Early Takeaways from Bojan Bogdanovic's Performance with Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets were confident enough to put a rookie in the starting lineup. Now, it's his turn to pay them back.
Bojan Bogdanovic came over from the Turkish league during the summer after signing with the Nets back in July, and Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins immediately inserted him into the starting lineup to begin the preseason. Even at 25 years old, the supposed three-point wonder shot himself into the spotlight.
Through four regular-season games, the Croatian hasn't shown off the long-range accuracy, shooting just 38.7 percent from the field. For a guy with a three-point reputation, he isn't making many long balls, sinking only four of 16 attempts. With that performance, he's become a subtle target.
He's too passive. He doesn't shoot accurately enough. He's not contributing right away.
But those statements aren't as wrong as they are impatient. The way to evaluate a rookie through four games doesn't have to do with outcomes. It's about development, growth, picking out the good, eliminating the bad. And so far, even if shots aren't going in, Bogdanovic has shown why the Nets were excited about him.
Scoring
Bogdanovic can shoot. That's the strength in his game. His jumper is the manager of his reputation. But even with that, it's all a learning process.
During his eight-year European career, he consistently shot in the mid-to-high 30s from three. He hit 38.7 percent during his time with Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul a season ago.
Bogdanovic can drill like a construction worker from the outside. The issue is that construction workers wear thick jeans, and Bogdanovic moves around like he's got a slab of unforgiving denim wrapped around his legs.
It's not that he's slow. He just doesn't move often.
Most of Bojan's shots come while he waits in the corner or on the wing. He's a catch-and-shoot guy whose opportunities tend to look like this one against the Thunder:
You can see what's developed and what's developing in that play alone from Bogdanovic. He may not move much, but his release is so quick and, at 6'7", high enough that it's hard to disrupt. If the Nets can learn to get him open with screens, as they partially do here when Kevin Garnett brilliantly seals off Serge Ibaka before Deron Williams even makes the pass, he'll have a better chance to show off the release and accuracy.
Still, it's hard to get Bogdanovic on the move—running him off screens—if he's struggling to find open space, a usual weakness for rookies and one that is certainly true for the Nets' small forward. For now, hanging around the corners and the wings is Bogdanovic's job. It's the Nets' way of creating "gravity."
Yes, gravity, the ability to pull defenders toward you and thus, help your teammates get open just by your mere presence. Standing around is fine on the early end of Bogdanovic's learning curve, but eventually, the wonder will become if the Nets will ever start bouncing him off screens like an apple off Isaac Newton's head.
We've never really seen a Hollins-run offense use a shooter in such a fashion—in a way that, say, Doc Rivers loves to have a Ray Allen or a J.J. Redick run off pin downs and flare screens, two of the most common types of picks to set up three-point shots.
You see the potential for Bogdanovic to be a strong off-ball player. Even though schemes mostly call for him to work the corners, every once in a while, he'll rip off a quality backdoor cut, like this one when he catches his defender, Ricky Rubio, a little off-beat and gets fouled at the rim:
Bogdanovic notices the smaller Rubio straying from him, back turned, eyes fixating on the ball. When he shades toward the wing and sees his defender doesn't move with him, he realizes he can cut toward the basket from the corner, which he does as soon as D-Will gets possession in the middle of the floor.
From there on, the play is either going to end in a layup or a foul.
Finally, we see Bogdanovic throw away passivity and make an assertive play. Even he admits not carrying such a mentality all the time is a flaw in his game.
"Everybody is trying to help me, to give me confidence, telling me that I'm a good player," Bogdanovic said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. "Because I look shy on the court. So I have to be more aggressive."
Hollins, meanwhile, is feeding the decisive part of Bogdanovic's personality, hoping his rookie small forward will be more self-assured in his scoring, cutting and creating ability.
"I told him just keep playing being aggressive, play your game," Hollins explained, per Bondy. "If you miss a shot, so what? Next time you have a shot lined up, take it. When you drive, go drive to score, make a play. I want him to stay aggressive and comfortable."
This is still fresh for everyone. New for the rookie. New for Hollins. But Bogdanovic's intuition does imply that in the future, he'll be capable of handling a more burdensome role.
Hollins never had shooters during his time in Memphis; and now, like Doc, he has some motion offense principles in his attack.
