Brooklyn Nets: Bojan Bogdanovic Adjusting To NBA Life
By Adam McGee
For even the very best players from Europe, coming to the NBA always offers a significant challenge. It’s a process that can take a lot of time as the player tries to adjust to playing at a higher level, and with much greater scrutiny on them too.
As a result, although it’s vitally important, a lot more than talent factors into a players chances of success in the NBA. They have to have a certain drive, and at the same time a calm of sorts, to deal with the rigors of it all.
Thankfully for the Brooklyn Nets, early indications suggest Bojan Bogdanovic has it all.
At 25-years-old, the man born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but now representing Croatia, already has some top level experience behind him, having spent the last six or so years as a part of top level European clubs like Real Madrid, Cibona Zagreb and Fenerbahce.
He’s not the first to come to the NBA with that type of experience and pedigree though, and it doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
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Nevertheless, through a mixture of skill, personality, and possibly that experience too, Bogdanovic has looked 100 percent ready for NBA play in the opening exchanges of the season. His new head coach Lionel Hollins has obliged him in that way too, starting Bogdanovic in all six of the Nets games so far.
The Nets held the rights to Bogdanovic for three years, and as a franchise have clearly been very high on him, yet the fact that Hollins, a newcomer in Brooklyn feels likewise, really speaks volumes of the young swingman’s ability.
Bogdanovic hasn’t just been playing and dialing it in either, he has been making genuine contributions.
Surrounded by a lineup with veteran experience, like Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez, may mean that Bogdanovic is the only Nets starter without an All-Star appearance, but that hasn’t overawed him in the slightest.
Instead, the 25-year-old feels the opportunity to log plenty of minutes, and the responsibility of having to match up to those guys standards is helping him to improve every day. According to NetsDaily, Bogdanovic said:
"I feel more comfortable game-by-game, especially because I play a lot of minutes. That’s been the key to my confidence … I know that I’m going to have a shot to play, so I have to practice a lot, especially because our whole team is counting on Deron, Joe or KG. So I have to work to get them shots on the floor."
So far, Bogdanovic is succeeding in holding his own with those guys too. In 27.3 minutes of play, his averages of ten points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists are evidence of a very good start all-round. Shooting 48 percent from the field, and 33.3 percent from deep are also signs for further encouragement.
Bogdanovic came to the NBA with a reputation as a really good shooter, but in many cases that doesn’t translate from Europe.
With those initial percentages, Nets fans should be feeling very optimistic though, and at the moment it seems Bogdanovic will turn out more like Marco Belinelli than Luigi Datome in the pantheon of highly vaunted European shooters.
In Brooklyn’s last game, against the Orlando Magic on Sunday, Bogdanovic had by far the biggest night of his young NBA career. Bogdanovic put up 22 points on 75 percent shooting, and as if that wasn’t enough, he threw in seven rebounds for good measure.
This is only the beginning for Bojan Bogdanovic, and Brooklyn fans will be hoping that the sky is the limit.