Eastern Notes: Saric, Ibaka, Heat, Wizards
- Serge Ibaka gives the Magic a much better defensive option against Eastern Conference counterparts LeBron James, Al Horford, Chris Bosh and Paul Millsap, as Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel breaks down in his latest column. Ibaka, who was acquired from the Thunder in a draft-night deal, provides the club with its first legitimate power forward in 15 years, Schmitz declares.
- The Heat’s development and scouting staff will play an integral part in getting the franchise back to the status of serious contender, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel opines. The coaching staff needs to develop the skills of Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson, while the scouting staff must maximize next year’s first-round pick, Winderman continues. That will help attract free agents to South Beach because the Heat can no longer rely on quick fixes, Winderman adds.
- Center Micheal Eric, who played on the Wizards’ Las Vegas summer league team, has signed with Spanish Club Bilbao, league sources informed J. Michael of CSNmidatlantic.com. Eric had the option of joining Washington for training camp but decided to head overseas when the club wouldn’t offer a partial guarantee, Michael adds. The 28-year-old Eric averaged 9.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in five summer league outings.
Extension Candidate: Derrick Favors
Veteran contract extensions rarely occur in the NBA. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement places heavy restrictions on contract restructuring and extensions. In most cases, it doesn’t make sense for one party or the other.
This summer, a couple of notable exceptions have popped up. James Harden agreed to a max extension, allowing the Rockets to lock up their franchise player for at least another year beyond the two seasons remaining on his contract. Russell Westbrook, who could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, agreed to a max extension with the Thunder that will keep him under contract for at least another season.
Both players could remain with their respective teams — Harden in 2019/20 and Westbrook in 2018/19 — for an additional season if they decide not to opt out of the final year of those extensions.
Jazz power forward Derrick Favors doesn’t have the star power or resume of that duo but he, too, is eligible for a veteran extension this offseason. The player’s current contract must be at least four years to qualify for an extension and Favors signed a four-year, rookie-scale extension in October 2013.
Favors could officially sign a veteran’s extension during training camp on the third-year anniversary of his current contract. There’s ample financial reasons for Favors to work out such an agreement.
Favors is scheduled to make $11.05MM this season and $12MM in 2017/18. If he received a bottom tier max from the Jazz, he could essentially double his salary for the next two seasons.
Utah currently has more than $10MM in salary-cap space and could open up a little more by waiving a player with a non-guaranteed contract. They have two such players on the books — Chris Johnson and Jeff Withey.
From that point, Favors could receive two more years on his deal, though the numbers could range wildly. He could either get the max 7.5% raises in those two years. Conversely, the numbers could nosedive by as much as a 40% maximum decrease in the first year of the extension and another 7.5% decrease in the final season.
As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details, that means Favors could wind up with a four-year restructuring/extension worth anywhere from $70MM to $99MM. If Favors waited until he became an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2018, the max he could earn over the next four years would be approximately $86.3MM.
LIke Harden and Westbrook, he could aim for an opt-out in the final year of the extension, though the Jazz might not be interested in doing so. If they agreed to an opt-out, they’d be giving him a whopping raise while only being assured of having him an additional season. That would be a very generous offer to a player who hasn’t made an All-Star team.
The Jazz also have major decisions to make regarding two of their other top players. Leading scorer Gordon Hayward will almost assuredly opt out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Utah will have to decide whether to sit back and hope Hayward re-signs next summer or whether to explore trade possibilities, though Hayward has a 15% trade kicker in his contract.
Center Rudy Gobert is eligible for a rookie-scale extension before the start of the season, though the Jazz could also lock him up next summer when he becomes a restricted free agent.
Favors is undoubtedly a productive, if somewhat brittle, player who is entering his prime years. He’s just 25 years old and coming off back-to-back years in which he averaged at least 16 points, eight rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Favors has missed some time with assorted injuries since he started playing regularly — nine games in 2013/14, eight in 2014/15 and 20 last season.
