Austin Daye A Candidate To Return To NBA?

The 15th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft, Austin Daye spent his first six professional seasons in the NBA, primarily with the Pistons. Having played in international leagues since then, Daye is a candidate to return to the NBA this year, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.

As Carchia reports, Daye has an out clause until June 30 in his contract with Italian club Reyer Venezia. The veteran forward, who will turn 32 next Friday, is in talks with an NBA team and could even return stateside before the end of this season if the league’s transactions moratorium is lifted and teams get an opportunity to make roster moves.

Daye is one of many players on international teams with an NBA out who may have his decision impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. He’d have to be pretty confident he has an opportunity lined up before he exercises that out clause — given the uncertainty surrounding the remainder of the NBA season and the coming offseason, staying overseas could be the safest move for Daye and other players with outs, as we discussed on Thursday.

A former Gonzaga standout, Daye averaged 5.2 PPG and 2.6 RPG with a .402/.351/.778 shooting line in 293 NBA regular season games (14.1 MPG). Although Daye did win an NBA championship with San Antonio in 2014, he didn’t play much for the Spurs and has enjoyed more individual success in Europe, winning an LBA (Italian League) Finals MVP award in 2019 and earning Italian Cup MVP honors in 2020.

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