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There are issues with the Bucks signing Larry Sanders to a long-term, four-year, $44 million contract extension, but overall it’s probably not a terrible decision.

Sanders has been accused of mailing it in at times, and was among the leaders in technical fouls last season, tying for third with Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony, and finishing behind only DeMarcus Cousins and Russell Westbrook for the most in the league.

But Sanders is talented, and the price paid for a player possessing his skill set is anything but outrageous. It’s the going rate, in fact, but there was a time very recently when the team’s management wasn’t convinced that Sanders should be the future face of the franchise.

From Gery Woelful of the Racine Journal Times:

Larry Sanders ascent to being Bucks’ highest paid player is remarkable. A yr ago some Bucks officials wanted to cut him.

That’s a bold statement, considering that Sanders is now on the books for guaranteed money longer than any other player on the Milwaukee roster.

But to be honest, the Bucks didn’t have much of a choice.

NBA teams can’t continually attempt to rebuild, and at some point they need to establish credibility by retaining the players that give a star-level effort who are already in place.

The Bucks saw Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings leave this summer, and Sanders was the only one left who the team could legitimately attempt to build around.

Sanders has the inherent ability, and if he truly is able to fix his problem with the officials, Milwaukee has a special player in place. It’s crazy that front office personnel were ready to bail on him as recently as last summer, but unfortunately, that’s the nature of the business.