Analysis: Larry Sanders out for remainder of season with eye injury
With news that Larry Sanders' disastrous 2013-14 campaign has come to a merciful end, Bucks fans and NBA observers can't help but wonder what kind of future the 25-year-old big man has left in Milwaukee.
A year ago Sanders was seen as one of the NBA's most promising young bigs, averaging nearly a double-double (9.8 points and 9.5 rebounds) in over 27 minutes per game for a Bucks team that squeaked into the Eastern Conference playoffs. He finished atop the league in block percentage, finished second in blocks per game (2.8), 11th in rebound rate and seventh in Defensive Player of the Year voting, between Tim Duncan and Paul George.
For his efforts, Sanders was rewarded with a four-year, $44 million contract extension that doesn't kick in until next season (He made $3,053,368 this season in the last year of his rookie scale deal) and was referenced only in all caps with an exclamation mark at the end (LARRY SANDERS!) by writers such as Grantland's Zach Lowe for the excitement he brought to the court.
Now, just seven months after signing that extension, Lowe has revoked Sanders' all caps privileges, and any excitement over the possibility that the Bucks seemed to have locked up such a promising talent for the duration of his prime years has given way to concern that the organization may have an expensive problem on their hands for the foreseeable future.
Between a thumb injury sustained in a nightclub fight in November, which required surgery, and the fractured orbital bone suffered via James Harden's elbow that has sidelined him for the remainder of the season, Sanders appeared in just 23 games for the cellar dwelling Bucks in 2013-14, all while seeing his numbers fall completely across the board (basic and advanced), including his minutes under new head coach Larry Drew. In addition, a team that's already pretty terrible managed to get slightly worse with Sanders on the floor, according to NBA.com's on-court/off-court data.
And again, Sanders only begins making $11 million per year next season.
We've already seen how much can change in less than a year. By the time that 2014-15 season tips off, between the excitement brewing over Giannis Antetokounmpo, the hype that will surely follow whichever top-four or five pick the Bucks select in a loaded 2014 Draft, and even some promising signs from John Henson, their $44 million man may be seen as more of a hindrance than a building block.