"It's a dilemma around the league, but international players, a lot of times they spend the summer around their national team. And Niko had a great experience doing that last year, winning the bronze medal," executive vice president John Paxson said in early May. "But in reality, from our seat, he lost some time in the weight room with us, lost some time on the floor with our coaches. And it's interesting, some of the statistics we look at with Niko, in his three years here, he has been statistically much better after the All-Star break.