Atlanta Hawks player profile: Bogdan Bogdanovic

Bogdan Bogdanovic goes into this year as the Atlanta Hawks‘ sixth man. Bogdanovic has produced very good bench scoring in his two years in Atlanta. How will the addition of Dejounte Murray impact his minutes? Will there still be games where Bogdanovic is on the floor at the end of the game? Can Bogdanovic help the Hawks avoid the play-in tournament?

Bogdanovic goes into his third year playing with the Hawks as a pure bucket-getter. His primary role with the team will be to continue to fuel the offense and create off the bench. While his defense isn’t that great, Bogdanovic provides this time with necessary scoring.

As previously stated Bogdanovic isn’t that good at that end of the floor. However, adding Dejounte Murray should help the veteran shooting guard as he will have the easier matchup of the two.  Murray will get the primary guard matchup when both are on the court. I would expect that we see Murray and Bogdanovic get a lot of minutes together due to the All-Star relative struggles from deep.

How will the Atlanta Hawks manage Bogdan Bogdanovic’s minutes this year?

While the addition of Murray will help Bogdanovic on the court, it could cut into his minutes. While he will probably still get around 30 minutes per game, he is not a lock to stay on the court during the final five minutes of each game. Nate McMillan will have to choose between keeping De’Andre Hunter or Bogdanovic on the court during closing minutes. This is a good problem to have

Considering Hunter is the better defender, and is a decent 3-point shooter, it is likely that McMillian will choose to keep Hunter in the closing minutes of games. Additionally, this would be a size mismatch for the Hawks against teams with elite wings if Bogdanovic was on the court rather than Hunter.

Still, there are going to be some games where Bogdanovic closes instead of Hunter just because of the role player’s ability to create off the dribble and his ability to space the floor .

In my opinion, the Hawks’ main goal this season should be to avoid the play-in. It is difficult to see how Bogdanovic can do that for them. The only real way this could happen is if he has a sixth man of the year season. If Bogdanovic is able to do that, the Hawks will destroy teams during reserve minutes.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is one of the better off-the-bench scorers in our league. The Hawks will need his offensive production if they want to be successful this year. As a fan of the NBA, I look forward to the back-court combination of Murray-Bogdanovic in reserve minutes.

The plays that Nate McMillan draws up with that back-court composition will definitely be fun to watch. For Hawks fans, I would suggest looking off-ball when the Hawks are running those two on the court at the same time. As mentioned earlier, Bogdanovic is a pure bucket-getter in the NBA.