NBA teams
Marc Stein, ESPN Senior Writer 7y

Andrew Bogut close to being cleared for full basketball activities

NBA

Four months after suffering a broken leg in his Cleveland Cavaliers debut, Andrew Bogut will be back on the free-agent market Saturday, according to league sources, when the NBA opens for business at 12:01 a.m. ET.

Sources told ESPN that Bogut -- felled by a fracture left tibia just one minute into his first game with the Cavaliers -- is roughly two weeks from being cleared for full basketball activities after recently being cleared to resume running and jumping.

NBA teams have been receiving updates from agent David Bauman while Bogut, 32, rehabs in his native Australia.

Bogut was a defensive anchor and lead rim protector on the Golden State Warriors' championship team in 2015 before suffering a knee injury in the 2016 NBA Finals. He was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in July 2016 as part of the Warriors' efforts to create the needed salary-cap space to sign Kevin Durant last summer.

The Cavaliers kept Bogut on their radar as a potential buyout candidate throughout the season and, in February, successfully signed both the 7-foot center and former All-Star guard Deron Williams when they secured their respective releases from the Mavericks.

But on March 6, less than 60 seconds after checking into a game against the Miami Heat, Bogut suffered the leg fracture, instantly ending his season and denying him the opportunity to face off against the Warriors in the Finals after playing for Golden State against Cleveland in the previous two championship series.

"It's very deflating," Cavaliers star LeBron James said at the time. "It's a tough moment. We all were excited about the acquisition."

Bogut was the league's No. 1 overall pick out of the University of Utah in 2005 and has averaged 10 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game over the course of his 12-year career.

The Cavs tried to replace him with fellow veteran Larry Sanders late in the season, but ultimately wound up calling up Edu Tavares out of the D-League to try to fill their size void on the roster, only for Tavares to suffer a fractured hand in practice during the playoffs that ruled him out of the final two rounds.

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