Advanced stats are generally kind to Favors. He posted a rock-solid 21.71 PER last season, well above the 15.0 average. His offensive and defensive box ratings via BasketballReference.com are also above average, though he’s never had an OBR above 1.0. His overall Box Plus/Minus of 2.7 last season was a career best.
There’s another factor the Jazz must consider in their decision whether to extend Favors — what kind of player do they project Trey Lyles to be over the next few seasons?
The 2015 lottery pick posted modest stats in his first season, averaging 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds. On the flip side, Lyles played well enough to remain in the rotation all season and he’s just 20 years old. If Utah believes Lyles could develop into a starter at power forward and possibly replace Favors two years down the road, what’s the incentive to extend Favors?
Either Favors or the club could decide to put off extension talks until next summer. He’d still be eligible for an extension entering the final year of his contract, as Westbrook was this summer. The tricky part is there’s no guarantee the current rules will still be in place.
Negotiations between the league and the Players’ Association appear to be going well but if they break down, either side could opt out of the CBA next summer. Even if the sides reach an agreement on a new CBA, the rules could change in terms of veteran extensions.
Given his team-friendly contract, Favors and agent Wallace Prather have plenty of motivation to get something done this summer. The Jazz will probably be willing to accommodate them, as long as Favors doesn’t shoot for the max and an opt-out clause.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Swinger / USA Today Sports
Community Shootaround: San Antonio Spurs
Gregg Popovich will be coaching Team USA at the next Olympics. The team he regularly coaches had quite an eventful summer.
Topping that list was the retirement of the Spurs’ longtime franchise player Tim Duncan. The franchise began its succession plan to replace Duncan last season when coveted free agent LaMarcus Aldridge chose to chase championships with a perennial contender. Aldridge will have another veteran big man who knows all about winning titles alongside him next season, as 36-year-old Pau Gasol also selected the Spurs via the free agent route.
San Antonio, which lost David West to the rival Warriors, didn’t stop there in its frontcourt makeover. It signed Dewayne Dedmon and another graybeard by NBA standards, 33-year-old David Lee.
The Spurs imported a couple of their draft-and-stash prospects, combo forwards Livio Jean-Charles and Davis Bertans, on low-cost deals with two-year guarantees. They also did well in the draft, nabbing guard Dejounte Murray, a player who was projected to go much higher than the 29th pick.
The newcomers join current franchise player Kawhi Leonard, along with the backcourt trio of Tony Parker, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili, as well as promising rotation pieces Jonathon Simmons and Kyle Anderson.
Clearly, the Spurs have a roster built to go deep in the playoffs, especially if some of those younger players blossom. They probably won’t have to worry about getting knocked out by the Thunder again in next year’s postseason. But the team that was easily second-best in the league during the regular season last year must once again contend with a star-laden Warriors roster fortified by the addition of superstar Kevin Durant.
This leads to our question of the day: Do the Spurs have enough firepower on their current roster to overcome the heavily-favored Warriors next season?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Northwest Notes: Blazers, Jazz, Thunder
After playing the first several years of his NBA career on a contract that will pay him about $10MM in total, C.J. McCollum is set to begin playing on a $106MM+ deal a year from now, having signed an extension last month. Despite the huge pay raise, the Trail Blazers guard doesn’t expect to be affected by increased expectations, as he tells Oliver Maroney of Basketball Insiders. “The only real pressure is the pressure I put on myself. As long as I’m continuing to work and get better, no one is going to put pressure on me but myself,” McCollum said, adding that he thinks the franchise is “heading in the right direction.”
Here’s more from out of the Northwest:
- As Bobby Marks of The Vertical details, the Jazz have built their current roster primarily through the draft, but adjusted that philosophy this summer by trading a late lottery pick for veteran point guard George Hill. After just missing the playoffs last season, Utah focused on adding veterans this offseason to take the next step.
- In the wake of Russell Westbrook‘s new extension with the Thunder, Erik Horne of The Oklahoman examines the relationship between the star point guard and head coach Billy Donovan. According to Horne, Westbrook and Donovan have been in touch frequently this summer — sometimes “just saying hello,” per Westbrook.
