Eric Gordon plans to return to practice next week for the New Orleans Hornets, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Gordon has missed the entirety of the 2012/13 season thus far with a knee injury, and appeared in just nine games in 2011/12.
Gordon reflected to Spears on his controversial free agency, in which he signed a four-year, $58MM offer sheet with the Suns and upset some Hornets fans with public comments stating his preference to play in Phoenix:
"Of course I did [regret it]," Gordon said. "But that was the only way to push the table on the Hornets. To get a deal done I was willing to negotiate. My agent and I were going through negotiations with them. But they weren't leaning into really giving me one. So I had to ride with Phoenix and from Day 1 they weren't playing games."
Hornets head coach Monty Williams did not commit to a limit on Gordon's minutes when he returns.
"We're just going to throw him out there," Williams said. "Eric is so explosive and knows how to play. I think our guys are going to gain confidence. Most of our guys have no idea [about his talent] … It's going to breed confidence in our team and they're going to understand why we paid so much money in order to get him back."