Bogdan Bogdanovic Is Exactly What The Sacramento Kings Need

There have been a handful of players who have helped in the resurgence of the Sacramento Kings, but none more than Bogdan Bogdanovic.

After a slow start to the NBA season, Sacramento Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic has quickly become one of the team’s most important pieces. Since the injury to De’Aaron Fox last week, Bogdanovic is averaging 21.5 points and 8 assists per game and has essentially kept the Kings afloat during a brutal stretch in the schedule.

The Serbian sniper continued his hot streak on Tuesday night in Sacramento’s victory over the Phoenix Suns. Bogdanovic scored a career-high 31 points, and made an also-career-high seven three-pointers. He was absolutely the reason that the Kings ended up being victorious, evidenced by Phoenix’s unlikely comeback at the end of the game when Bogdanovic hit the bench due to cramping.

Reasons The Kings Need Bogi

The Kings knew that Bogdanovic would provide them with some versatility, but they didn’t expect it to this level. He has proved that he can be effective from three different positions, whether it’s through ball distribution as a point guard or his catch and shoot ability as a small forward.

In the 4 games that Fox has missed, Bogdanovic has elevated his assist output to another level. Over the last four games, his assist totals read 10, 5, 10, and 7. He has extraordinary court vision and even better playmaking ability, which has afforded his teammates easy scoring opportunities.

Making his teammates better is one of the many aspects of being a veteran leader, and so is the consistency that Bogdanovic has displayed as of late. He has scored less than 18 points just once in his last six games and is averaging 21.3 over that span. This comes after a stretch during the first seven games in which he scored in single digits three times.

With the injury issues that the Kings have endured early in the season, the second unit has needed a spark more than ever, and Bogdanovic more often than not as been able to provide that.

There is still plenty of time before Fox returns so we’ll be exposed to a much larger sample size by the time January rolls around. If Bogdanovic is able to continue producing like he is now, he will have a very strong case for Sixth Man of the Year.