The Sinking Draft Stock of Kostja Mushidi, and His Abrupt Dismissal From Braunschweig

January 28th, 2020

Yesterday, I had found out through multiple sources that Kostja Mushidi had allegedly been dismissed from his German basketball team, Braunschweig due to disciplinary reasons, as they cited his immature behavior and conduct as reasons for his dismissal, but I had just recently learned of this, as there had been little to no reporting on this here in the United States on the reasons as to why he had not been played in any basketball games for nearly two months. Though RealGM still lists him on Braunschweig’s roster, he is no longer listed on their roster on Eurobasket.

6-5 guard, Kostja Mushidi played for Braunschweig in the German BBL during the 2019-20 season. (Photo: SoulClap Media, via Basketball Braunschweig at basketball-loewen.de)

Recently, I was surfing the web, and I had found that German basketball player, 6-5 guard Kostja Mushidi had not been playing in basketball games since early December, as the game logs on RealGM had indicated so. I wanted to find out why that was the case, and why he had not played in any games for one and a half months, as he was once considered to be a first round prospect to start the 2017 season, and he also was one of the stars of the 2017 Nike Hoop Summit, as he made four three-point shots in that game.

He was a peer of current New York Knicks’ guard, Frank Ntilikina, as they were teammates together at Strasbourg in the French League during the 2015-16 season, and they also had played against each other in the Basketball Champions League. Though Ntilikina was widely regarded to be the significantly better prospect, Mushidi was also thought to be a player that had considerable upside as a prospect for the NBA.

Mushidi had initially declared to enter the 2017 NBA Draft, but he later withdrew his name after seeing his draft stock flounder to the mid to late second round range. After having a disappointing injury-plagued 2018 season in the Serbian League and Adriatic League, his performance really tapered off, as he played poorly in 2019 while splitting time between Mega Bemax and OKK Beograd, and he decided to step away from those teams to play in the German BBL for Braunschweig.

Mushidi had gotten off to a good start, as he played very well in his first 8 games of the German BBL season, as he was averaging 11 points per game, but his shooting percentages were way up compared to previous years, as he made 47% of his field goals, and 39% of his threes in the regular season of that league.

Unfortunately, I had read that he had some temper tantrums in his last few games, as that ultimately led to his abrupt dismissal from Braunschweig. It’s a shame, because if Mushidi had stayed in the 2017 NBA Draft, I think he would’ve had a good shot to have been drafted then, and he likely would’ve been selected in the NBA Scouting Live’s 2017 NBA mock draft that we held in June.

Well, I hope he can figure things out one day. While Mushidi may no longer be a prospect for the NBA, maybe he can try to get back on track by latching on to a team in the G-League or to either a lower tier professional league or equivalent of that level so that he can get consistent playing time and prove himself once again. Most likely, he will probably go undrafted in the 2020 NBA Draft, but if Mushidi can put his off-court troubles behind him, that could end up being the best thing for him moving forward.