NBA Draft: 5 best picks of lottery era at No. 31
By Phil Watson
4. Bojan Bogdanovic, 2011, Miami Heat
Born in the old Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian forward Bojan Bogdanovic began playing professionally at age 15 and spent four years with Real Madrid’s junior team before making the leap to Cibona Zagreb in Croatia in 2009.
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He was selected by the Miami Heat with the 31st overall pick in the 2011 draft after two seasons with Cibona, with a pick originally belonging to the Minnesota Timberwolves and acquired by Miami in a July 2010 trade that sent former No. 2 overall pick Michael Beasley to Minneapolis.
After the Heat selected Bogdanovic, his rights moved twice on draft night, first to the Timberwolves in exchange for the rights to first-round pick Norris Cole and later to the then-New Jersey Nets in exchange for a 2013 second-round pick and cash.
Prior to the draft, Bogdanovic had signed a multi-year deal with Turkish club Fenerbahce Ulker and spent three seasons with them before the Nets bought out his deal and signed him in July 2014.
As a 25-year-old NBA rookie with Brooklyn, Bogdanovic worked primarily off the bench.
He played in 78 games and started 28, averaging 9.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game while shooting 45.3 percent overall and 35.5 percent on 3.3 3-point tries per game, earning All-Rookie second team honors.
After taking on a full-time starting role at the 3 spot in 2016-17, Bogdanovic was traded at the deadline in February 2017 to the Washington Wizards, with Marcus Thornton and Andrew Nicholson coming back to Brooklyn along with the first-round pick used to select Jarrett Allen.
He signed with the Indiana Pacers as a free agent in July 2017 and had his best NBA season this year, averaging 18.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists — all career-highs — in 31.8 minutes per game, shooting 49.7 percent overall and ranking 10th in the NBA by hitting 42.5 percent on 4.8 deep tries a night.
Bogdanovic will hit free agency again this summer and should be an enticing second-tier target.