His name has come up several times this season as a possible trade target and his off the court problems were so extensive (and his on-court performance non-existent) that most people seem to have forgotten why he was ever considered a desirable target at all. I just wanted to take a moment to remind people why he's not only a desirable target, but probably the one veteran player in the league who is the best fit for our team.
Firstly, what are we looking for? Not to sound like a broken record, but it's been the same things for years... solid PG play, consistent shooters, and defense, defense, defense. How are we going to fill these roles? We have no cap space this off-season and a sizable chunk next off-season (somewhere around $20 million). We have a lottery pick this season which is most likely going to fall in the 7-10 range. Unfortunately this probably puts us on the outside looking in at all the best prospects this season.
Even worse, half the league has been clearing out substantial cap space next season including desirable markets like New York, LA, Boston, Philadelphia and perennial contenders like Dallas and San Antonio. Orlando, Phoenix, and Utah effectively have no money committed to player salaries in 2015 yet. It's going to be awfully hard to convince anyone to sign in Sacramento next year over all of these other teams unless we've got a respectable playoff showing to prove that winning is part of the bargain.
Which brings me back to Larry Sanders. Arguably the biggest need of all for us is interior defense.
This paper from last years MIT Sloan conference (link) concludes that Larry Sanders was statistically the best interior defender in the league last season.
CBS Sports did a feature on him last year as well (link) which goes a long way toward explaining why he was so effective -- he figured out what his meal ticket was and he worked on it relentlessly.
His off-court issues are a concern, but on the court he's exactly what we need. He won't take a lot of shots and he'll challenge everything at the rim. Furthermore, he's already signed to a 4 year 44 million dollar deal so we don't need to compete for his services in free agency. His no-show of a season combined with Milwaukee finishing last combined with John Henson's development combined with the Bucks' unresolved arena issue perhaps creates the perfect storm by which an interior defender of Sander's standing becomes available just a year after he signed a "future face of the franchise" deal.
Assuming Rudy Gay opts in, it seems like we've got a pretty good shot at a trade. If we trade Rudy Gay's $19 million expiring deal we can take back Sanders $11M per year and Mayo's $8M per year. We say goodbye to our capspace next year but the frontcourt is set with Cousins and Sanders and we still have Williams, McLemore, McCallum and whoever we get in the draft plus Mayo either pushes Ben to the bench or becomes the backup SG we need. Not only do the Bucks clear a lot of future salary, their win-now owner gets a very good veteran player in the meantime to go with their top 4 pick and they get a do-over on Mayo who has been a disappointment this year.
If Rudy opts out, we still have expiring contracts to trade. Jason Terry and Travis Outlaw add up to $8.5M though both teams would be under the salary cap at that point anyway. This is actually harder to see though because the Bucks will probably want more than just cap space for Sanders, probably a young asset or a draft pick as well.
Firstly, what are we looking for? Not to sound like a broken record, but it's been the same things for years... solid PG play, consistent shooters, and defense, defense, defense. How are we going to fill these roles? We have no cap space this off-season and a sizable chunk next off-season (somewhere around $20 million). We have a lottery pick this season which is most likely going to fall in the 7-10 range. Unfortunately this probably puts us on the outside looking in at all the best prospects this season.
Even worse, half the league has been clearing out substantial cap space next season including desirable markets like New York, LA, Boston, Philadelphia and perennial contenders like Dallas and San Antonio. Orlando, Phoenix, and Utah effectively have no money committed to player salaries in 2015 yet. It's going to be awfully hard to convince anyone to sign in Sacramento next year over all of these other teams unless we've got a respectable playoff showing to prove that winning is part of the bargain.
Which brings me back to Larry Sanders. Arguably the biggest need of all for us is interior defense.
This paper from last years MIT Sloan conference (link) concludes that Larry Sanders was statistically the best interior defender in the league last season.
CBS Sports did a feature on him last year as well (link) which goes a long way toward explaining why he was so effective -- he figured out what his meal ticket was and he worked on it relentlessly.
His off-court issues are a concern, but on the court he's exactly what we need. He won't take a lot of shots and he'll challenge everything at the rim. Furthermore, he's already signed to a 4 year 44 million dollar deal so we don't need to compete for his services in free agency. His no-show of a season combined with Milwaukee finishing last combined with John Henson's development combined with the Bucks' unresolved arena issue perhaps creates the perfect storm by which an interior defender of Sander's standing becomes available just a year after he signed a "future face of the franchise" deal.
Assuming Rudy Gay opts in, it seems like we've got a pretty good shot at a trade. If we trade Rudy Gay's $19 million expiring deal we can take back Sanders $11M per year and Mayo's $8M per year. We say goodbye to our capspace next year but the frontcourt is set with Cousins and Sanders and we still have Williams, McLemore, McCallum and whoever we get in the draft plus Mayo either pushes Ben to the bench or becomes the backup SG we need. Not only do the Bucks clear a lot of future salary, their win-now owner gets a very good veteran player in the meantime to go with their top 4 pick and they get a do-over on Mayo who has been a disappointment this year.
If Rudy opts out, we still have expiring contracts to trade. Jason Terry and Travis Outlaw add up to $8.5M though both teams would be under the salary cap at that point anyway. This is actually harder to see though because the Bucks will probably want more than just cap space for Sanders, probably a young asset or a draft pick as well.