The 2020 NBA offseason was a strange one, as it took place over the course of a week or so in November with an incredibly condensed schedule that brought us from the NBA Draft to free agency to the preseason in one fell swoop. Within that, the strangest saga of the offseason was that of Bogdan Bogdanovic, the restricted free agent shooting guard of the Kings who was reported to be headed to Milwaukee in a sign-and-trade days before free agency began.
In the subsequent days, that deal fell apart in large part because Bogdanovic didn’t know it was happening and hadn’t agreed to a deal, which is a key part of a free agent sign-and-trade. The league investigated what happened and ended up docking the Bucks a future second round pick for tampering, and in the end, Bogdanovic ended up in Atlanta where he has taken on the role of sixth man for the Hawks, albeit a very well paid one.
On Tuesday, The Athletic’s Sam Amick published an interview with Bogdanovic that dove into that botched sign-and-trade from his perspective. The young Serbian standout said it eroded any remaining trust he had with the Kings, resulting in him wanting out and being worried they might match the Hawks deal, and also led to mass confusion for he and his team when he awoke in Serbia to the news on Twitter.
I just couldn’t believe everything was happening like that, you know? Nothing was in my hands, really. When I saw that tweet about the Milwaukee stuff, I really saw it on Twitter. It’s not bullshit. That’s why I felt caught off guard.
…
When the news came out, we were like, ‘What the fuck?’ I didn’t know what was going on. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure what was going on.
It is truly one of the weirdest free agency stories in recent years, at least since the infamous DeAndre Jordan will he, won’t he between the Clippers and Mavericks with emojis and barricaded doors. For now, Bogdanovic seems happy to be out of Sacramento and on an up-and-coming Hawks team, even in a role he might not be fully enthralled by — he says the right things about taking on whatever coach Lloyd Pierce calls on him to do, but it seems fairly clear he’s not in love with his sixth man role. As for the Bucks, they were left scrambling to refigure their roster after failing to land a fourth star, and are still working on dialing in their rotations as the season rolls on.
