OFFICIAL BOJAN BOGDANOVIC BLOCK TOTAL WATCH UPDATE: Bojan Bogdanovic has blocked 0 shots on the season, a change of 0 from the last update. THIS CONCLUDES THE OFFICIAL BOJAN BOGDANOVIC BLOCK TOTAL WATCH UPDATE. STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE UPDATES.
Reality seems to be catching up to the Pacers, who have now lost 6 of their last 7. That reality being “Victor Oladipo might be walking again, but he’s still months away from playing”. Bogdanovic is playing great, and doing a heck of a job (to quote Quinn Buckner) scoring the ball, but Indiana is really missing Oladipo’s two-way dominance. I previously advanced some theories that maybe the Pacers didn’t really need Oladipo after all. Those theories are now totally disproven. I’m sorry for being so wrong, but can you blame me for being opimistic? I wanted to believe.
Would they be winning more games if Bogdanovic could up his season block total from 0 to 1? Doubtful. It would be fun to see Bogdanovic block a shot for once, and it would likely provide a small morale boost, but in the end, it would only directly affect one possession. And unless it was a supremely clutch block (like if he blocked Kyrie Irving’s game winner in this game), it would be unlikely to change the outcome of a game, much less the multiple games needed to get the Pacers back on track.
However this season ends for the Pacers, it’s probably going to end with Bogdanovic notching zero rejections. I’m thinking he needs to work out with Mitchell Robinson in the offseason and pick up some tips on how to play some serious defense. Robinson might not be a savvy enough veteran to provide much beyond “just reach up there and block it”, but it would be a start.