Jazz trade Bojan Bogdanovic to Pistons

Jazz trade Bojan Bogdanovic to Pistons

The Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons are finalizing a trade that will send forward Bojan Bogdanovic to Detroit, NBA insider Shams Charania and Pistons beat reporter James L. Edwards III of The Athletic reported Thursday morning. According to Charania and Edwards, the Jazz are set to receive Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee, who Utah dealt to Detroit in Nov. of 2020 (along with Tony Bradley) for cash considerations.

Bogdanovic, who’s set to be a free agent at the end of the 2022-23 season, is set to make $19.55 million this upcoming season, according to Spotrac.

Olynyk will make $12.8 million in 2022-23 with a partially guaranteed contract in 2023-24 — only $3M of the $12.2M is guaranteed, though it becomes fully guaranteed if he’s still on the roster on the later date between June 28, 2023, or three days before the 2023-24 league year begins. Lee is on a minimum contract that will expire after the 2023-24 season, though he has a club option attached to the final year.

The Jazz have continued tearing down the roster after they failed to make it past the second round for the sixth straight season. They now rest $7 million below the $150.3M luxury tax threshold and can generate a $6.75 million trade exception, assuming Lee is acquired via an already existing trade exception, per HoopsHype’s salary cap guru Yossi Gozlan.

For the Pistons, Bogdanovic can now seamlessly fit in as a complementary stretch-4 alongside Cade Cunningham-Jaden Ivey-Saddiq Bey-Isaiah Stewart and Detroit’s other hyperathletic players (Hamidou Diallo, Jalen Duren, Nerlens Noel, etc).

Bogdanovic averaged 18.1 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, shooting 45.5 percent — 52.4 percent on 2s — 38.7 percent from 3-point range and 85.8 percent from the charity stripe, equating to a 59..9 true-shooting percentage. The 33-year-old forward has averaged at least 18 points in each of the last four seasons — including a career-most 20.2 points on 60.3 percent true shooting in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.

While Bogdanovic might’ve shown signs that he was on the downswing athletically, he can still be a very good floor spacer. He shot 38.8 percent on catch-and-triples a season ago and has netted 40.9 percent of said shots since the start of 2017-18, per Second Spectrum. For perspective, Detroit shot just 34.5 percent on spot-up triples last season, the second-worst mark in the Association. He will help mitigate that immediately. As a self creator, he also offers off-the-dribble juice with a solid mid-post game to diversify his scoring output.

It’s worth mentioning that the Pistons didn’t have to forgo any draft capital to acquire Bojan Bogdanovic, which is surprising given the treasure trove of draft capital that Danny Ainge has stockpiled from the Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Royce O’Neale trades alone. Instead, Detroit parts with a Olynyk — a capable floor spacer in his own right — and Lee, who was unlikely to crack the rotation at season’s start.

Parting with Olynyk also frees us athletic rookie center Jalen Duren and Noel, who the Pistons acquired from the Knicks this offseason.

Utah now possesses 18 players on guaranteed contracts — so they will need to trade or release three of them before opening night (Oct. 19) to cut their roster down to the max allotted 15. Veterans Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson and Rudy Gay, among others, could be next on their way out the door for either more players or draft capital.

This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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