Former Bucks, Cavs PF Larry Sanders Looking to Return to NBA After 3 Years

Former Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers forward Larry Sanders wants to return to the NBA for the first time in more than three years.

"I think with things shifting a bit, me still young, I feel like I'm in the prime stage, I can definitely contribute," Sanders told TMZ Sports. "I would just love to contribute to a team and help them win and give my knowledge, give my defensive presence and just being able to play basketball and cope with life the way I cope with life. 

"That's ideal for me. That sounds like heaven."

Sanders, 31, has only played five NBA games since December 2014. He left the Bucks for personal reasons, including anxiety and depression, in 2015 before briefly returning with the Cavs in 2017. Cleveland moved on from Sanders as he struggled on and off the floor with a return to NBA life.

"They offered me to sign right after the workout, so I'm thinking they were really interested in me," Sanders told Josiah Turner of Sports Illustrated last year. "But now I don't think that was so much the plot. I think they grabbed me, with no intentions of really playing me for real, but to make sure the competitors didn't get me. They signed me, worked me out, then the day before the deadline they cut me."

Sanders joined the BIG3 last season, marking his first competitive basketball since his departure from the Cavs. 

It seems a path through the G League or Europe would be Sanders' likeliest way to get back into the NBA. Guys with his skill set (big man with no floor-spacing capabilities) are at an all-time low value, so Sanders will have to prove himself worthy of a shot, both on and off the floor, for a team to roll the dice.