The Utah Jazz could be severly impacted by Bojan Bogdanovic’s shooting

The Utah Jazz bought back most of their talent from last season but the shooting slump of Bojan Bogdanovic may hurt the franchise this season.

The Utah Jazz should be near the top of the NBA standings. The team they bought back has the talent to challenge most others in the NBA. Unfortunately for the Jazz, Bojan Bogdanovic is struggling to get the ball in the hoop with any regularity.

Bogdanovic is averaging 12.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 30.4 minutes per game. However, the problem is that Bogdanovic is a huge part of the Jazz offense from last season where he averaged 20.2 points per game.

The main difference in Bogdanovic’s game is his efficiency. Last season Bogdanovic had shooting splits of .447/.414/.903 which are certainly very impressive. However, this season is a different story. His shooting splits show a stark difference as they are .374/.352/.818.

The Utah Jazz is being hurt by Bojan Bogdanovic’s loss of confidence.

There are two things that a shooter needs, good shot mechanics, and confidence. Well, Bogdanovic still has really good shot mechanics but where he is lacking at the moment is in the confidence department. If he does not make his first couple of shots, he struggles for the night.

In the first 11 games of the season, Bogdanovic has had only four games where he has hit the 3-ball at 40.0 percent or greater. The Jazz has won all four of these games but the problem is that with the exception of the Milwaukee Bucks, the rest of these teams were at or below .500 which will not help the Jazz when the playoffs come around.

In the games against the Bucks, the OKC Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Cleveland Cavaliers  Bogdanovic has gone 19-of-32 from deep which is 59.4 percent. This gives him an average of 22.75 points over these four games.

In the other seven games, Bogdanovic has gone 6-of-39 from deep which is only good for 15.3 percent. In these games, he has averaged a measly 7.1 points per game. The Jazz has a 4-3 record when Bogdanovic shoots less than 40.0 percent from deep.

In six of the 11 games played Bogdanovic has had a negative influence on the plus/minus section of the box score. This metric can occasionally be misleading depending on who is on the court. However, Bogdanovic is a starter whose shooting should be helping the team build leads rather than losing them.

Bogdanovic does not do enough else on the court to impact the game in favor of the Jazz. His defense is not good enough to lock anyone down, he is not rebounding the ball or even setting teammates up with good passing.

There is a good chance that his shooting will normalize as he gains more confidence in the wrist that he had surgically repaired over the offseason. If Bogdanovic can get himself out of the slump, the Jazz is going to benefit. If he can’t then they are going to finish in a low playoff seed or even miss the playoffs entirely.

This not be a great situation considering the Jazz have just extended both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. It would waste a year of both their primes and the Jazz can’t afford for that to happen.