The Cleveland Cavaliers signed former Milwaukee Bucks power forward Larry Sanders to a two-year, non-guarantee deal just last month, but they have now released him in favor of center Edy Tavares.

Cavs Sign Edy Tavares, Dahntay Jones, Waive Larry Sanders

Sanders played sparingly in five games over the past month after returning to the NBA following a more than two-year break. The 28-year-old had spent most of his time with the Cavs’ D-League team.

Tavares, meanwhile, blocked 11 shots in two playoff games against Cleveland’s D-League team this weekend. The center had spent the entire season playing for the Toronto Raptors’ D-League team after being waived by the Atlanta Hawks last fall. Tavares averaged 10.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and a league-best 2.7 blocks in 23.7 minutes over 48 games.He was initially drafted by the Hawks as the 43rd overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and played in 11 games in the 2015-2016 season.

The Vertical first reported Tavares’s signing.

Cleveland (51-30, 2nd in Eastern Conference) also signed free-agent guard Dahntay Jones on Wednesday. Jones last played for the Cavs in 2015-16, when he played in one regular-season game and 15 playoff games during the team’s championship run. Throughout his 12-year NBA career, he has averaged 5.4 points and 1.7 rebounds in 15.7 minutes over 623 games (157 starts) with Memphis, Sacramento, Denver, Indiana, Dallas, Atlanta, L.A. Clippers and Cleveland.

The Dallas Mavericks, meanwhile, claimed Cavs shooting guard DeAndre Liggins off waivers on Tuesday. This move will save Cleveland more than $2 million in luxury taxes, as the Mavs now inherit Liggins’ full season salary for tax purposes.

The Cavs trail only the Boston Celtics (52-29) in the East standings. Cleveland hosts the Raptors on Wednesday night for their regular-season finale. The Cavaliers have missed Tristan Thompson for the last four games due to a right thumb injury, and coach Tyronn Lue said he plans to rest LeBron James and Kyrie Irving for Wednesday’s finale. Cleveland has lost its last two games in overtime at Miami and Atlanta.

DALLAS, TX – FEBRUARY 26: Larry Sanders #8 of the Milwaukee Bucks at American Airlines Center on February 26, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

The Cleveland Cavaliers have vetted center Larry Sanders and reached an agreement to sign him via a free-agent deal.

Larry Sanders Reaches Deal with Cavaliers For NBA Return

The Vertical’s Shams Charania first reported the news. No details of the deal are yet available.

Sanders, 28, will fill the 15th spot on the Cavs’ roster that opened up when Andrew Bogut fractured his left leg, an injury that has ended his season.

The former Milwaukee Bucks big man has been out of the NBA since February 2015. Sanders accepted a contract buyout with the Bucks. According to the Vertical, Sanders has violated the NBA’s anti-drug policy four times with positive marijuana tests.

He also took a leave of absence, stepping away from the game and checking himself into a hospital for anxiety and depression.

The Bucks selected Sanders in the first round of the 2010 draft. He has averaged 1.8 blocks per game in his five-year career (233 games) and was second in the league in blocks per game in 2012-13.

Sanders and his agent Joel Bell are in Cleveland on Monday as the former prepares to take a physical before the deal becomes official. After he is examined, the Cavs will waive Bogut, per sources.

The Vertical reported that Sanders also met with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. He also had a seven-team workout in Miami.

Sanders announced on Jan. 26 that he planned to return to NBA play.

On Sunday, the Cavs fell to the Houston Rockets 117-112 after leading by 14 points, thus taking their fourth loss in five games. Cleveland (43-22, 1st in Eastern Conference) has also struggled on the glass since Kevin Love went out for knee surgery. They next host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

DALLAS, TX – FEBRUARY 26: Larry Sanders #8 of the Milwaukee Bucks at American Airlines Center on February 26, 2013 in Dallas, Texas.

Former first-round pick for the Milwaukee Bucks, Larry Sanders really never panned out to what they expected him to be: only averaging 6.5 PPG in his five year career, he seems like a shell of his former VCU self.

And now through the highly controversial The Players’ Tribune, he talks about why he agreed to the Bucks buyout of his four-year, $44 million contract from 2013. He begins the video with “I’m Larry Sanders. I’m a person. I’m a father. I’m an artist. I’m a writer. I’m a painter. I’m a musician. And sometimes I play basketball.” This sets the tone for a very humanized explanation of the situation: he liked basketball, but felt like it was not his purpose in life.

“I think I love basketball,” Sanders said. “I’ll always be playing basketball. But for it to be consuming so much of my life and time right now. It’s not there for me. It’s not that worth it.”

During his time in the NBA, he dealt with plenty of issues on and off the court that kept him in a consistent state of unhappiness: “I know I disappeared for a while, and people were wondering where I was. I actually entered into Rogers Memorial Hospital, and it was a program for anxiety and depression: mood disorders. It taught me a lot about myself. It taught me a lot about what’s important and where I would want to devote my time and energy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjUSHGJ2qLI

And as a result of all this stress, he openly talks about his use of cannabis, which resulted in several suspensions from the league office. “Cannabis came later on in my life and, for me, it was used medically: for some of the symptoms I was having, you know, due to a lot of stress and pressure I was under,” he said.

Finally, even though he has been labeled many things for his departure from the Bucks, he stressed that this was done for important reasons. “In a lot of situations, it is very admirable for person to take that risk,” he said. “People really like labels. You get to identify something with something else that you may think. It makes sense to you. You may rationalize it… [But] we all are more than just one thing.”

But do not completely write off a return, “I will be branching and establishing things around me: as far as family. If I get to a point where I feel I am capable of playing basketball again, I will.”