Brad Penner – USA Today Sports Images
The Brooklyn Nets mad the majority of the headlines that they are going to make this off-season on the night of the 2013 NBA Draft when they agreed to a deal with the Boston Celtics that landed them two aging stars in Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. With little cap-room this summer, the Nets aren’t going to be making any bigger waves than that deal did.
However, they were somewhat active on Friday in the middle of the Dwight Howard free agency saga coming to an end as they signed Croatian small forward Bojan Bogdanovic to a three-year deal with a player option in the third year according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.
Bogdanovic was selected with the first pick of the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but his rights were attained by the Nets via a draft-night trade.
The 6’8”, 216-pound Bogdanovic has played the last two seasons with Fenerbahce in Turkey. Last season he played in 21 games with the team and averaged 15.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game on 48.9 percent shooting and 40.5 percent shooting from long range in 28.3 minutes per game.
The 24-year-old Croatian isn’t coming to Brooklyn to be a star by any means, but he will likely serve the role of backing up the newly acquire Pierce. With the Nets’ hands tied for the most part in free agency this summer, this is a quality signing that allows them to develop a young talented shooter behind one of the game’s elite small forwards. It may not be as big as their trade or signing Howard, but it’s a solid move for the Nets.
Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google+ and like his Facebook page.
