SALT LAKE CITY — In the video, the play begins with an inbound pass to his 7-foot center. The center tosses it back to Bojan Bogdanović, who grabs it with his right hand, slams it between his palms and dribbles one … two … three times, each thump helping him nudge Philadelphia guard Kendall Marshall toward the basket. At this point, Marshall knows he’s in trouble.
Bogdanović has already scored a career-high 42 points. And with a spin away from the basket and a fadeaway jumper over Marshall’s outstretched arm, Bogdanović increases that total to 44 — a career-high that now, over 1,000 days from that March 15, 2016, contest when Bogdanović played for the Brooklyn Nets, still stands.
If the Jazz get their way, Bogdanović — one of their premier offseason acquisitions — will show similar offensive talent here in Utah, although perhaps with less production. He’ll have to contend with other scorers like Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell each night, which means 44 points is likely out of reach. But so far, less than a week into preseason practice, his scoring ability has been noticed.
“For me,” guard Dante Exum said, “if I could shoot like that, I’d be shooting every time.”
“If I could shoot like that, I’d be shooting every time.” — Dante Exum
Apparently Bogdanović’s practices have lived up to the hype he arrived with. He’s coming off a season in which he was Indiana’s greatest scoring threat, averaging 18 points in 81 games played. Only Victor Oladipo, who played in 26 games, notched a higher scoring average.
Bogdanović can score in multiple ways. He’s a solid 3-point shooter. His 42.5 percent from deep last season was better than Klay Thompson’s and trailed Steph Curry’s by 1.2 percentage points, though he took considerably fewer 3s than the Splash Brothers. He can also hit mid-range shots and drive to the hoop. His scoring abilities, as Exum noted, aren’t in doubt. Mitchell seconded Exum’s assessment, adding that he’s joked that Bogdanović is going to shoot 100 percent from behind the arc.
“He doesn’t miss,” Mitchell said.
But Exum was also impressed with Bogdanović’s dedication to finding the best shot on the floor, even if it isn’t his.
“He’s always trying to look for the best option,” Exum said. “Sometimes, it’ll be his shot. But sometimes, he’s trying to put it on the floor to make the next pass.”
Bogdanović spent the offseason addressing that part of his game, among others. Because Croatia didn’t qualify for this summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup, the past few months have been strange for Bogdanović, who has played on his national team since he was a member of its under-16 program. However, the time off gave him at least one advantage.
“I really am rested mentally and physically,” he said, “so I hope that’s going to help me.”
In addition to working on his ball handling, Bogdanović said he worked on his defense and his strength. But he acknowledged the ball handling will be key to playing pick and roll with the Jazz — something he believes he showed he can do last season, but that he nevertheless wanted to work on.
“That was also one of my goals this summer: to improve ball handling and pick and rolls and reading the situations,” he said. “So I hope I have a chance to play a lot of pick and rolls this season.”
Mitchell said the biggest surprise offered by his new teammate have been his pick-and-roll abilities.
“He’s very composed,” Mitchell said, “very poised as far as getting into the lane.”
It could take Bogdanović some time to adjust to his new role, which he acknowledged. He harped on how every season is different, and how the onus is on each individual player to find his role, regardless of whether his minutes are reduced, or who he’s sharing the court with.
Early indications show it might not take long.
Rudy Gobert said Bogdanović threw him a lob for a score on the first play of the team’s first preseason practice.
“Apparently pretty quick,” he added when asked how long it’ll take Bogdanović to mesh.
Bogdanović said he, among some of Utah’s other offseason additions, also brings playoff experience in addition to his scoring abilities — a quality he said was important to the Jazz’s front office in evaluating whether players would be a good fit.
In his five years of NBA basketball, Bogdanović has appeared in the playoffs four times, including the last three seasons. He hasn’t had much success — his teams went 12-18, with three first-round exits, including a sweep last season. But he’s also played in two Game 7s, once two seasons ago with Indiana, and once three seasons ago with Washington, the latter of which fell 10 points short of a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.
In part thanks to his scoring ability, Bogdanović believes this season has a chance to be different.
“This is probably the best team that I’ve been a part of,” he said. “There’s still a long season in front of us, but we are looking to the playoffs, of course.”