probably landing in the NBA, I’m pretty sure he could be a dark horse picked in the early second round; a player developed as a small forward coming off the bench, but ready to show his skills in all five roles on court.
