The Nuggets might be about to make life easier for Nikola Jokic. According to reports out of Denver, the Nuggets are considering signing Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has spent years playing alongside Jokic on the Serbian national team.
Bogdanovic is on the move. The Atlanta Hawks are working through their own restructuring, and Bogdanovic has been a name on the trade market for months. With his contract situation now in flux, the Nuggets see a clear opening.
This makes a ton of sense, and it’s the type of low-risk, high-fit move the Nuggets have to make this summer. Bogdanovic is a career 38% three-point shooter. He’s a knockdown spot-up guy. He’s also one of the few NBA players who already has Jokic chemistry built up over years of international play.
The Nuggets’ three-point shooting cratered in the playoffs. Their bench could barely score. Jokic was constantly being asked to create offense for a roster that couldn’t finish the chances he was generating. Bogdanovic walks into all of that and immediately becomes a useful weapon.
There’s also the cultural piece. Jokic is a quiet leader who actually enjoys playing with people he trusts. He’s spent more time playing competitive basketball with Bogdanovic than with most of his Nuggets teammates. The two have a real friendship. That matters in a locker room that has lost some of its core identity over the past two seasons.
The Nuggets have publicly acknowledged that big roster changes are coming. Calvin Booth was already replaced as general manager. The new front office is being more aggressive about adding shooters around Jokic, and they’ve made it clear that the championship window is still open as long as the supporting cast gets fixed.
Money is the practical question. Bogdanovic is going to command somewhere in the mid-level exception range, and the Nuggets are working with a tight budget after several big extensions. They might need to make a small subtraction to bring him in, which probably means losing one of the marginal bench pieces from last year.
What you’re not getting with Bogdanovic at this point in his career is defense. He’s 33, his foot speed has slipped, and teams will hunt him in the playoffs. The Nuggets can hide him in regular-season minutes, but the postseason gets dicier.
Still, the alternative is doing nothing and watching Jokic shoulder another playoff load with no perimeter help. Denver tried that last spring and watched the dream slip away in the second round. Status quo is not a real option.
For Bogdanovic, this is the easiest possible career landing spot. He’d be reunited with his closest basketball friend, playing for a contender, in a clearly defined role as a shooter and secondary creator. He’s not getting better offers from championship teams. The Nuggets are essentially the perfect fit.
The expectation is that this comes together quickly once free agency opens. The market for shooters is tight, and Denver doesn’t want to miss out on the one player who truly fits both basketball and locker room needs. If the move happens, Jokic gets his trusted Serbian teammate, the Nuggets get a real shooter, and the contender window reopens.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
