Andrew Bogut is only averaging four shots attempted per game thus far this nascent Golden State Warriors season, to go along 5.3 points per game, but Coach Mark Jackson says Bogut’s offense will come around in due time.
The Warriors’ centerpiece on defense has been a bit passive on offense, most notably with defenders sagging several feet off of him, including a turnover late in the game against the San Antonio Spurs, where he was trying to be a bit too unselfish with a pass inside the lane to Klay Thompson, that went out of bounds.
“I’d like to see him (be) more aggressive, but one thing we can’t get caught up in is, guys are who they are,” Jackson said after Monday’s practice, “He’s not a 25-point scorer. He’s going to have to pick and choose his spots, but we certainly want him to be aggressive.”
Bogut only played twelve games in the 2011-12 season for the Milwaukee Bucks after fracturing his ankle in January of that season. The following year for the Warriors, he labored through just 32 regular season games played.
“This is a guy that hasn’t played a lot of basketball in a couple years. For the first time in a long time, he’s healthy. So he’s getting more and more of a rhythm on the floor. Defense is natural to him and the offense will come,” Jackson added.
Bogut used to be the main scoring weapon with the Bucks. In his best offensive year in 2009-10, he averaged 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds, with 13.2 field attempts per game. That April was the infamous elbow injury, but he was named to the All-NBA Third Team for his performance that year prior to the freak injury.
What’s been the difference between that Andrew Bogut and this one?
“I believe he was a lot younger. He was very healthy,” Jackson replied, “Here’s a guy that hasn’t played a lot of basketball in a lot of years, and he’s healthy for the first time. Instinctively, naturally, the defense is going to come before the offense because he’s gifted as a defender.”
Jackson also commented on Bogut’s seemingly low minutes per game logged thus far:
For who we played and the way things worked out. Teams that we played we came out early on, we blew some teams out, so those numbers are a little messed up because I didn’t need him to play more. It’s most important for us to have him with a lot left in the tank when it matters. Also when teams are going small, we don’t need him on the floor, a lot of those minutes. He will play more than 24 minutes a game, I’ll tell you that.
Jackson gave Bogut the ultimate vote of confidence, as the head coach usually does when he speaks of all of his players, by saying that the Warriors “have no problems offensively, we have no problems other than turning the ball over at times, we have no problems.
We’re not going to get any sermons about our offense.”
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