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How the underrated Bojan Bogdanovic will change the Utah Jazz’s offense

The NBA’s most underrated offseason acquisition has the potential to reshape Utah’s entire offense in 2019.

Probably the biggest surprise of the Jazz’s offense was when the notification from Woj came saying the Utah Jazz had signed Bojan Bogdanovic to a four-year contract. It was clear at that point that the Jazz were ready to invest in the transition to a modern offense. After a handful of preseason games, Jazz fans have seen the impact Bogdanovic can have on Utah’s 2019 offense.

With Bogdanovic on the floor, combined with the other new players, the Jazz have a very clear offensive identity. A four-out system with elite pick and roll screens coming from either Rudy Gobert or Ed Davis. Because of the Jazz’s now incredible overall team shooting, combined with Gobert’s gravity, Utah has been scoring at will.

With Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley running pick and roll, Bogdanovic has been shooting an incredible amount of wide open threes, especially in the corner (albeit not a lot are going in at the moment). Considering that Bogdanovic is literally one of the best corner three shooters in the league, this is a great indicator that the Jazz’s offensive production will carry over into the regular season, or even get better.

The biggest thing to get excited about is that Bogdanovic hasn’t quite found his groove yet in the Jazz’s modern offense. He’s still working through some chemistry and timing issues with Gobert when he receives a screen, and his shooting in general.

That’s probably been the most surprising things with Bogdanovic this preseason is how much he’s been handling the ball. He shows a solid handle and an ability to make the right pass. It just hasn’t quite worked so far. What happens when everything clicks?

Sacramento Kings v Utah Jazz Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

With all this time to see what Bogdanovic in the offense it’s clear that he, along with multiple other players like Joe Ingles, Royce O’neale, Jeff Green and Georges Niang will all play the wing position switching between the 3 and 4 spot.

The trade off of signing Bogdanovic was always going to be a possible dip in defense. Not surprising, during preseason the Jazz have struggled for consistency on defense. Some of this can be attributed to preseason, but the Jazz will have to shore that up when the season starts to not make the offensive gains a wash. Although this shouldn’t be too much of a worry. A lot of the problems have been transition defense and rebounding. Fixable things. Also, when you have the 2-time DPOY backing you up, there’s a good chance that the Jazz defense will be just fine.

And that’s the exciting part for Jazz fans. The biggest problem the Jazz have had the last two playoffs has been an inability to hit threes. With Bogdanovic on the corner, that problem gets solved immediately. And chances are very good the defense will eventually be just as good.

That makes this season one long preparation for the playoffs. The Jazz will annihilate bad teams with their insanely good offense and will have a chance to iron out the defensive kinks as the season rolls along.

Come playoff time the Utah will know what they need to do to get enough stops to win. The problem for every other team in the league will be an inability to stop the Jazz offense. Get ready Jazz fans for a season that has potential to change Jazz history forever and possibly, behind Bogdanovic’s offense, put a banner in Vivint Arena.