{"id":5000,"date":"2017-03-10T11:43:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T16:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=5000"},"modified":"2017-06-08T02:39:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T06:39:45","slug":"larry-sanders-cleveland-makes-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/03\/10\/larry-sanders-cleveland-makes-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Sanders to Cleveland Makes Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just days after signing with the Cavaliers, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bogutan01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Bogut<\/a><\/strong> finds himself injured once again. Bogut fractured his tibia during Monday night&#8217;s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/category\/heat\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Heat<\/a>. 58 seconds. That&#8217;s how long Bogut was on the court before the devastating injury occurred. Cavaliers superstar <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a><\/strong> said he &#8220;heard it break,&#8221; causing the whole arena to fall flat. Bogut&#8217;s injury is awful news for both the player and the team, but the Cavaliers must move on. The team looks set to replace the injured Australian. One player who makes a lot of sense for the Cavs is <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandela01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Sanders<\/a><\/strong>. On Jan. 26, Sanders indicated his intention to return to the game of basketball after a two-year break.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Larry Sanders to Cleveland Makes Sense \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h4><strong>The Former $44 Million Man\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Sanders, 28, was once a valuable member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/category\/bucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> and is looking for a team. The Cavaliers really need to add frontcourt depth, and signing Sanders makes a lot of sense. Sanders is a low-risk, affordable option that General Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/category\/cavaliers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>David Griffin<\/strong><\/a> should look at \u2013if he hasn&#8217;t already done so. In Sanders&#8217; final season with the Bucks, the big man averaged 7.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Sanders retired after just 27 games in 2015.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Cavaliers Plan to Waive Bogut<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>After Bogut&#8217;s injury, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomptr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tristan Thompson<\/a><\/strong> is the only healthy center left on Cleveland&#8217;s roster. The Cavaliers plan to waive Bogut, causing the search for a replacement to begin. Sanders is just looking to get back into the game, so an affordable deal seems likely. Bogut offers rebounding and rim protection, along with a strong paint presence. Sanders has the same mindset on the court and could bring such talents to Cleveland off the bench.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Sanders&#8217; Troubled\u00a0Past<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Back in 2013, Sanders tore a ligament in his thumb after a night club altercation. He would go on to miss 25 games. Fined but not charged, Sanders now had a red flag next to his name. Injuries and suspensions in 2014 led to Sanders making a surprising decision. After his second suspension for breaking the NBA&#8217;s drug policy, the Bucks bought Sanders out. Sanders is pro-marijuana use, something the association is opposed to. One must hope that Sanders&#8217; problems are behind him and the talented big man can get back to doing what he does best: playing basketball.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>The Lakers Meeting<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Recently, Sanders met with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/category\/lakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>. The center spent most of the day at the Lakers&#8217; facility, but no deal was made. This led to Sanders posting a tweet, which sums up his situation perfectly:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"art\" dir=\"ltr\">\u260e\ufe0f\u260e\ufe0f\u260e\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dr. Larry Sanders II (@l8show_thegoat) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/l8show_thegoat\/status\/831275013399474177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sanders is just a call away, so if the Cavaliers want to be fully loaded come playoff time, Sanders is the\u00a0player to sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers should sign veteran free agent center Larry Sanders, as a replacement for the recently injured Andrew Bogut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":638,"featured_media":5024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,62],"tags":[158,65,39,811,38,96],"class_list":["post-5000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-nba","tag-andrew-bogut","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-larry-sanders","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}