Strengths: Has crept from under the radar to become one of the most hyped players in Nordic countries ever ... Great court vision, able to find the open guy no matter how narrow the passing agle is ... Houdini in the open court ... A classic pass first, pass second, shoot third point guard when is fully adapted to teams system ... Defensively he is excellent covering the passing lanes and defending off-the ball movement because of the combination of wits and wingspan...Also a solid team defender, big enough to defend shooting guards ... Tougher than seems, can take a lot of contact without complaining in both offensive and defensive sides ... Able to slash to the basket and draw the defense to him ... Excellent mental toughness, not even the toughest trash talker is able to get inside his head ... Quick, stable jump shot release with a high arch ... Great attitude, an extremely sportsmanlike player ... Picks up his coachs advice quickly ... Willing to learn and be one of the best one day, works hard to correct the weak spots in his game ... A true talent with potential ...

Weaknesses: Although he takes good care of his body and has improved significantly during last two years, lacks the NBA athleticism ... Struggles in 1-on-1-defense against quicker, more physical point guards ... Still shows inexperience against top competition: Gets a fair share of bad pass turnovers against defensive-minded teams ... Makes quite a lot of rookie mistakes if opponents guards have done their homework ... Can get frustrated after a couple of easy fouls or turnovers and sometimes gets carried away in high tempo game ... Needs to get better running a 5-on-5 half court set: Has a tendency of forcing bad shots when he cant get the offense flowing naturally ... Needs more confidence, can be overly critical towards himeslf ... Lacks vocal leadership, although has shown impressive ability to lead both veteran and junior teams ... Needs approximately two years of experience in bigger leagues before having a shot in the NBA ...

Notes: Made his debut in the Finnish top league Korisliiga as a 16-year old and has been able to learn the game from top international coaches Mihajlo Pavicevic (Montenegro) and Henrik Dettmann (Finland) ... Has been scouted by Rick Sheubrooks and Jerry West of the Memphis Grizzlies ... Finished with seven points (2-4 field goals), six assists and just one turnover against Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo in the 2007 Nike Hoop Summit ... Played his first game with Finnish National Team August 1st 2006 against Norway ... Played 15 National Team games in the summer of 2006, scoring 7,0 ppg...Played four games in Euro-Qualifications, third best scorer of Team Finland (10,3ppg) after Hanno Mottola (Zalgiris Kaunas) and starting point guard Teemu Rannikko (Olimpia Ljubljana) ... Netted 19 points and dished out 9 assists against Luxembourg September 16th 2006 ... Starting point guard in U20 Division B European Championship tournament ... U20 team finished third while Koponen scored 12,6ppg and delivered 3,4apg ... Best individual performance in U20 games: 26 points, 7 rebounds and 8 steals July 18th 2006 against Macedonia...Was the starting point guard of 2007 Finnish Champion Honka Playboys ... Season averages in 2006/2007: 12,4ppg, 2,4rpg, 3,7apg, 1,7spg, 3,0topg while draining 54,2% of two point attempts, 39,2% of three point attempts and 84,1% of free throw attempts ...