Utah Jazz: 5 best free agent signings in franchise history

In the fourth spot in these rankings, we find the only current Utah Jazz player in sharpshooting forward Bojan Bogdanovic. He’s given Quin Snyder’s offense a needed shot-in-the-arm since arriving in Salt Lake City (and no, we’re not talking about a COVID-19 vaccine).

In his first season in Utah, Bogey averaged an impressive 20.2 points per game while shooting a sterling 41.4% from deep on 7.3 attempts per game. That kind of spacing in the front court is invaluable in context of the modern NBA, particularly for a team that has an absolute need to surround Rudy Gobert with spacing.

The Utah Jazz have done exactly that, and it’s paid dividends. Last season, the team finished the season with the fourth best offensive rating in the NBA at 116.5. Meanwhile, the Stifle Tower’s presence largely afforded them the league’s third best defensive rating at 107.5. Overall, that gave them the league’s best net rating at 9.0, and it wasn’t particularly close; the runner-up Los Angeles Clippers finished second in that category at 6.1.

Bogdanovic and his elite floor-spacing was a huge component of the formula that led to the Jazz’s immense regular season success. He can hardly be blamed for the team’s second round playoff collapse either, as he averaged 18.1 points per game while shooting an even-more-impressive 46.1% from deep on 6.9 attempts per game in last season’s playoffs.

Bogdanovic is a pure scoring specialist. His defense ranges from slightly weak to barely acceptable, and he’s not much of a playmaker or rebounder. The Utah Jazz will absolutely live with those shortcomings in a player who can play either forward spot and get his team 17 to 20 points on hyper-efficient three-point shooting on a nightly basis.

He’s a perfect fit for this roster, and if the Jazz can make-good on their championship aspirations over the course of his tenure with the squad, he may end up looking better than the fourth-best free agency signing in franchise history.