Although veteran guard Alexey Shved hasn’t played in the NBA since 2015, Khimki general manager Pavel Astakhov isn’t ruling out the possibility of the EuroLeague standout, whose contract expires this year, returning to North America.
In comments to RG.ru – translated by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando – Astakhov referred to Shved as Khimki’s “leader,” stating that the Russian club wants to retain him while acknowledging the 31-year-old will be open to the NBA if the right opportunity arises.
“We want him to stay in Khimki,” Astakhov said. “The negotiations with his agent have been held. We are in pause now. If he gets serious proposals from the NBA – not about the money but about the role in the team – it won’t be easy for us to keep him. He will accept a proposal with certain guarantees from the club and the coach. If he doesn’t get a good offer from the NBA, I don’t see any reason why he should change clubs. He is the absolute leader. But the final decision is up to him.”
During his first NBA stint, from 2012-15, Shved appeared in 182 games for the Timberwolves, Sixers, Rockets, and Knicks, averaging 7.4 PPG, 2.5 APG, and 2.0 RPG with a modest .369/.306/.762 shooting line in 18.0 minutes per contest. However, he has excelled in recent years for Khimki, averaging 22.0 PPG and 5.8 APG over the last four years in EuroCup and EuroLeague contests.
Presumably, in order to seriously consider a return to the NBA, Shved would need to be confident that he’d be given the opportunity to play regular minutes rather than becoming a little-used backup.
We last heard about Shved receiving NBA interest in 2018, when he reportedly received multiple offers but opted to remain with Khimki. At that time, his agent suggested that the possibility of an NBA return might increase in 2019, when teams had more money available to spend. That didn’t happen, and there won’t be many NBA clubs with major spending power during the 2020 offseason either, so perhaps Shved will once again decide to continue his career overseas.
I don’t think anyone will give a 31 year old European player significant minutes when he didn’t do great the last time he was here. Another remnant of the Process Sixers.
He just wasn’t used properly in the nba. He’s a pg who can run the offense and score. Every team he played for over here used him as a sg off the ball.