- As we outlined earlier today, Northwest teams spent the least amount of free agent money this summer out of any of the six divisions, with only the Trail Blazers making a major splash on the open market.
Free Agent Signees Who Could Be Back On Market In 2017
While many NBA players don’t necessarily love the uncertainty that free agency brings, reaching the open market and signing a new contract doesn’t always mean that a player will avoid the experience for several more years. For a number of the free agents who signed contracts this summer, there’s a good chance that they’ll head right back to the open market in the 2017 offseason.
In some cases, a player may choose to return to free agency sooner rather than later. Kevin Durant, for instance, could have signed a four-year contract with the Warriors, locking himself in through the 2019/20 season. Instead, he inked a two-year deal with an opt-out after year one. Durant will surely decline that player option next year in order to sign a new contract that will feature a much higher starter salary.
In other cases though, a team will simply be unwilling to give a player the sort of longer-term security he might want. Teams value flexibility, and the ability to easily create room and jettison big salaries can be important. That’s why, even though clubs have the ability to sign players to four- or five-year contracts, they’ll often opt for one- or two-year deals instead, including perhaps a team option or a non-guaranteed salary on that second year.
Listed below are the players who have signed free agent contracts this offseason who are decent bets to return to the open market next July. In addition to players on one-year contracts, this list includes players who have options or non-guaranteed salaries in year two, following a guaranteed salary for 2016/17. However, it doesn’t include players whose ’16/17 salaries aren’t yet fully guaranteed — those players could be free agents next July, but they could also become available well before then.
Let’s dive in…
Players who signed one-year contracts:
- Chris Andersen (Cavaliers)
- Alan Anderson (Clippers)
- Brandon Bass (Clippers)
- Aaron Brooks (Pacers)
- Ian Clark (Warriors)
- Raymond Felton (Clippers)
- Alonzo Gee (Pelicans)
- Manu Ginobili (Spurs)
- Gerald Green (Celtics)
- Jeff Green (Magic)
- Udonis Haslem (Heat)
- Roy Hibbert (Hornets)
- Kris Humphries (Hawks)
- Jarrett Jack (Hawks)
- Brandon Jennings (Knicks)
- James Johnson (Heat)
- Terrence Jones (Pelicans)
- James McAdoo (Warriors)
- Nene (Rockets)
- Zaza Pachulia (Warriors)
- Brian Roberts (Hornets)
- Sergio Rodriguez (Sixers)
- Brandon Rush (Timberwolves)
- Luis Scola (Nets)
- Jared Sullinger (Raptors)
- Marcus Thornton (Wizards)
- Anderson Varejao (Warriors)
- Greivis Vasquez (Nets)
- Sasha Vujacic (Knicks)
- David West (Warriors)
- Deron Williams (Mavericks)
- Derrick Williams (Heat)
Players who signed two-year deals with second-year player options:
- Matt Barnes (Kings)
- Dewayne Dedmon (Spurs)
- Kevin Durant (Warriors)
- Langston Galloway (Pelicans)
- Pau Gasol (Spurs)
- David Lee (Spurs)
- Luc Mbah a Moute (Clippers)
- Willie Reed (Heat)
- Marreese Speights (Clippers)
- Dwyane Wade (Bulls)
- Dion Waiters (Heat)
Players who signed multiyear deals with team options or non-guaranteed salaries in year two:
- Quincy Acy (Mavericks)
- Arron Afflalo (Kings)
- Leandro Barbosa (Suns)
- Anthony Bennett (Nets)
- Isaiah Canaan (Bulls)
- Wayne Ellington (Heat)
- Festus Ezeli (Trail Blazers)
- Jonathan Gibson (Mavericks)
- Joe Harris (Nets)
- Gerald Henderson (Sixers)
- Jordan Hill (Timberwolves)
- Mike Miller (Nuggets)
- Maurice Ndour (Knicks)
- Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks)
- Marshall Plumlee (Knicks)
- Rajon Rondo (Bulls)
- Ramon Sessions (Hornets)
- Anthony Tolliver (Kings)
- Christian Wood (Hornets)
- Tyler Zeller (Celtics)
Information from Basketball Insiders and the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker was used in the creation of this post.