New coaches tend to add schematic wrinkles as a season continues. New players, production-dependent, tend to become part of those wrinkles. It's possible this isn't all we'll see from Bogdanovic as a scorer this year, but he needs to improve his off-ball awareness first.
The "Other Stuff"
Just because Bogdanovic's role has been as a catch-and-shoot hound, that doesn't mean he hasn't shown off other skills during his first four NBA games. He's not one-dimensional. He's merely learning how to hone the other elements.
The rookie's creation skills own the same concept as his off-ball movement: He's not showing it off often, but every once in a while, we see a spark that implies he could do this more in the future. And that makes him like pretty much every other rookie with potential: inconsistent with sporadic flashes of proficiency.
During the Nets' throttling of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 3, Bogdanovic actually drives to the hoop and forces the OKC defense to collapse in on him and kicks out to a wide-open Alan Anderson for three:
That's not a play a pure, spot-up shooter can make. It takes more skill than that, and we've seen Bogdanovic show off his surprisingly strong handle and playmaking ability on other occasions, as well. (Cut away for the obligatory behind-the-back, buzzer-beater alley-oop to Mason Plumlee.)
Back to the assist to Anderson.
Bogdanovic actually draws in a defense, albeit a young one learning to play together under the absence of...well, everyone in Oklahoma City. He fakes left, just enough to get his man off balance, and then immediately dribbles right, looking to kick out all along.
That's about recognition. He had never played a game at NBA speed until a month ago, but he's learning how to read defenses, even if his observation skills are far from his possible peak.
The encouraging part is that Bogdanovic is finding those passing lanes when he gets the opportunity. He just isn't giving himself many chances.
It all comes back to the aggressiveness—or lack thereof—Hollins and Bogdanovic have each mentioned. The offensive skill set is there. It just needs to be implemented properly.
Defense
Though he's taken the brunt of some criticism, Bogdanovic has actually had his moments defensively.
He's strong and physically able to fight through screens when guarding a long-range threat, like when he checked Kevin Martin, a challenging assignment for a small forward.
He's decent at closing out on shooters. He's versatile enough to guard 2s and 3s. You'll often see Joe Johnson guarding small forwards when he starts at shooting guard with Bogdanovic going the other way.
Still, defense is where you can see the rookie-ness percolate from Bogdanovic's veins most, and we've seen opposing teams, like the Pistons, target him for extended stretches in games.
He may have the strength and quickness to barrel through picks, but he has a tendency to run in the wrong direction coming off them, getting lost off the ball. Watch him make a wrong turn as he follows Martin around a screen:
Martin missed the shot, but it was a good look, an open mini-jumper because Bogdanovic went to the top of the key as Martin cut in the opposite direction.
It's a clear experience issue. Bogdanovic may have been playing in a high-caliber international league the past few seasons, but he's still just a first-year player participating in faster-moving games than he ever has before. At times, that's going to show.
You can talk about the hesitance on the offensive end or the lack of movement and cutting, but for now, this is his biggest issue. Though it's only been talked about in relation to his shooting and motion, the reticence is actually hurting the rookie more defensively.
What's It All Mean?
Bogdanovic has been on the wrong end of some nasty criticism during the early season games. A slow preseason didn't help, but the hurt comes mainly from him not making shots, something that should change.
In the first few games of a rookie's career, it's hard to look merely at makes and misses and judge from there, even if the guy is billed as a shooter.
In Scott Howard-Cooper's rookie rankings at NBA.com, the columnist wrote, "The 31st pick in 2011 started each of the first games, a nice platform, but shot 39.1 percent and scored more than seven points once. The experience of playing in Europe and being 25 years old is not showing. Bogdanovic is admitting the transition to the NBA has been harder than he expected."
And there are flaws in Bogdanovic's game, reasons to be discouraged early.
He hasn't hit shots. He has been passive. He has gotten lost defensively. He has had his moments when offenses target him. But it's hard to stress enough that these are all common struggles for first-year players.
He may be an old rookie, but he's still just that: a rookie. Any sort of shooting percentage right now doesn't matter. It's how he's getting those shots. Passivity has a way of evaporating as players get more comfortable, which can only come over time. That's as good a reason as any to give a rookie a long leash.
In some ways, smart attempts are more important than tough makes. After all, that's what builds progress. And if Bogdanovic can further develop the effective parts of his game, the Nets could find themselves a quality role player.
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work at WashingtonPost.com or on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Nov. 7 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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