If you ask Bojan Bogdanovic, he's not going anywhere at the trade deadline.
The Pistons' leading scorer is coveted by several contenders, but he says GM Troy Weaver has assured him that he's a 'core member of the team's future,' according to Hoops Hype.
“Having conversations with the club, Troy and the owners, they assured me that we’re going to be great next year,” Bogdanovic said. “We have a lot of cap space to sign great players. We’re going to have a high pick again, so that’s going to help us a lot. We have a great young group of guys."
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Bogdanovic, who turns 34 in April, is putting up career-best numbers in his first season with the Pistons, with whom he signed a two-year extension in September after arriving via trade from the Jazz. He's averaging 21.2 points per game and shooting 41.2 percent from three. But the Pistons are headed toward another last-place finish, in part because of a season-ending injury to Cade Cunningham.
"When Cade went down, that kind of hurt us big time," Bogdanovic said. "We were thinking that maybe we’d be fighting for the play-in tournament, but when he went down, he was our main guy. All of our offensive strategies were connected to him. When he went down, our season, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs without him.”
Bogdanovic added that he's "heard the (trade) rumors, but I’m trying to stay away from those conversations" ahead of the Feb. 9 deadline.
"I don’t even have any social media like Twitter. I don’t read much about that," he said. "It’s not in my control. It’s about the franchises. I’m just going to try and stay focused and play as best I can. Then, we’ll see what’s going to happen at the end of the trade deadline.”
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