The Bucks locked up Larry Sanders to a four-year, $44MM extension in the offseason, but now it appears that maybe “no NBA player is as available” in a trade as he is, writes Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Milwaukee believes it can get decent return for him, and the Bucks don’t want to move anyone else from their relatively well-stocked front line.
Milwaukee isn’t rushing to move him, according to Amico, but executives around the league believe the Bucks would be willing to send him out if they received the right offer, which may be centered on draft considerations. Such an offer might not be forthcoming, since an executive recently indicated to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times that teams around the league aren’t too high on Sanders right now.
Further complicating any trade is the Poison Pill Provision, which would come in to play since Sanders signed a rookie scale extension that hasn’t kicked in yet. His $3.053MM salary for this season would count as his outgoing salary for Milwaukee, but he’d represent about $7.027MM in incoming salary for the team that acquires him. That figure is the average between Sanders’ 2013/14 salary and the average annual value of his extension. So, any trade would have to include additional salary going out on both sides, or a third team.
The 6’11” defensive stalwart has been out for most of the season with a broken hand suffered in a nightclub brawl, and the Bucks haven’t updated his status recently, even as the original timetable for his return draws to a close. Amico wonders if the Bucks are bringing him along slowly in an effort to reduce their chances of winning games and hurting their draft lottery chances, though Milwaukee owner Herb Kohl usually wants his team to stay competitive.