Bogdan Bogdanovic, who fans of the Los Angeles Clippers know has been competing at EuroBasket this summer, recently suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury that will now keep him sidelined for the remainder of the tournament. While injuries are always disappointing developments and we hope for Bogi's quick recovery, there may be a silver lining to this situation when it comes to Tyronn Lue's rotations this coming season.
Let's first review the details of this situation. Bogdanovic is unfortunately not a stranger to hamstring issues, as he had some crop up during his time with the Atlanta Hawks. That's not the greatest starting point to be at with this. Then on top of that, it sounds like his injury may be a full tear (Grade 3) and not just a strain. That means he may not return to the hardwood until late this calendar year, or early in 2026.
Bogdanovic has been ruled out for the rest of EuroBasket, as the Clippers' team representatives and his national team, Serbia, both agreed to shut him down. Now, the primary focus for him is going to be getting healthy and trying to get to a place where he can return to the court sometime in the upcoming season in Los Angeles.
The Clippers are going to be fine without Bogi for a couple months
Darian Vaziri of the Locked On Clippers podcast first brought up an interesting point about how Bogdanovic's absence to begin the season will end up affecting how Ty Lue handles things. In a recent episode, he notes two things: how the roster's newfound depth will minimize the loss of Bogi, and how there are ways the bench can still be very effective.
I tend to agree with him on both of these fronts. The reason the Clippers went out and added so many great depth pieces this summer was partially to mitigate potential losses like this one. I don't think LA is going to be heading into the season thinking that they're in a tough spot just because they'll be down one (albeit impactful) bench player.
Then when it comes to how you arrange the first unit off the bench, Vaziri makes the case that there won't be much room for DNP talks with Chris Paul anymore. He also mentions the need for more shot-making off the bench outside of CP3, which is where you could argue for Beal to enter into a sixth man role. So while this won't be a super easy fix, it does seem like Lue is going to have enough options to make this work.
And that's without even mentioning some of the other players further down the bench who might get opportunities in Bogdanovic's absence. I know plenty of Clippers fans are still big on Jordan Miller, and guys like him and Cam Christie will have their chance as well.
So while this is far from an encouraging situation overall, I would say the Clippers are uniquely positioned to handle the repercussions of it.