LeBron James' Former Championship Teammate Confirms Plan To Make NBA Return

A member of the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers championship team is brimming with optimism as he aims for an NBA comeback.

Despite playing only 13 games for the Cavs last season, Matthew Dellavedova has not given up on a potential NBA return.

Speaking in the Melbourne United introductory press conference on Friday, Dellavedova shockingly revealed his plan to use his success in the NBL as a platform to make his NBA comeback a reality.

"My goal is to get back to the NBA,” Dellavedova admitted. “I feel like I've got a lot more left in the tank, a lot of things to improve on. There were some talks with NBA teams, nothing concrete at this stage. Overseas there were pretty significant offers, but I've always wanted to come and play here.”

"[My] body is feeling great,” he continued. “That's the main thing, I feel like I just need to put a good chunk of time together training but also games. Playing a lot of minutes and having the ball in my hands, making decisions and things like that. I'm going to have a great opportunity to do that with [Melbourne] United.”

As early as now, Dellavedova is already oozing confidence, stressing that the timing is perfect and that he is likely to be in “really good shape” by the end of the 2020-21 NBL season.

"A shorter season, long preparation of preseason with the season being pushed back is going to allow me to put a good chunk of work together and be in really good shape and condition," the 30-year-old explained.

Dellavedova played alongside LeBron James in the Cavs team that won the 2016 NBA Finals and was best known for his sticky defense. However, he didn’t make much of an impact on the offensive end as he often struggled with his shooting.

Addressing the said hole in his game, Dellavedova insisted that aside from making “adjustments,” more playing time in the NBL will “probably” improve his shot as well.

"I made some adjustments to my shot a couple of years ago and it hasn't quite paid off yet. [But] the way it's progressing and feeling, I think long term it's going to pay off," the Aussie pointed out. "There are some things I'm still working on, but I think compared to how I shot it before which used a lot more effort, slower release and harder to shoot off the dribble, [it's an improvement].”

"The last two years I haven't strung a lot of healthy games together so that's slowed that progression down, and I think that's why getting a lot of games in a row and more minutes and probably more shots than I would get in an NBA game will help my development as well," he added.