Are there any occupations where a person can be traded other than pro sports? It’s a wild idea when you think about it, being forced to uproot yourself and move to another city just because another team offered another person or draft picks in exchange for your services. Bogdan Bogdanovic has been in the NBA for eight years and counting, and already he’s seen his share of trades.
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He was one of the main pieces in a 2020 sign-and-trade that would have sent him from the Kings to the Bucks, but that deal fell through after it was discovered that the Bucks violated league bylaws by attempting to negotiate outside of the free agent window.
Bogdanovic found out about that deal through Twitter, which might have helped him process it when he was traded for real five years later. The Serbian sharpshooter was in his fifth year with the Hawks when they decided to send him to the Clippers in exchange for Terance Mann, Bones Hyland and three second-round picks.
As he revealed at Clippers media day, it wasn’t just the Kings-Bucks fiasco that prepared him to be moved. It was his former teammate Lou Williams, and he got to tell the three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner that to his face when he sat down with an interview with him for his The Underground Lounge podcast.
“You know when you see somebody get traded and then they lose themselves, their energies and different things is kinda bad, it’s different,” Bogdanovic said to Williams.
“But when you came in Atlanta, you were vibing, I remember. You brought the speaker, you brought the cards, you brought the games, you brought the snacks,” Bogdanovic reminisced.
“You started teaching those young guys what you learned that we didn’t know how to teach them. But that’s something that I know I learned and it helped me when I moved here,” he continued.
Williams was sent to the Hawks at the 2021 trade deadline. This was his second stint in Atlanta, which may have made the transition easier. But regardless, the Hawks took off after he arrived, going on a magical playoff run that led them all the way to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell to the eventual NBA champion Bucks.
Bogdanovic averaged over three made 3s per game in that series, and finished second on the Hawks in scoring behind Trae Young. Williams, as he did throughout his career, played valuable minutes off the bench.
With Bogdanovic after coming over at last year’s deadline, the Clippers lost a tough seven-game series to the Nuggets. But with a full year of his services, in addition to Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac and new arrivals Brook Lopez, Chris Paul and Bradley Beal thrown into the mix, they’re hoping to make a much deeper run this year.
