Getty Reggie Bullock #25 of the Dallas Mavericks scrambles for the ball against Bojan Bogdanovic #44 of the Utah Jazz.
The Boston Celtics signed Danilo Gallinari to have a sharpshooter with some size on the wing in their arsenal. They may never get to utilize that during the 2022-23 season now that Gallinari has been confirmed to have suffered an ACL tear during the 2022 EuroBasket Tournament. With him out indefinitely, the Celtics may have to look for replacements. One option they could look into is Bojan Bogdanovic.
The Utah Jazz have signaled that they starting their rebuild after trading away Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. Bogdanovic is among the several veterans the Jazz have who are seen as coveted assets around the league, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
Utah still has coveted veteran trade asserts, including Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley Jr. They’ll approach an Oklahoma City-esque haul of draft assets once they’re done dealing. Jazz consider Markkanen, Sexton and Agbaji keepers for their rebuilding roster.
At 6’7”, Bogdanovic is a career 39.2 percent shooter from distance and is coming off a season where he averaged 18.1 points a game while shooting 38.7 percent from three. As far as Gallinari replacements go, there aren’t that many out there available via trade who are better than Bogdanovic.
Brett Siegel of Sports Illustrated wrote an article detailing possible destinations for Bogdanovic, with the Celtics coming up as one of the options. Siegel detailed how the Celtics could pull off a trade for Bogdanovic.
“The Celtics have quite a few assets they could move to trade for Bogdanovic, but in order to do so, they would likely have to part ways with guard Derrick White, who they traded for at the trade deadline last season.
“With the arrival of Malcolm Brogdon, though, White’s role could wind up changing, and he could suddenly become dispensable for this team, especially if they can upgrade their forward depth with someone like Bojan Bogdanovic.”
Bogdanovic is slated to make $19,343,000 this coming season while White is slated to make $16,392,857, according to Spotrac. If they were traded for one another
Is Bogdanovic a Possible Suns Target?
Brian Windhorst of ESPN brought up that the Phoenix Suns may potentially look into trading for Bogdanovic – while pointing out that the team has made former Celtics wing Jae Crowder available.
“Folks that I’m talking to, they don’t get the sense that they’re afraid to spend. It would not surprise me if the Suns get involved in the negotiations for Bojan Bogdanovic,” Windhorst said. “Several teams are bidding for him.”
“They’re in trade negotiations right now, a lot of them are centered around Jae Crowder… It would not surprise me if the Suns get involved in the negotiations for Bojan Bogdanovic.”
The Phoenix Suns remain active, per Brian Windhorst 👀
A trade involving Crowder, who will make $10,183,800 this season, and Dario Saric, who will make $9,240,000 this season, would be enough salary to make an exchange for Bogdanovic, although Utah would probably want a first-round pick or two as well.
Bogdanovic Linked to Lakers
On September 16, Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported that the Jazz have had conversations with the Los Angeles Lakers involving Bogdanovic among other players in a potential trade, though of course, nothing has been agreed to.
“In recent conversations with the Jazz, the Lakers have targeted Bogdanović, Jordan Clarkson and Malik Beasley, according to league sources.”
The Lakers have Russell Westbrook and his expiring salary of $47,063,478 to offer as cap relief for the Jazz for Bogdanovic as well as two first-round picks (2027 and 2029) to offer as well. Although Danny Ainge may not want to help the Lakers out knowing his ties to the Celtics and all.