Bojan Bogdanovic in a Milwaukee Bucks jersey could certainly bring something special. Matt Moore of Action Network recently revealed the Bucks could have their eyes on the savvy veteran, and the Detroit Pistons just might be ready to pull the trigger on a trade:
Another potential target for Milwaukee: Bojan Bogdanovic from the Detroit Pistons. There’s not much feeling that the Pistons are eager to move their best player with Cade Cunningham out, but as the team transitions more towards draft positioning this season Milwaukee will look to bid if the Pistons make Bogdanovic available.
Bogdanovic might have just started the back half of his NBA journey, but he also happens to be putting up career numbers. His 21.1ppg would be a career-best, and his 42.2 percent from three would be a second-best mark for the veteran in his ninth season. For the sake of this article, let’s focus solely on what skills he’d bring to the Bucks organization.
What Would Bogdanovic Bring to the Bucks?
Tough Shot-Making
In a league of ever-evolving offense, the ability to make a difficult shot will always be king. It should be noted there’s multiple levels to this skillset as well. The first is someone’s capability of being able to make challenging looks on a catch-and-shoot situation. Something where a player comes off an off-ball-screen, catches the ball, then shoots without ever putting the rock on the hardwood. There’s arguably nobody in the league better at something like this than Klay Thompson.
Now, catch-and-shoot scoring is definitely an area Bogdanovic is capable of thriving at, but his preference is for option number two: scoring off the dribble. Here’s a great look at what that looks like in a recent game of his against the Golden State Warriors.
Klay made some good recoveries on Bojan Bogdanović all night, but the guy is just a tough shotmaker through and through pic.twitter.com/lnw98z2tn3
— Charlie Cummings (@klaytheist11) January 5, 2023
A feature to look out for in players who excel in this space is their ability to use their hips. There might not be another tool in an offensive player’s arsenal more valuable than being able to dictate a defender’s positioning with one’s hips. You can see Bogdanovic come off a window screen from Jalen Duren and immediately drive baseline. Bogdanovic then creates the contact with Thompson about three feet past the free-throw line and gives himself the positioning advantage. From that point, the defense is at the will of Bogdanovic, who’s then able to use his ability to make difficult shots off the dribble.
Depth
It’s no secret that Milwaukee is thirsting for more balance. Giannis Antetokounmpo is arguably the most dominant player in the NBA and has been for some time. He can—and has—almost single-handedly won games by himself. Just because the Bucks have someone like Antetokounmpo on their roster, it shouldn’t stop the organization from continuing to build talent around him. And while Antetokounmpo’s 32.7ppg ranks third in the NBA, Milwaukee’s, Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez, rank second and third on the team in scoring at 18.4ppg and 14.6ppg, respectively.
The obvious question then becomes what the Bucks are willing to give up for a player of Bogdanovic’s skillset, but that’s for another article soon.
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