Grizzlies Re-Sign Tony Wroten
A roller coaster of an offseason for Tony Wroten continued today, as the former first-round point guard formally signed a new contract with the Grizzlies, according to a press release from the team. The club’s official announcement also confirmed previously reported deals for D.J. Stephens, Troy Williams, and Wayne Selden.
[RELATED: Grizzlies’ 2016 free agent signings, via our Free Agent Tracker]
Wroten, the 25th overall pick in the 2012 draft, appeared in just eight games for the Sixers last season before Philadelphia waived him in December. The Knicks later signed Wroten to a two-year deal, minimum-salary deal that contained no guaranteed money for the 2016/17 campaign, but removed him from their roster in June when they acquired Derrick Rose from the Bulls. The Grizzlies claimed him off waivers at that point, but cut him in July.
One recent report from international basketball journalist David Pick indicated that Wroten could end up re-signing with Memphis, so it’s possible the Grizzlies simply wanted to rework the terms of the 23-year-old’s contract before bringing him back. Of course, based on the team’s cap limitations, neither Wroten nor any of the other three signees whose deals were confirmed today will receive more than the minimum salary.
A Washington product, Wroten began his NBA career in Memphis in 2012, before later joining the Sixers. In 145 total games in the NBA, he has averaged 11.1 points and 3.0 assists per contest, but has shot just 41.3% from the floor, including a paltry 23.1% from downtown. When Wroten was waived by the Knicks, a report from Stefan Bondy and Frank Isola of The New York Daily News suggested that the team made the decision due to an undisclosed disciplinary issue, but it appears that issue didn’t scare off the Grizzlies.
Free Agent Spending By Division: Recap
Last week, we examined each team’s 2016 free agent spending, broken down by division, which illuminated some interesting statistics and trends. For instance, in the Northwest, the Trail Blazers committed over $240MM to free agent contracts, while their four division rivals combined to commit about a third of that total. In the free-spending Southeast, all five teams committed at least $150MM to free agent contracts.
These divisional breakdowns don’t necessarily present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.
Still, if a team committed a huge chunk of money to a player this offseason, it can likely be found in this statistical breakdown. Now that we’ve covered all six divisions, we’ll take a closer look at the overall results. Let’s dive in…
1. Southeast
- Total money committed: $972,415,880
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $944,422,130
- Highest-spending team: Washington Wizards ($239,223,166)
- Largest contract: Bradley Beal, Wizards (five years, $127,171,313)
As noted above, all five Southeast teams committed at least $150MM in total money to free agent contracts, a staggering number. The Hawks spent the least free agent money in the division, and Atlanta still handed out $70MM+ contracts to both Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore. Each Southeast team had a least one big-money free agent of their own to re-sign (including Beal, Bazemore, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, and Hassan Whiteside), and most clubs in the division aggressively pursued outside targets as well.
By our count, NBA teams committed more than $3.5 billion to free agent contracts this summer, including non-guaranteed money. Nearly $1 billion of that came from the Southeast.
2. Southwest
- Total money committed: $767,231,583
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $714,468,634
- Highest-spending team: Memphis Grizzlies ($266,310,613)
- Largest contract: Mike Conley, Grizzlies (five years, $152,607,578)
No team committed more free agent money this offseason than the Grizzlies, which makes sense, considering they also handed out the largest contract in NBA history to Conley. That deal isn’t fully guaranteed, but it should become guaranteed before it reaches its fifth year.
Also, for all the talk we hear months or years in advance about NBA teams trying to open up enough cap room for multiple maximum-salary free agents, only one club this year actually signed two free agents to max deals. That would be the Grizzlies, who also locked up Chandler Parsons to a four-year contract worth nearly $100MM. By comparison, perennially active teams like the Mavericks and Rockets practically played it safe, despite committing a combined $344MM+ to free agents themselves.
