According to nba.com on Tuesday, Utah Jazz small forward Bojan Bogdanovic of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina will miss the rest of the 2019-20 National Basketball Association season after having surgery on his right wrist. The surgery was a success and Bogdanovic is expected to play a key role for the Jazz in the 2020-21 season.
Bogdanovic has three years left on his contract after this season. He is to make $56.1 million after making $17 million in 2019-20.
There is a discrepancy in reports when Bogdanovic suffered the wrist injury. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN is reporting it happened in January, while the Jazz are saying Bogdanovic suffered the ailment in 2019.
In 63 games with the Jazz, Bogdanovic was having a career season. He was averaging 20.2 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game. Bogdanovic also had a field goal percentage of .447, a three-point percentage of .414, and a free throw percentage of .903.
Bogdanovic’s 20.2 points per game and 1275 total points in 2019-20 were second on the Jazz squad in scoring. He was only behind Donovan Mitchell of Elmsford, New York, who has 24.2 points per game and 1275 total points.
The loss of Bogdanovic will be significant. Even though he is classified as a small forward, he does bring considerable size at 6’8″, 215 pounds.
Up until his wrist injury, Bogdanovic had remained extremely healthy in his NBA career. He only missed 11 games over five NBA seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers from 2014 to 2019.
With the loss of Bogdanovic, Royce O’Neale of Killeen, Texas is expected to take over the Jazz starting role at small forward. O’Neale is averaging 6.3 points per game for Utah in 2019-20. At the time of the coronavirus hiatus, the Jazz were in fourth place in the Western Conference with a record of 41 wins and 23 losses.
