Larry Sanders, anyone?

Yeah everyone and their mother knows Sanders can play...like, duh? He might be rusty from two years of slacking but w/e he can work out and be in game shape in 3-4 months.

The problem is once he plays well what do you do then? Do you pay him his money, what if he walks away again? Oth if you just let him walk away you just wasted so much time and opportunity you could have given to other players. Meh

 

And who wouldve backed up Harden when Bev was injured the first 9 games? Bobby Brown?

 

Would have been the same result with Brown. Ennis has had one good game against Philadelphia. That was it.

 

Someone tweet at him to come to Houston!!

 

There's a difference between having good games and causing your team to lose games. Ennis is ok defensively so you can pair him with Gordon. Brown is even worse of a defender than Harden, we would've lost all of our close games the first 9 games because all our pg and sg slots would be filled with bad defenders 100% of the time. Add Ryan Anderson and 60% of the guys on the court would be bad defenders. Also Ennis knows his limitations so he doesn't even try to shoot ont he court and just lets Gordon dominate the ball, Brown would feel useless not shooting but he cant make any shots so that would be a double negative, taking possessions away from the team and missing shots and then not being able to defend his man on the break.

How much PT would Beasley get vs Ryan Anderson, Dekker, Nene and Capela? You think he can outplay any of those guys for significant time? And how much of an improvement would he provide vs getting Bobby brown over Ennis? Defense is half of the ball, just because the guy can't shoot doesn't mean he's useless.

 

For me it would depend on why Sanders is going back to play. Celtics are doing the right move in trying to feel him out first. I would want the Rox to schedule an appointment with him first and then ask him tough questions like how would they be sure he won't run away again with the money, is he ok beng a bench guy etc.

Morey and his FO team are already vets at this, they should be able to see through all the BS and get a gauge if Sanders is now serious about playing baskbetball or he's just bored/poor w/e and will lose interest again after some time. If it checks out then it's a no brainer to sign him, we need a big defensive guy like him who is athletic enough to just dunk that b**** every single play.

 

I Would take a flyer on Larry Sanders. That Milwaukee situation would've forced anyone
to talk to themselves & be depressed. The head coaches back then were Skiles*Boylan*
Larry Drew*then Jason Kidd entered the year Sanders left.

Larry Sanders (Does he qualify as a 5-year vet?) . Prorated amount? New CBA?
http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/info/minimum_scale

 

With Coach Lucas traveling with the team, the stage is quite beautiful

 

Royce White, anyone?

Seriously though- add Sanders, reacquire Beasley, trade for Lawson, go to the cave where Josh Smith is.....

....and then, you're cooking with gas!

And then it explodes and you die.

 

I don't doubt that he's capable - I'm sure he has the natural talent to become a starter, I just predict he's not interested in dedicating his whole life to becoming the best basketball player he can possibly be.

I don't hold it against him btw, it's his life. If he has the talent to decide on any day to play and be worth the minimum or the MLE or whatever, I will take him on my team if he's worth that. I think you can get a lot out of him if the coach understands him. He will play his hardest in games, he will practice hard with the team. I just don't think he's one of those guys so obsessed with money that nothing will matter to him more than becoming a more financially valuable NBA player. So I don't think he's going to spend time in the gym to work on his game and stuff.

Again, not hating on him at all. I respect the guy for recognizing who he is and being honest about it. The fact that he got paid for years he didn't play, I don't care at all. I take what the owners and GM's say when they do the reverse: business is business. If the team can do anything to pay you less, they will, even if you have earned more. So the players should also do anything to get paid more even if they haven't earned it. I don't like the whole system in general, but if that's what teams are doing then players should do it too.

 

He took the money and bailed. Business is a business but business means a transaction is being done. What did Milwaukee get for using their pick on Sanders and paying him money? Oh yeah he retired. Thats the equivalent of a team not paying a player and liquidating after he played for them for 1 year.

Players have been going to teams to get paid more since free agency became a thing. This has nothing to do with Sanders signing a multiyear contract then retiring.

 

So I researched more.into this and he's only receiving 13M of his contract which is probably why he's still being accepted back into the NBA despite retiring already.

But is he coming back because he's healed or is it because he needs money? His twitter comeback is good but if its just 13M all the eay to 2022 its not a lot of money for an nba player. I mean sure around 1.8M is a lot of money but for a writer/artist/rapper w/e it's not a lot, you can invest all that into your venture and when your album or exhibit or w/e bombs you just lost all your cash and probably racked up debt on top. So what if he just said he wanted to play again because he burned through his dough for the year and is feeling the cash crunch? He has a family and probably bought houses, cars or w/e I mean if you're not playing basketball you're probably finding ways to spend your money all day.

Its still a huge risk for a team to take him on though since you dont know if he will leave again and you'll have that contract on the books unless you convince him to retire again.

 

Who is his agent?

 

FWIW

 

Dan Fegan

Junp on it now Morey!

 

no harm in having him come in for a workout. zach lowe's write-up on sanders makes him a very intriguing potential add.

 

Spoiler

Warning: entering D&D territory.

No not really man. Look at what Miami is doing to Bosh. It's within their rights, and business is a business. Even once a deal is done, there are legal exits from the deals, that's a part of business too. When Larry Sanders decided he's done playing basketball, he went to a lawyer and asked him what his options are, how he could keep as much money as possible. The lawyers told him that he should say he's retiring and negotiate a buyout, a PR company told him how to communicate it publicly, and any player can do the same thing today if they want and imo they SHOULD if they genuinely don't want to play ball. Why would they leave money on the table out of goodwill? This is not a charity, it's a business. That's actually in the contract - a player can choose retirement and negotiate a buyout. It's also in the rules (or not forbidden in the rules) that a player can come back afterwards. If it was illegal, he'd be in jail. I was actually saying the other day, I would respect Carmelo Anthony more if he went this route, rather than consuming so much money and clearly giving no f*cks about winning a ring or being in shape or being a good teammates. That dude wants to live in a glamorous city and be famous, I don't see why we should respect him for lying to the fans. To me that's a far more douchey thing than deciding you want to be a part time basketball player and legally negotiating a settlement on the remainder of your contract.

