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SALT LAKE CITY — All things considered, training camp has felt relatively normal for Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
The practices, in true Jazz coach Quin Snyder fashion, have been long. The team is relatively unchanged. Even point guard Mike Conley was back on Tuesday after a long quarantine period after recently being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 (the Utah Jazz still have one player not participating due to coronavirus protocols).
All in all, it's felt similar to last season — just with masks and coronavirus tests. But there's just one thing Bogdanovic still needs to do to make sure everything is normal: take a fall.
It's been so far, so good for Bogdanovic as he continues to recover from the wrist surgery that held him out of the bubble portion of last season. A week ago, he didn't know if he would be ready to go when the season starts on Dec. 23. Now, he's feeling pretty confident he'll be suiting up.
Following practice on Tuesday, Bogdanovic said he was feeling "way better" and that he's even been surprised a bit with his progression. But that all came with a caveat.
"I'm still waiting to fall on the floor pretty hard to see how my hand's gonna react, but overall I'm fine and I'm expecting to play at the start of the season," Bogdanovic said.
That's good news for the Jazz who clearly missed their second-leading scorer in the playoffs.
"It was certainly different not having him," forward Joe Ingles said. "Obviously, he was a huge part of our team. We adjusted, but we missed him. It's great to have him back and healthy. It will be easy incorporating him in the offense. It's a huge positive, getting him back."
Bogdanovic averaged 20.2 points on 41.4% shooting from 3 on a career-high 7.3 attempts. Considering he was able to put up those numbers while playing through pain (the injury occurred in the first part of the season), there's optimism that he can be even better.
And there's one important man who wants to see him shoot even more.
"Quin is kind of trying to force me to shoot even more because I think we were the best percentage 3-point shot team in the league, so he certainly encouraged us to shoot it more," Bogdanovic said. "So this season I'll try to shoot more, especially early on in the offense."
When it comes to that offense, Bogdanovic believes the team's core staying intact (Utah returned its top eight players from a season ago and brought back in longtime Jazz big man Derrick Favors) will help the Jazz in the truncated season.
"We don't have to review our set offenses and all of that is kind of the same," Bogdanovic said. "We are trying to play a little bit more five-on-five in practices than was the case last year, so I think that we are in pretty, pretty good shape to start the season right away."
At least as long as his wrist holds up on that first big fall.
