Indiana Pacers: 15 greatest shooters of all time

If nothing else, Bojan Bogdanovic can shoot the three. Sure, he resembles a subway turnstile on defense more often than not. Yes, he almost never gets a chance to run the pick-and-roll ( 0.9 possessions per game last year).

But that’s not his job; he’s in the league to give any team he plays for a long-range threat that spaces the floor for the ball-dominant stars. That’s exactly what Bogdanovic did for the Pacers last year.

Bogdanovic signed a two-year deal with Indiana last year, and he served as an effective second option for the team’s surprise playoff run. He averaged career-highs in points (14.3) field goal percentage (47.4) and 3-point percentage (40.2), He was a big reason that the Pacers ranked ninth in 3-point efficiency and 11th in offensive rating.

As one would expect, Bogdanovic did most of his damage as a spot-up shooter. Of his 4.8 3-point attempts per game, 4.1 were of the catch-and-shoot variety. He wasted very little of them, as he shot 40 percent in those situations.

To put it bluntly, Bogdanovic wasn’t a guy that teams could leave to his own devices beyond the arc, as his respective 38.4 and 42.7 percent marks on open and wide open threes suggest.

This was best exemplified in games against the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In both games, Bogdanovic took advantage of a collapsing defense to fire off open threes with great proficiency. There are rarely any players near him by the time the ball leaves his hand.

And who can forget his dagger in the face of J.R. Smith to give the Pacers a 2-1 lead in their first-round matchup against LeBron James and company?

In a year’s time, Bogdanovic has become a key cog on a good Pacers team, and his shooting is a big reason for that.