It's the same as billionaires not paying taxes by parking money outside the country. It's not illegal, they do everything legally. You can be mad at the system and the person but if you are in the business of making money at any cost, then you will work with that person. I wouldn't, but that's most people's mindset. Get money. How often do I get told that I can't hate on a player for not taking less money? It's a cesspool and Sanders played it perfectly. We won't get played because we know his true intentions before signing him now (if we sign him).

I don't side with teams on this. I don't care what they invested in him, it is a risk you take that once in a blue moon there is a player that is randomly going to exercise their legal right to retire and return. There are people all around you who half ass a job to make money for some passion they are pursuing outside of their employment. I would be annoyed if it were my team, yes, but I don't take it personal just like I don't care when they lose games and I don't shed a tear when a billionaire loses some money. If Larry Sanders can produce for our team on a cheap contract, I'll take the risk. Even with his disinterest in obeying random moral standards, he can produce more than his worth, I don't care to punish him for the Bucks loss. That's the Bucks' and the NBA's problem.

More D&D-ish:

Spoiler

In a bigger picture, I'm interested in humans, and in a basketball sense I'm interested in the Rockets. If Sanders did this to a small business owner or some decent company that's struggling to make it, I'd be furious. It's just not the case. If what he did is a con (legally securing a buyout), then imo he conned a con artist. Which is the least of my worries. It's important to note that I am against players doing it and teams doing it. The whole business side is idiotic and based on competitive exploitation. But I can't relate to the notion that only players should act morally exclusive of legality, while owners can yell "it's a business" every time they do something immoral but legal.

 

I'm not saying what Sanders did is illegal, I'm just saying your "business is business" comparison wasnt right. The Rox lowballing KJ Mcdaniels and DMo are "business is business", the same way Parsons leaving the Rox for the Mavs is business is business.

Maybe you're just lacking in perspective but how are nba teams con artists? NBA are already the highest paying basketball teams in the world, compare what NBA players to European players. And compare NBA contracts which are guaranteed to NFL contracts, for example. Everything NBA teams do is above board and they have to be transparent, otherwise players can sue them. Anyway I'm not really interested in debating this as I dont want to try and change ur worldview if you want to stick it to the man or not.

I'm just saying what Sanders did is outside the realm of normal business is business, hence why he had to pay the price of negotiating a buyout instead of receiving the full amount of his contract and had to retire. A team that shuts down and doesnt pay its players at the end of the season is the exact equivalent of what Sanders did. Its legal, but obv morally speaking its a higher offense than the normal lowballing teams do.

As for the team IMHo while you shouldnt care about what happened to the Bucks you should care if he does the same thing to the Rox. Obv if you can get him for the vet min then that would be great and there would be no risk but Sanders was a good player and will get interest from multiple teams. I dont want the team to bid for him and then get burned when he goes crazy again.

 

Somewhat off topic part is in spoiler.

Spoiler

I think maybe you're confusing frequency as something which normalizes things. Like if everyone is hiding their money for tax purposes, then it can't be immoral. IMO these people are exchanging work and money. No one owes anyone anything for a job. In fact, in reality, no employer pays an employee their value otherwise they wouldn't be able to meet their primary goal of making profit off them.

So I see the two situations you described as the same but in reverse. Lowballing a player means paying them less than what their work is worth, and it can be legal (as in your KJ example). Giving less work in exchange for greater amount of money is the reverse of that (as in with Larry Sanders taking money for work he's not going to do). It's true that KJ didn't have to sign the contract. It's also true that the Bucks didn't have to sign Sanders. KJ didn't know he would be glued to the bench, but it is perfectly legal to bench him. Bucks didn't know Sanders is not committed, but it is also perfectly legal for him not to be as long as he accepts the legal consequences, which he did.

NBA players are paid so well because the owners and media and advertisers are making stupid money off them. This is no charity. Overall, all of these people make an unreasonable amount of money, but in the context of the NBA, players are not making too much money. In fact, the only way this makes sense to me is if the basketball players earn more than anyone else and have control over league.

I do care if he does the same thing to the Rox, but I'm not going to be furious with him as a human being! I would take it like a loss in the playoffs or something probably. Our case is totally different. We know there's a chance he walks out, but I'm saying it's worth the risk. Yes it would be shitty if he walked out a day before round 1 of the playoffs, but we would survive that the same way we've won 35 so far. Also, for the minimum, I don't really care. And at the end of the day, it's Les' money and it won't affect cap space.

If it works out though, we would have a top 15 C for the minimum added to the roster without losing anyone. If the team is smart, they will accommodate his anxiety with whatever is reasonable (I don't know maybe a counselor, maybe protect him in the media when needed, keep him engaged and showing trust be making him a defensive captain or something, I don't know) because that MIGHT result in a situation where we would have a long term committed Larry Sanders for several years on a cheapish contract where, now that we know what he thinks about, we can build in more protective measures into his contract. Here, we are taking a bigger risk, but again, think of the benefits. We need him around until Capela is 100% ready. If he can bridge that gap for us as an FA signing on a low salary, it will have huge benefits for the team in pursuing other FA's and adding depth/starters elsewhere.