After a surprising free agency signing, the Serbian sniper must overcome age and injury history to crack Houston's crowded rotation and prove his health under Ime Udoka. If not, he can hopefully still be a good veteran presence for someone like Reed Sheppard.
The Houston Rockets shocked many people, myself included, when their first move of free agency was to sign a Serbian sniper on a veteran minimum deal. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone for this front office to be targeting an above average shooter, but the player they selected was a bit of a stunner.
While Bogdan Bogdanovic’s shooting capabilities will definitely help, it is important to note that a player needs to be healthy and able to get NBA minutes in order for their shooting to be helpful on a roster. With that being said, it’s hard to imagine any team would put such a priority on a player if they didn't have confidence in their health.
Let’s not forget that the Rockets did sign Dorian Finney-Smith last summer, though, and he wasn’t healthy until about midway through the season. He was really never able to get back to his old self and had to get moved in a costly salary dump, covered here on Roundtable.
I’m hoping this isn't the case for Bogdanovic and his health this year, but at least he signed a much smaller contract. He also isn’t getting surgery this summer, which DFS did last year. By the time the season starts, he will have had over a year to heal from his hamstring injury in EuroBasket.
Taking that into consideration, I have faith that he’ll be cleared to play for the 2026-2027 season, but will he get minutes? Will he be able to keep up, or will Ime Udoka prefer to turn to other guys? Will he trust another shooter that could be a defensive liability, or is Reed Sheppard enough for him to deal with?
He just turned 34 years old on August 18th, so I’m admittedly a little hesitant to expect consistent minutes out of him. It’s not like that’s ancient in today’s NBA, but he’s still past his prime. Not to mention, there’s already a handful of guards who deserve minutes ahead of him.
If Amen Thompson is still going to be viewed as a guard, that’s already more than 30 minutes allotted for. I’d expect Fred VanVleet, Marcus Smart, and Reed Sheppard to each get 20-25 minutes per game, if not more. Simple math tells me there’s only 96 guard minutes per game, and those are all gone without even mentioning Bruce Thornton.
It’ll be tough for Bogdanovic to consistently crack the rotation when everyone is healthy, but it always helps to have a capable shooter who can come in whenever his number is called. Hopefully he can teach Reed Sheppard some tricks of the trade in the meantime.
