Bojan Bogdanovic says he wants to stay in one spot. Does that mean with the Pacers?

Bojan Bogdanovic seemed to indicate he wants to stay with the Indiana Pacers during a recent interview. What’s the cost of bringing him back?

When the Indiana Pacers originally signed Bojan Bogdanovic, critics like me wondered if he was ready to start at small forward. Two seasons and 18 points a game later, it’s clear now when he signed and told Kevin Pritchard he wanted to start that Bogdanovic was more than capable of doing so.

And after stepping up as the Pacers leading scorer in the absence of Victor Oladipo, his services are likely to be wanted in Indiana as well as the other 29 teams in the NBA. But Bojan is in no rush to leave.

While talking to the Indianapolis Star’s J. Michael, Bogdanovic seemed to hint that he would like to stay with the Pacers.

"His emotions don’t get involved.“I didn’t take it personally but I’d like to stay in one spot,” Bogdanovic says. “I don’t like to change teams.”Just a few words, but he can say a lot."

While that’s not definitive, he is talking in a way that indicates the present. He would like to stay in one spot. He doesn’t want to change teams.

Obviously, he’ll want to hear any offers from other teams. I’m terrible at guessing, but it seems like he could snag anywhere from $10-20 million a year, depending on how long he was signing for. He could be the perfect addition to a contender or a stabilizing force at small forward for almost all 30 teams in the NBA.

I asked our boy Tony East what it might the cap situation with keeping Bogdanovic might look like. Indiana has his Early Bird rights, which allows them to resign him to up to 175% of his current salary and stay over the cap.

And with is cap hold of ~$13 million, the Pacers still have $40 million or so to work with if the renounced the rights to their other pending free agents while they negotiated with Bogdanovic. Assuming Indiana is also interested in keeping him around, that gives the Pacers wiggle room to work with.

With his 50% shooting from the field and over 40% from beyond the arc, his services will be requested by many other teams.

Bojan Bogdanovic’s role with the Indiana Pacers

Bogdanovic was already having his best season in the NBA before Oladipo’s injury, but since then he displayed even more versatility. He isn’t just a shooter. He can cut to the basket for easy buckets and this season showed a knack for driving to the basket and finishing.

He isn’t the same sort of playmaker that Oladipo is, but he is a very solid addition as second or third banana on the team. The Pacers need more weapons around Oladipo, so keeping Bogdanovic on board going forward makes sense for Indiana.

The real question seems to be just how much he can make. Will another team make a splash and hope he can continue to score efficiently as he heads into his early 30s? Or will he consider a modest discount and stay with the Pacers, a team he fits in with very well.

Bogdanovic is in the midst of an impressive two-year run with the Pacers. We’ll have to wait until summer to find out if that continues next season.