Did the Detroit Pistons wait too long on Bojan Bogdanovic?

*Today the Detroit Pistons announced that Bojan Bogdanovic has a calf strain and will be reevaluated in four weeks.

As the Detroit Pistons were tanking away last season, the biggest question hanging over the team was whether they would trade Bojan Bogdanovic.

He was having a great season and there were plenty of contenders checking his availability, but none of them were willing to offer up a trade that satisfied the Pistons.

This made sense at the time, as Detroit has to actually try to win games at some point and Bogdanovivc is a proven shooter and veteran leader who can help that goal. Trading him for expiring contracts and more second-round picks isn’t going to help this team win games anytime soon.

There was some amount of risk to this, as Bogdanovic is 34 years old and is not getting any younger. Recent developments have shown just how this could blow up in Detroit’s face.

How serious is Bojan Bogdanovic’s calf injury?

Bojan Bogdanovic has missed the first two preseason games and has already been ruled out of the remaining two with a calf injury. The Pistons haven’t said much about this so far, but you have to imagine they wanted the veteran to get at least some reps in with his young teammates before the regular season starts.

Let’s hope this is just a team being cautious with a veteran who knows how to prepare for the season, but the worst-case scenario is that this injury ends up costing him games. We have to hope this is just a minor injury and that he’ll be ready to go. Bogdanovic has been a reliable player in his career, but any lingering injury is going to have an effect on his trade value.

Then you have the contract. Bogdanovic is on a contract that is not fully guaranteed past this season, so you could argue that he had more value to teams at the last trade deadline, when they had another fully guaranteed year of control. Conversely, some teams may find his contract more attractive, as there is no long-term risk and they can get out of it after this year for just $2 million.

In the end, his value probably hasn’t changed much from the middling offers the Detroit Pistons were getting last season, so as long as he is healthy, it won’t have hurt them to give this roster a chance and see if Bogdanovic can help bring these young guys along.

In the best-case scenario, the Pistons are good enough to chase the play-in and it will have been worthwhile to keep Bogdanovic around.