After finishing the 2018/19 season with the Warriors, veteran center Andrew Bogut returned to Australia to rejoin the Sydney Kings. However, with his Kings contract set to expire in the spring, Bogut is open to the idea of returning to the NBA after Australia’s National Basketball League season ends, like he did last season.
“The NBA? Yeah, possibly,” Bogut told RSN radio this week, per Ronny Lerner of The Sydney Morning Herald. “I doubt the Warriors will come calling because I think they’re going to go, obviously, full rebuild mode. But I think it’s definitely feasible if it’s the right situation, but I won’t go back just for the sake of going back.”
Last season, the Kings allowed Bogut to play in the NBA while he was still technically under contract with the Australian club. He joined the Warriors in mid-March, then headed back to Sydney to complete the second year of his two-year contract. Once the 2019/20 NBL season is over and his Kings contract is up, Bogut should have a clearer path to joining an NBA team.
With the Warriors no longer a viable option, the former No. 1 overall pick will have some specific criteria in mind as he considers whether or not to return stateside.
“An opportunity to try and win a championship will be the main thing in the NBA,” Bogut said. “I wouldn’t go back to the NBA just to play in the NBA, it’s more that [trying to win a title] — and somewhere that I’m kind of familiar with and somewhere where I feel comfortable for the family as well would be the other priority.”
As Lerner relays, Bogut also pointed out that he’ll be gearing up to play for Australia in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo next year, so preparing for those games will be a consideration as he weighs an NBA return.
The big man, who turns 35 next Thursday, played limited minutes in 11 regular season games and 19 playoff contests for Golden State earlier this year. For now, he’s focused on trying to help lead the 9-1 Sydney Kings to an NBL title.
“I’d really like to have an NBL trophy,” Bogut said. “I think that’s kind of what’s driving me to get out there and be competitive and the team’s faring well so we have a good chance to do that.”
Enough already.
Whose next Big Country?
Too bad the bucks went for Rolo. It’d be cool to see him make a run with the team that took him one overall
Were they supposed to wait: a) for Bogut to announce he wanted another shot at an NBA title, b) March, to actually sign him, and c) find out if he even had any interest in playing for Milwaukee again..?
Nevermind that he’s 35 and not exactly in his prime. Perhaps they learned something from the Pau Gasol thing.
Andrew Bogut is an interesting character in NBA history. Just out of curiosity, do you consider him a draft bust, a disappointment, or a solid NBA career. I could see a valid argument for all three of those.
I would go with disappointing simply because, even though he has had a long, somewhat productive career, he did not even come close to living up to his potential coming out of college.
It’s kind of reminiscent of Joe Smith. Take away the draft status and you have a good NBA career, but saddled with overall #1 pick status and you have a disappointment.
You can’t be a possible bust and have a possibly solid career.
He has had a solid career in the NBA. You can argue that it was disappointing, but it is disrespectful to all the bust picks out there for how little they had to work and achieve to attain their ‘bust’ status for anyone to call Bogut a bust.
Sure you can be both. You can have a solid career as an #8 guy on the bench playing 15-20 minutes a game averaging 7-10 PPG for 12 years. However, if you spend the #1 overall pick on that particular player, I would think you would have to call it a busted pick. It’s definitely not up there in the Anthony Bennett stratosphere of busts, but I think there can be more than one category of bust, such as Joe Smith being a minor bust.
Bogut had great influence on the then-weak Warriors, making them more physical & ambitious. We think of GSW as the Splash Brothers but they out-physicaled the Cavs. (Draymond was short and had a tough time with James). I think GSW would not call him a bust & they were champs!
It would make sense for him to come back to the Warriors again.
Makes sense to whom? Did you even read the article? SMDH