The Atlanta Hawks took care of business despite a spirited effort from the Detroit Pistons, winning 136-112. Their reward is a road date with the Milwaukee Bucks who are also on the second night of a back-to-back. The Hawks’ hot start is a great story and bodes well for their outlook in what figures to be an even tougher Eastern Conference than last season.
They already rank fifth in net rating with their offense checking in sixth and the defense ranking 13th. Compare that to last season when they finished ranking second and 26th, respectively, earning the eight-seed.
Adding Dejounte Murray has been nothing short of a boon in a small sample size. But it will be even better to see how good this group can be at full strength.
To that end, Hawks’ sixth man Bogdan Bogdanovic updated his status.
Travis Schlenk updates the status of Atlanta Hawks star Bogdan Bogdanovic
“It feels better. It’s mentally challenging,” Bogdanovic told Bob Rathbun during the win over Detroit. “It’s a grind, week by week. You can’t see results every day. And there is some bad days. There is some very bad days. There is very good days. So, it’s been challenging…But it’s a great challenge. New challenge for me and I’m excited to go through it.”
Bogdanovic detailed that he was dealing with pain all last year and has previously said the knee was causing him pain since early in his NBA career.
He said that he is feeling better following the procedure but admitted hesitation at cutting loose.
Travis Schlenk joined Rathbun during the third quarter of the Hawks’ victory over the Pistons discussing a wide array of topics including how many fouls were being called and breaking down to plays of this group that he put together. One of those topics was Bogdanovic who quietly underwent surgery on his balky knee.
Travis Schlenk, on the TV broadcast, on Bogdan Bogdanovic:
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) October 29, 2022
"Tonight was the first night he started playing one-on-one (pregame). We're going to start reintegrating him into practices when we get back off this road trip."
Last season, Bogdanovic averaged 17 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists off of the Hawks’ bench. He also had a nine-game stretch from about mid-February through early March where he averaged 20.6 points while hitting 41.3% of his triples with 4.9 boards and 3.0 assists.
Bogdanovic had the highest efficiency differential of any returning Hawks player, per Cleaning The Glass.
The 30-year-old Bogdanovic is in the final guaranteed year of his four-year, $72 million contract but has a player option worth $18 million for next season. It will be interesting to see how they integrate him once he is healthy after relying on a combination of veteran Justin Holiday and rookie AJ Griffin on the wings off the bench.