Atlanta Hawks: ‘The Jump’ picks Bogdanovic over Bogdanovic
The Atlanta Hawks are just days away from training camp, the preseason, and a new season that in general is beginning in earnest. It is a truly welcome sight after a long offseason that included what look like homerun draft selections, savvy free-agent signings, and retaining home-grown talent.
This time of year is rife with rankings. Power rankings for teams within their conference, positional rankings for players, and even organizational rankings showing which is the most valuable franchise.
One such comparison came up on ESPN’s ‘The Jump’ and asked who would you rather have, the Hawks Bogdan Bogdanovic or Bojan Bogdanovic of the Utah Jazz.
Atlanta Hawks guard picked as the second-best NBA player named ‘Bogdanovic’
ESPN rolled out the bottom half of its top-100 list earlier this week. Checking in at 64th was the Hawks Bogdanovic after he put up career-highs with 16.4 points and 3.6 rebounds while also notching 3.3 assists per game. He also had a strong finish to the postseason, averaging 22.7 points, 3.3 boards, and 4.0 assists over the final three games.
A few spots down from Bogdan was Bojan at 67th.
The Jazz forward, Bojan, averaged 17.0/3.9/1.9 last season. Those numbers represent a slight dip for Bogdanovic. He put up 20.2/4.1/2.1 in the season prior. This happened as teammate Joe Ingles took a step forward.
But it wasn’t scoring, or any raw numbers, that swayed the opinions of the guests.
Dave McMenamin cited defense as the primary factor he felt the rankings were reversed; calling Bojan “sturdy and rugged” and a competitor on the defensive end.
We’ll respectfully disagree or at least shine some light on Bogdan and his underrated defense.
The 6-foot-7, 226-pound Bojan could certainly qualify as “sturdier” than the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Bogdan. But the gap is obviously not that great, though the latter is still healing from an avulsion fracture in his knee that hindered him throughout the playoffs.
Still, the Hawks Bogdanovic averaged more steals per game and opponents saw a jump, albeit ever so slight, to their offensive rating when he sat.
Jazz opponents saw their offensive rating increase when Bojan left the court.
Next. Tensions are rising in Minnesota and New Orleans. dark
Admittedly, Bojan held opponents at his position to a lower field goal percentage than Bogdan and that knee issue is worrisome with all the time that has passed. But when healthy, Atlanta’s Bogdanovic, who is also nearly three years younger, is at least on par with Bojan. Seems a good portion of the folks at ESPN think so too.