Indiana Pacers: Bojan Bogdanovic is coming into his own
By Tony East
The Indiana Pacers only signed one wing player this summer in Bojan Bogdanovic, and he is finally showing why the front office brought him in.
The Indiana Pacers have lost four games in a row. Something is going wrong, and over the course of those games, there haven’t been many bright spots. One bright spot, however, has been small forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
As of Nov. 9, Bogdanovic is above his career averages in points, rebounds, steals and assists per game while shooting a career-high 50.4 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from 3-point range. He is also posting the second-best defensive rating of his career and best ever offensive rating. Simply put, he’s getting it done.
In true Bogdanovic fashion, it’s been mostly about the deep ball. He’s taking over four attempts per game from deep and nailing 1.6 of them, and that has him posting a 62.2 percent true shooting percentage, second on the team behind only the blistering hot Domantas Sabonis.
Outside of his usual scope of success is how well Bogdanovic has been getting to the rim. When the Indiana Pacers need someone to attack the basket, he has been able to do so, taking 57.4 percent of his shots from in close. More importantly, he’s making 60.6 percent of these looks, which is a result of him getting better at attacking the closeout.
Bojan is older as he’s already 28, but this will be only his fourth full campaign in the league, so he’s still learning. That is evident when watching the film of him attacking closeouts, something he hasn’t done as much in the past.
He leverages his shooting ability into open lanes. and easier looks. He uses his gravity as a shooter here and his shot fake gets Goran Dragic off his feet, which allows him to blow by him for a layup:
That small jab at Bogdanovic by Dragic is all it took. Dragic had his weight on his front foot and Bogdanovic went right past him for a layup, a sign of his increasing basketball IQ.
Of course, that pump fake would be meaningless if he couldn’t actually hit the outside shot. But he can, and he does frequently. When other players are scrambling, he seems to know where to go to get the open look.
Half of the 76ers roster is in shambles trying to help on this Victor Oladipo drive, but Bojan calmly positions himself in an open spot on the wing and is able to can the 3-pointer:
Similarly, here he realizes before anyone on the Pistons that his teammate is going to get the rebound. He stays put in the corner and receives a perfectly timed pass that allows him to bang in the corner 3:
His 3-point shooting helps everyone else score as well. His 115 offensive rating is currently third on the team and that is no fluke. The team is shooting 47.3 percent in the paint when Bogdanovic is playing and just 36.7 percent when he is riding the pine.
He spaces the floor just by standing behind the 3-point line, and that allows everyone else to do their thing. Manu Ginobili doesn’t want to leave him open in the corner here, so he doesn’t help on the Oladipo drive. I bet you can guess how that went:
He’s spacing the floor, he’s burying his 3s, and he’s letting everyone else do their thing around the basket.
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That’s exactly what the Indiana Pacers signed Bojan Bogdanovic to do. After struggling early on, he’s finally doing what the team needs of him. With Glenn Robinson III out, it’s great that he’s finally been able to be productive. Let’s hope he can keep it up.