3. Atlantic
- Total money committed: $576,554,546
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $538,193,337
- Highest-spending team: New York Knicks ($164,387,929)
- Largest contract: DeMar DeRozan, Raptors (five years, $137,500,000)
The Knicks’ offseason additions were among the summer’s top talking points, the Celtics finally landed a star free agent in Al Horford, and DeRozan’s contract was second-largest behind Conley’s. Outside of that, things were fairly quiet in the Atlantic on the free agent front. The Nets looked like they would make a significant move or two, but they ultimately had their offer sheets for Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson matched, meaning their big free agent expenditure was Jeremy Lin, who inked a three-year, $36MM pact.
4. Pacific
- Total money committed: $468,048,642
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $436,048,642
- Highest-spending team: Los Angeles Lakers ($186,000,000)
- Largest contract: Luol Deng, Lakers (four years, $72,000,000)
A lack of truly high-end contracts limited the Pacific’s overall total, but there were still a handful of active teams in this division. Of course, in terms of impact, the biggest free agent contract of the summer was Kevin Durant‘s. Because it was just a two-year deal, however, it’s just a small piece of the largest Pacific division picture — Deng’s and Timofey Mozgov‘s contracts with the Lakers had larger overall values than Durant’s.
Elsewhere in the division, the Clippers showed that it’s not necessary to have cap room or star free agents to spend a lot — Los Angeles signed four of its own free agents (Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, Wesley Johnson, and Luc Mbah a Moute), then added a few outside free agents on minimum-salary deals, but the club’s overall bill was still north of $105MM.
5. Central
- Total money committed: $447,506,792
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $425,577,871
- Highest-spending team: Detroit Pistons ($207,171,313)
- Largest contract: Andre Drummond, Pistons (five years, $127,171,313)
The Central division’s spending total figures to rise in the coming days, weeks, or months — whenever LeBron James gets around to finalizing his new deal with the Cavaliers. J.R. Smith is also likely to return to Cleveland, and while that still probably won’t make the Cavs the division’s highest-spending team, it will increase their current free agent total ($9,573,362) exponentially.
For now, Drummond’s five-year pact with the Pistons is the only mega-deal in the Central this offseason — Miles Plumlee‘s $49.6MM contract with the Bucks takes second place.
6. Northwest
- Total money committed: $327,499,219
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $306,812,499
- Highest-spending team: Portland Trail Blazers ($242,414,220)
- Largest contract: Allen Crabbe, Trail Blazers (four years, $74,832,500)
As mentioned previously, the Blazers were the only Northwest team that was overly active in free agency this summer. The Thunder sat out of the process once Durant departed; the Jazz focused on acquiring talent via trades; and neither the Timberwolves nor the Nuggets are ready to make a major splash in free agency quite yet.
In Portland, a good chunk of the Blazers’ money was spent on retaining their own free agents, like Crabbe, Maurice Harkless, and Meyers Leonard. However, the team also went out and brought in Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli on multiyear deals.
Shayne Whittington To Play In Spain
Former Pacers big man Shayne Whittington didn’t take long to find a new home. After being cut by Indiana in late July, Whittington will head overseas for the coming season, having signed a contract with Spanish club Obradoiro CAB. The ex-Pacer himself confirmed the deal in a post on Instagram.
“Really excited to announce that I’ll be starting a new chapter in my life in Santiago De Compostela, Spain with Obradoiro CAB,” Whittington wrote. “Great league and a great opportunity for me and my family!”
Whittington, 25, spent parts of the last two seasons with the Pacers, going back forth between Indiana and Fort Wayne, where the team’s D-League affiliate plays. During that time, the Western Michigan alum has appeared in 27 total NBA games, averaging a modest 2.5 PPG and 1.5 RPG in 5.5 minutes per contest.
Indiana would have had to guarantee Whittington’s $980,431 salary for 2016/17 if he had remained on the team’s roster past August 1. By waiving him before then, the Pacers ensured that they were no longer on the hook for his cap hit.
2016 NBA Contract Extension Tracker
So far this summer, we’ve been keeping close tabs on the way teams are acquiring new players, tracking free agent signings, draft pick signings, draft-and-stash signings, and trades. However, there’s another form of transaction worth monitoring: contract extensions.
