By Jordan Long
The Utah Jazz will open up the regular season on October 19th when they host the Denver Nuggets. Their team will look a lot different as they are in full rebuild mode. In the offseason so far, they dealt center Rudy Gobert to Minnesota. They weren’t done, sending shooting guard Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Utah made another trade, this time with Detroit Pistons. It involved small forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
Bogdanovic spent the past 3 years with the Utah Jazz. He was their starting small forward. This past season, Bogdanovic started 69 games for the Jazz. In those appearances, he put in 18.1 points per game, the most in his career. Those points were second on the team to Donovan Mitchell who scored 25.9 points per game. Bogdanovic also added 4.3 rebounds per game.
This was a surprise trade. It seemed as though the Jazz were done dealing players after the two big trades of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. The Jazz though thought it was time to trade Bogdanovic to Detroit. The Pistons sent Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee to Utah.
The Pistons received an offensive player in Bogdanovic. He will add to the team that includes Cade Cunningham and Saddiq Bey. Cunningham enters his second season with the Pistons and his game is only going to improve. Cunningham was a rookie last year and averaged 17.4 points. Bey added 16.1 points per game. Bogdanovic will take the pressure off of both shooters not only to make baskets but set them up. Bogdanovic becomes the veteran leader of the Pistons.
The two players the Jazz received back, Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee, should help the rebuild process for Utah. Olynyk is the better player and is a 9 year veteran. Besides Detroit, Olynyk played for the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, and Houston Rockets. Olynyk appeared in 610 games in his career, but is a bench player, starting in 168 of those contests. He can still score and bring energy off the bench, averaging 10.1 points per game.
Lee enters his 3rd NBA season. The past two years, Lee was also a bench player, appearing in 85 games. He averaged 5.6 points per game while grabbing 2.2 rebounds. Lee is 23 years old. There is potential that his game will only improve in the NBA.
The Jazz know they may not do anything this season. Utah is anticipating the trades they made this offseason will help the team in the next few years. It could be a long season for Utah but the future could be bright for the franchise.
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