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Indiana Pacers Love/Hate series: Bojan Bogdanovic

By Jonathan Matthes

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - APRIL 22: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers handles the ball against Bojan Bogdanovic #44 of the Indiana Pacers in Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 22, 2018 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - APRIL 22: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers handles the ball against Bojan Bogdanovic #44 of the Indiana Pacers in Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 22, 2018 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Bojan Bogdanovic of the Indiana Pacers
(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

What we love about Bojan Bogdanovic

Um, besides this?

While the Bogey Game was just a game (albeit an amazing one), it embodied everything to love about Bojan Bogdanovic. The man can flat shoot. Only eleven players in the league shot a higher percentage (at least 40%) on a great a volume of threes (at least 150 made threes) as Bogdanovic did (he made 155 threes at a 40.2% clip). There are plenty of players who made more threes than him (36 dudes), and there are plenty who shot a qualified higher percentage (38 guys), but few combined the two as well as he did.

On top of that, since he’s mostly paid to shoot, Bogdanovic had moments last year where he was a lethal shooter. More on this next slide, but the point of demarcation was when he had his 0-fer dud on January 29 against Charlotte. In the 49 games before that night, Bogdanovic averaged 13.2 points on 46/37/84 shooting. In the 30 games after, he averaged 16.5 points on 49/45/90 splits.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, he reeled off a 15-game stretch that was nearly all-star level: 19.2 points on 53/47/89 shooting splits. When Bogey is on, he is excellent. His marksmanship helps unleash the diverse qualities of Oladipo’s game, making the Indiana Pacers offense much more dangerous.

Tangential but related: another aspect to love about Bogdanovic is his availability. He’s present and ready to play game in and game out. He was one of 42 players to play in at least 80 games last year. And Bogey would’ve played in 81, but the Pacers rested him in an effectively meaningless 82nd game. For his career, he’s participated in 97% of the possible games (he’s missed 10 games). Bogdanovic’s desire to be on the court might have impacted his early shooting numbers because he had spent a full summer with the Croatian national team. He’ll be fresher this season, and that only can help.

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