Duane RankinArizona Republic
OKLAHOMA CITY — Brooklyn Nets forward Bojan Bogdanovic was pleasantly surprised to learn how much influence he had on Royce O’Neale developing a quicker release on his 3-point shot.
“I’m really proud and surprised that he mentioned me, but we worked together really close,” Bogdanovich said.
He shouldn’t be shocked.
O’Neale watched and took detailed mental notes on how Mike Conley, Joe Ingles and Bogdanovic let it fly when they were teammates with the Utah Jazz.
He noticed how quick their releases were, regardless of where they received the pass.
“Practicing different catches,” O’Neale said. “The game passes might be all over the place. Coordinating those in the workouts. Whether I catch the ball high, low, still being able to shoot. Then just trying to get a quicker, faster release, especially when I first got into the league. Just developing the shot, how to get my shot off quicker.”
Undrafted, O’Neale showed up in Utah out of Baylor in 2017 fighting to stay on the roster. He’s since grown into one of the NBA’s better shooters equipped with a giraffe-chin-high, super-quick release.
Thanks fellas.
“Those guys, they’ll catch the ball high and then just keep it high and then shoot it,” O’Neale said. “So, I was just like, that’s an impressive tool. I should add that to my bag.”
The 6-foot-6 O’Neale is averaging a career-high 9.7 points in his first full season with the Suns, who acquired him in a three-team deal from Brooklyn right before the 2024 deadline.
The team’s sixth man, O’Neale is shooting 43.9% on 3s heading into Friday’s NBA Cup matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder (10-2) here at Paycom Center.
O’Neale started the season 20-of-38 from deep for the Suns (9-3).
“I’m really very proud of him,” Bogdanovic said. “He’s a great kid. He’s having a big career and having great numbers this season. He’s playing a big part of Phoenix’s success early. He’s improving.”
Suns guard Grayson Allen noticed the change in O’Neale’s shot — and numbers — in the 2019-20 season, the year after their one season together in Utah.
“After I got traded in the summer (to Memphis), the next season, the first time I played going back to Utah, I think on the scouting report, Royce was at like 50-something percent at the beginning of the year,” Allen said.
The Grizzlies made the trip to Utah for a Dec. 7, 2019, matchup. At that time, O’Neale was shooting 43.8% (25-of-57) from distance.
“I was like, damn,” Allen continued. “I noticed that his release had changed a little bit. It got quicker, it got smoother. He obviously worked on it a ton.”
That was O’Neale’s third season with the Jazz — and Bogdanovic’s first.
Those two, along with Ingles and Conley, were all in Utah getting up shots in pregame, before and after practice together.
“We were working a lot,” Bogdanovic said. “He, Joe Ingles and I were part of that group just being the spot-up guys that are shooting in transition.”
They were also playing with the dynamic Donovan Mitchell, a frequent flyer into the paint of opposing defenses. That made it even a greater priority for O’Neale to thrive as a spot-up shooter.
“He created a lot of attention to him,” Bogdanovic said about Mitchell. “When he has the ball, we need to kind of shoot fast and then shoot it from really high.
"Big emphasis and strategy on how we want to play. We worked on it.”
Jordan Clarkson later joined the Jazz during that 2019-20 season in a trade. He and O’Neale go way back to high school in Texas where they went up against each other.
O’Neale played at Harker Heights where his high school jersey is retired while Clarkson put in work at Karen Wagner in San Antonio.
“I always knew he was a hustle guy, defender, but he grew his game a lot here in terms of shooting offensively, making plays,” Clarkson said.
Clarkson noticed the work O’Neale put into creating a quicker release on his 3-point shot, enabling him to get it off regardless of how he’s being defended.
“He’s mastered it,” Clarkson said. “He’s in big situations where he’s knocking those shots down.”
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Have opinions about the current state of theSuns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin atdmrankin@gannett.comor contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at@DuaneRankin.
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