Bogdan Bogdanovic’s minutes have barely changed in the three years he’s been in the league:
2017-18: 27.9 MPG
2018-19: 27.8 MPG
2019-20: 27.7 MPG
I don’t know what to make of this. Does his body just shut down when he gets near the 28 minute mark? Because if I was an alien from another planet, and I saw that data, and I used my superior alien brain to analyze it, I would come to the conclusion that there were some serious, life-threatening ramifications should he be allowed to play 28 minutes. That would fall under the category of “conditioning issue”, probably.
Usually, in the NBA, the deal with young (Bogdanovic is already 27 so he’s not really that young but whatever) players is that you play them more minutes as they get better year over year. The better they play, the more minutes you give them. Heck, you do it even if they’re not getting appreciably better. That’s just what you do.
So what’s the deal here? At this point, Bogdanovic is in his prime, and he should be getting 33-ish minutes per game. 5 minutes per game doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it totally is. That’s 5 minutes, every single game, where the team could be playing better (because Bogdanovic is on the court) but they aren’t. The “Fire Luke Walton” chants have died down, but I’m about ready to start them up again. As soon as Trevor Ariza sees the court again, boom, I’ll be standing in front of the Kings arena with my megaphone.