The Jazz and Bojan need a painless divorce

He’s a Jazz man for now but Bojan Bogdanovic clearly needs to move on from Utah. Emmet Ryan on how his body language spoke loudly while his mouth said little at EuroBasket

This is not a matter of effort. It was clear Bojan Bogdanovic put in work for Croatia at EuroBasket but the distractions of Utah’s sharp and near total rebuild clearly had an impact on his mood and performance at the competition.

Throughout his six games, in Milan and Berlin, the veteran looked like a man who wanted to be doing anything but playing basketball and all the ancillary stuff that involves. The national team captain for Croatia, he did his duty at press conferences and mandatory interviews but the need to lead was the last thing Bogdanovic wanted and it was clear for all to see.

From the media tribunes courtside through the mixed zones, Bogdanovic’s visible demeanour never changed irrespective of how his team was doing on the floor. At 33 and having made good money, he’s at a stage in his life as a basketball player where he doesn’t want to be part of a project that is starting everything over again.

Of all the players impacted by the flurry of trade activity and free agency moves that coincided with the start of this competition, and into the latter stages with Dennis Schroeder, none looked to be impacted more negatively than the Croat. His teammates Dario Saric (Phoenix Suns) and Ivica Zubac (LA Clippers) had different challenges but neither had that flavour of stress.

Saric looked like a man trying to get back into top tier condition after a long layoff, physically he was fine but you could see he was still working to convince himself. Zubac was quiet but effective when given the opportunity, as Croatia’s usage of him was confusing at times.

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Bojan? He was numerically fine scoring 19.2 points per game on 48/39/87 but assist to turnover ratio 1.7/2.7 pointed to his focus issues. This wasn’t the guy out there getting that bit extra from his team mates, he didn’t look like a veteran leader as much as a tired guy who was doing the work he had to.

For the Jazz, that’s not ideal. He’s at a stage where he wants to be on a team that can compete, the Jazz team he joined essentially not the one he clearly needs to leave. All the take is that he will be moved and he’s entering the final season of his…