Utah Jazz: Complete grades for the 2019 offseason
By Alec Liebsch
Bojan Bogdanovic signing
After adding Mike Conley, the Utah Jazz were in a good spot. Not a great spot, but a good one. Signing Bojan Bogdanovic may be what catapults them to the next tier.
For years, Utah has been able to manage a Derrick Favors-Rudy Gobert frontcourt, and be effective even when they shared the floor. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that pairing was limited.
Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell and Gobert need one particular thing around them: shooters. Sans Conley, it still behooves the team to have shooters around the duo that has led this team. Ricky Rubio and Derrick Favors did did not help in that department.
Bogdanovic most certainly does. The Bosnian has torched 38.9 percent from 3 over his career, upping it to 41.3 percent on 4.8 attempts per game during the past two seasons with Indiana. He’s a dead-eye shooter, no doubt about it.
At 6’8″ with a less-than-awful handle, Bogdanovic is also a threat to attack mismatches; 44.5 percent of his shots were taken with two or more dribbles. The Jazz can’t ask him to be a focal point, but he’s much more than a standstill shooter offensively.
As for defense, he’s clearly limited. The 6’8″, 216-pound frame he embodies is physical, but on a switch he could have trouble. That will be an issue come playoff time, especially against teams like the Rockets and Warriors with multiple attacking guards.
That’s a more serious problem than initially advertised. Joe Ingles, his fellow starting forward, is a solid defender, but by no means can he cover someone like Kawhi Leonard or LeBron James for elongated stretches.
Mitchell and Conley hold their own on switches, but not those types of switches.
What I’m really getting at is what the Jazz should’ve been getting at all along: how does this help them exceed what they’ve already done? Bogdanovic is excellent for winning regular season games; shooters around their big three will be very helpful.
But when matchup ball comes around in the playoffs, how are you hiding him?
Utah’s defensive scheme is quite good, as it implores ball handlers to challenge Gobert at the rim. That’s great, and effective against most teams, but not the ones Utah is trying to usurp.
Five-out offenses are becoming more and more common, and every top-tier team in the West can deploy them.
Gobert can’t camp out at the rim when the Clippers’ worst shooter is JaMychal Green, nor when the Lakers’ least potent one is Anthony Davis.
So long as Bogdanovic can shoot well enough to outweigh those concerns, Gobert should take care of the rest … until the level Utah is trying to get past. At a price tag of $73.1 million over four years, you’d hope he can be more.