After arriving in a trade with the Jazz, guard/forward Bojan Bogdanovic thinks he will be a good fit next to Cade Cunningham, the former No. 1 overall pick and point guard.
“Cade is the franchise player,” Bogdanovic said, via Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free-Press. “He’s a great guy, and a great player. Putting me next to him, he’s going to have more space to operate. I’ve (been) here just a couple days, so we will learn about each other.”
Detroit sent Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee to Utah in the deal, and Pistons coach Dwane Casey thinks Bogdanovic has plenty to offer.
“A little bit of everything,” Casey said, via Sankofa. “He spaces the floor, he talks. We didn’t want to lose Kelly, but what (Bogdanovic’s) skillset brought, it opened up one of the five spots for us. Just too many bigs, and he’s more of a three or four, smart, shoots the ball, knows the game, knows how to play without the ball.
“If you stay with him, it opens up space for Cade and Jaden Ivey and Saddiq Bey. Just watching them play, and I was watching today, he was out there talking to guys, telling them what to do, how to do things. You cannot put an amount on that, and that’s why he’s valuable to us right now.”
Bogdanovic, 33, averaged 18.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 69 games last season. He is entering the final year of a $19.6 million contract — perhaps setting him up to be dealt again prior to the trade deadline.
But who knows? Perhaps Bogdanovic will fit so well next to Cunningham and the rest that the Pistons don’t want to make a deal. There certainly would be worse things than keeping him.
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