Small Forward Wednesdays: Coach McMillan knows – Bojan is back

After a long, two-month period of struggles, Bojan Bogdanovic has been playing well since the turn to February. Its official – Bojan is back.

We all remember Bojan Bogdanovic’s infamous pass against the Boston Celtics. It led to Terry Rozier slamming down a game winner, and it led to a convoy of criticism for Bojan, and rightfully so. What was he thinking? Why did he make that pass?

Correlated or not, Bogdanovic’s on-court performance took a huge hit from this play onward. He was making three’s left and right while having little trouble getting to the rim at the beginning of the season. For the next month, Bogdanovic would go to hell and back with his struggles.

From December 20th to January 29th, Bojan Bogdanovic played in 19 games, and basically, all of them was a challenge. The three-point marksman couldn’t hit the ocean if he fell out of a boat, shooting just 29 percent from deep over this span. His overall field goal percentage of just 42.8 percent during that stretch was a huge dearth from his career 44.9 percent figure, and the poor shooting showed. He averaged just 11.2 points per game during that stretch, a far cry from his 13.7 figure he is putting up over the whole season.

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But against the Memphis Grizzlies on January 31st, something clicked. He scored 21 points, his most since November 27th, and his three made deep balls were tied for his most since November 20th. Since then, he has gone scorched earth in every game.

In the last six games, Bojan has been elite. He’s shooting 50 percent from three on six attempts per game. He’s hitting 54.3 percent of his shots overall. His excellent shooting has lead to him scoring 20 points per game over this span, which has been huge for the Pacers; they have a 4-2 record in that timeframe.

What has been the reason for Bojan’s resurgence? Head Coach Nate McMillan attributes it to a training tactic. He says the medical staff follows very closely the number of minutes a player is playing, and if that number gets too high, they strive to make a change. Thanks to a lack of depth at small forward, Bojan is forced to play a lot of minutes. Nate detailed what the training staff did instead of having Bojan practice one day.

“Put him on ice and allow him to recover” coach Nate said post-game on Sunday. “We pay attention to [our players]”.

That level of care that the Pacers have for their players is what allowed Bojan to get back on track. The ice bath helped Bojan get his legs under his body. “He wasn’t getting enough leg into his shot” McMillan said about Bojan’s slump “now, he’s doing a great job of getting open and finding his shot.”

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Weather the training staff is entirely responsible for Bojan Bogdanovic’s turnaround or a combination of the trainers and Bojan himself, it is encouraging either way to see him turn it around. McMillan seems to have a good grip on when his players are playing too many minutes, so hopefully, nobody gets into another slump like this ever again.