Toronto, ON - The only playoff basketball Andrew Bogut had expected to feature in this season ended in March when the Sydney Kings lost to Melbourne United in the NBL semifinals. Now, two months later, Bogut is on the eve of his third -- and potentially last -- NBA Finals series, looking to win his second championship ring with the Golden State Warriors.
Uncertain how much of a role he'll play against Toronto, Bogut is ready for whatever the team needs from him.
"For me it's exciting, I'm excited to be here and hopefully we can win a championship," Bogut told ESPN from Warriors media day on Wednesday.
Rewind the clock back to Bogut's announcement that he was essentially retiring from the NBA and signing on with the Kings. So sure was he that he would never play in the NBA again, he didn't even include an out clause in his NBL contract.
"When I signed in the NBL I was more than happy to hang my shoes up from the NBA and concentrate on the NBL - which I did. I didn't expect to come back; I wasn't actively putting my name out to NBA teams to get a feel of whether I could come back," Bogut said.
"It eventuated with them kind of just reaching out to me and kicking the tires of 'would I be interested?' [I said] 'possibly, let's just see what happens at the end of the NBL season and if something's available then we'll chat then'."
In March the scenario became reality, and Bogut officially signed to rejoin his former team. He was under no illusions about playing time, or his role on the team but he was just happy to be back with a team that he says was "special" for him.
"You know, it's full circle for me; a very special time for me in my career was with the Golden State Warriors so any opportunity to come back in any capacity -- whether it's one minute a game, or not playing at all -- was something I just couldn't pass up."
Some things have changed since Bogut was last with the Warriors, though. Instead of facing LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers, the Warriors will be facing the surging Raptors, whose marquee man, Kawhi Leonard, is playing some of the best basketball of his career.
"From a team point of view it was Cleveland the last four years -- two for me and two for the other guys -- so you kind of knew who you were preparing for," Bogut told ESPN. "This team is kind of little bit unknown for us. They're kind of a different team as well than what we face in the regular season, so that provides challenges."
Some of those challenges will include what kind of lineup Warriors coach Steve Kerr throws at the Raptors. If teams go small -- as the Cavs had done in the two team's first Finals match-up in 2015 -- Bogut will likely not see much action on-court. Against the Clippers in the first-round of the playoffs, Bogut averaged just under 15 minutes per game.
He saw those numbers drop to roughly six minutes per game against the Rockets and the Blazers, who both employ a faster tempo and smaller lineups, in the following two rounds.
With Kevin Durant ruled out for at least the first game, and possibly more, Kerr will likely turn to younger, more athletic guys like Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell, and even Alfonso McKinnie, all of whom Bogut credits for making the team that much deeper.
"We have a lot of guys off our bench that continue to surprise people and aren't probably given enough credit because we have Steph, Klay, KD, Draymond, DeMarcus," he said. "Our bench guys don't probably get as much attention, but I think that's kind of a reason why we're successful."
As a Finals veteran, Bogut knows the Raptors will be charged up for their first appearance, especially with an entire country behind them. He's hoping the Warriors can use that energy against Toronto.
"It feels like they're in the same situation we were during our first championship run where it's kind of them against the world. They're everyone's favorite team right now because they're the underdog. We've got to be very careful, they're going to come out very passionately and have a lot of emotion running high for those guys, but at the same time, we need to try and use that against them.
"They haven't been in this situation, getting all the extra attention and the grind of getting to the Finals sometimes takes it out of you."
Bogut has spoken a lot about this Warriors stint coming 'full circle' for him, so, with that in mind, does the fact that he's not facing Milwaukee - the team that drafted him and where he played his first seven seasons - take away from that feeling at all?
"I talked abut it with my wife because she was kind of pumped if it had worked out that way; it would have been amazing," he told ESPN. "I was really happy for the city of Milwaukee to have that run that they had. It would have been nice to see them in the Finals, but obviously we have Toronto, and I'm happy to beat them as well."