Billy Hunter believes that the players' union and the NBA will know which way their negotiations are headed by All-Star Weekend in February.

"I would anticipate that by All-Star, we should know whether there's a likelihood of a deal," Hunter said Wednesday after another bargaining session with the league.

"Progress was definitely made," said Derek Fisher, NBPA president. "There's, at least to me, an optimistic feel to how things are going at this point."

League executive Adam Silver called the process "conciliatory and constructive" but said, "There remains an enormous economic gap between our two proposals."

Silver did not agree with Hunter's notion that All-Star Weekend represents a kind of informal deadline.

"I think deadlines are helpful," Silver said. "I don't necessarily agree that All-Star is a deadline for us. As you know, this deal expires at the end of June. So we view that as the ultimate deadline."