Extensions, of course, don’t involve adding a new player to the roster. By extending a contract, a team ensures that a current player will remain locked up for multiple years to come. While it may not change the club’s outlook on the court, it can have a major impact on that team’s salary cap situation — in terms of total value, the extensions signed this summer by James Harden and C.J. McCollum ranked among the top eight contract signed, including free agent deals.
Rookie-scale extensions like McCollum’s are the most common form of contract extension, occurring in the offseason before a former first-round pick enters the final year of his rookie contract. Teams have until October 31 to work out new deals with those players, though if a club intends to ultimately sign its player to a maximum-salary contract, it could make sense to wait until next summer — that way, a club can keep a more modest cap hold on its 2017 books, and maximize its cap room next offseason. Still, we can probably expect to see a few rookie-scale extensions finalized before November.
[RELATED: Players eligible for rookie-scale extensions]
While they’re less common than rookie-scale extensions, veteran extensions – like Harden’s – are happening a little more frequently these days, now that more teams than ever are going under the cap, rather than staying over it. Utilizing cap room to renegotiate a player’s current-year salary while extending him incentivizes extensions for players, making those players more likely to re-up right away, rather than waiting for free agency.
[RELATED: Players eligible for veteran extensions]
Listed below are the players who have agreed to contract extensions so far in the 2016/17 league year. This list, which can be found on the right-hand sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” will be kept up to date throughout the offseason, and even into the ’16/17 season, if any veteran players ink an extension at that point.
Rookie-scale extensions:
- C.J. McCollum (Trail Blazers): Four years, $106,633,450 (story)
- Steven Adams (Thunder): Four years, $100,000,000 (story)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks): Four years, $100,000,000 (story)
- Rudy Gobert (Jazz): Four years, $94,000,000 (story)
- Victor Oladipo (Thunder): Four years, $84,000,000 (story)
- Gorgui Dieng (Timberwolves): Four years, $62,800,000 (story)
- Dennis Schroder (Hawks): Four years, $62,000,000 (story)
- Cody Zeller (Hornets): Four years, $55,625,000 (story)
Veteran extensions:
- James Harden (Rockets): Four years, $117,964,846 (story)
- Russell Westbrook (Thunder): Three years, $85,741,112 (story)
Eastern Notes: Gay, Ellington, Walker, Karasev
The Heat are among the preferred destinations for Kings small forward Rudy Gay, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Gay, who can opt out of his current deal next summer, denies asking Sacramento to trade him, but he made comments last month that show a clear unhappiness with the direction the team is taking. While it’s understandable why he might prefer Miami, the Heat are low on tradable assets after a flurry of moves this summer. The free agents the team added this summer are not eligible to be traded until December 15th.
There’s more news from the Eastern Conference:
- The Heat’s signing of Dion Waiters may push Wayne Ellington to the back of the rotation, Jackson writes in the same story. Ellington had a shot to start at shooting guard before the move, but now may be fighting for playing time in a crowded backcourt with Goran Dragic, Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson. Ellington could see minutes at small forward if Chris Bosh remains sidelined with health problems and Justise Winslow is needed at power forward.
- Kemba Walker is optimistic about the new-look Hornets, but he hated to see Al Jefferson, Courtney Lee and Jeremy Lin leave in free agency, relays Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. “But that’s the business: You’re always going to play with some new guys every year,” Walker said. “You think about Big Al, who I wish we could have kept. He helped change this franchise around big time from the day he got here.” Charlotte tried to replace them by adding Ramon Sessions, Marco Belinelli and Roy Hibbert.
- Sergey Karasev will play in Russia next season, but he hasn’t ruled out the NBA, according to Eurohoops. Karasev, who spent the past two seasons with the Nets, says first he hopes to prove that he can lead a team. “Ι want to be one of the key persons in a team, not just go in for 10 minutes,” he said. “I hope that Zenit [in St. Petersburg] will be successful in VTB League and then it will be possible for me to go back to the NBA.”