Lakers Meeting With Larry Sanders

The Lakers are currently meeting with free agent center Larry Sanders, according to Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum SportsNet (Twitter link). It’s not clear how serious the Lakers’ interest in Sanders is, or if L.A. was one of six teams reportedly in attendance at the big man’s workout in Miami last week.

Sanders’ agent, Joel Bell, expressed optimism over the weekend that his client would be on an NBA roster soon, telling Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times that a lot of teams had expressed interest in Sanders, and at least one of those clubs had made a contract offer. However, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) hears that Sanders “came in really under weight” to his workout last week, adding that there wasn’t much serious interest from teams.

Sanders hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2014/15 season, when he announced that he was leaving the game for personal reasons. The Bucks waived him under the stretch provision, and he remains on the team’s cap at about $1.866MM per season through 2021/22. That figure would be reduced by setoff if he signs with another organization.

Sanders, now 28, flashed promising upside during his initial stint in the NBA, so teams taking a look at him now will be interested to see if he still looks like that same player. In the 2012/13 season, the last time he was fully healthy, Sanders averaged 9.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. Injuries and off-the-court problems limited him to 50 games over his last two seasons in the NBA.

If the Lakers get serious about signing Sanders, they’d have to waive or trade someone to clear a spot on their 15-man roster. L.A. is about $530K under the cap and still has its full $2.898MM room exception available, so the team could offer Sanders more than the minimum, if necessary.

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