In his first season with the Pacers, Bojan Bogdanovic took fans through an emotional roller coaster.
After trading away Paul George, many were interested in seeing who the Pacers would put in his place as the starting small forward position. A little over a week into free agency, that man became former Net and Wizard Bojan Bogdanovic.
It wasn’t the type of signing to get fans super excited, but it was a good contract and gave Indiana’s new lead man—Victor Oladipo—some more space to work within.
Indiana surprised early on, and Bogdanovic was a big part of it. Coming off a four-game losing streak in mid-November, the Pacers went on to win six of their next seven. In that stretch, Bogdanovic averaged 18.4 points on 50.6 percent shooting overall and 55.3 percent from three.
Then, about a month later, Bogdanovic made an error that some Pacers fans still may not forgive him for to this day:
After making that game-losing error, it took some time for Pacers fans to recover. But time, as it often does, healed the wound. Bogdanovic averaged 18.9 points on 52.3/47.1/93.8 shooting splits in the month of February and became the Pacers’ second most reliable scorer going into the playoffs.
Bojan somewhat struggled in Indiana’s seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but let us not forget about his Game 3 explosion:
Bogdanovic absolutely has the ability to change games. It would be nice if he was a game-changer more often, and if his shooting didn’t hold his whole game together. It seems as if when his shot runs cold, Bogdanovic kind of just becomes a guy standing around.
His highs are so great, though, so it’s hard to file too many complaints.
Bogey’s season described in one GIF
