Atlanta Hawks: Bogdan Bogdanovic was among the best from deep in the 4th quarter
The Atlanta Hawks saw several records broken at the hands of their superstar point guard Trae Young this past postseason. Among his many accomplishments, Young became the first player in playoff history to record a 45-point, 10-rebound game. It was just one of many big moments in the dynamic guard’s career.
Aside from Young’s heroics, the Hawks have several other promising players whose potential has teams sniffing around.
But veteran Bogdan Bogdanovic’s consistency when it mattered most needs more attention.
Bogdan Bogdanovic was great from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter last season
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To be clear, Bogdanovic has been praised for battling through his knee injury and being a steadying presence on a team where most of the roster was making it first postseason.
He often operated as the de-facto point guard as finding a competent backup proved tougher than initially thought.
But it was understandably his scoring that should be getting more attention.
During the regular season, Bogdanovic shot 43.8 percent from outside to finish 11th among qualifiers. Among players to average at least 1.0 three per fourth quarter, he was ninth, shooting 49.4 percent.
He was also top-25 in fourth-quarter threes per game.
It didn’t quite carry over to the postseason for the 6-foot-6 Bogdanovic, who was almost a Milwaukee Buck were it not for some overzealous negotiations.
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He shot just 32.9 percent from three in the playoffs while averaging 14.1 points per game. And in the fourth quarter, he shot just 27 percent as the knee injury sapped him of all of his lift for a large stretch of the postseason run.
It began well enough, too, with him averaging 16.4 points (on 34.5 3P%), 5.9 boards, 3.0 assists, and 1.1 steals through Atlanta’s first nine playoff games.
Bogdanovic slogged through a six-game stretch where he could barely move and averaged just 6.2 points on 26.8 percent shooting. Feeling better towards the end, the former Sacramento King averaged 22.7 points and shot 42.9 percent from deep over the final three games.
His fourth-quarter prowess wasn’t quite back as he shot just 36.4 percent from deep.
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With him presumably healthy heading into next season, one hopes to see him pick up where he left off in the regular season, but also to maintain it into the playoffs. As one of the vets on this team, consistency is key for Bogdanovic. He was a more consistent three-point shooter than Young in attempts and efficiency.