One of the teams in complete disarray this offseason, despite making the NBA playoffs for the first time in three years, are the Milwaukee Bucks, who are facing a mass exodus of almost every meaningful player they have, firstly Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings. However, the Bucks seem to have made their choice on the player the want to keep, about to offer Ellis a contract that will keep him on the team three more years.
Ellis has $11 million he can make next season, but he can also opt out of a contract before June 20, making him one of the more coveted free agents out there, with the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks both taking an interest in the player. However, Milwaukee are offering him a three-year, $36 million deal, giving him $11.8 million for the 2014-2015 season and $13 million in 2015-2016.
Such an offer, with Brandon Jennings becoming a free agent, looking to make around the same kind of money, but also talking about leaving to play in a bigger market. Jennings made $3.1 million on his last year of a rookie deal, and while many think that if it’s a choice between Jennings and Ellis, than the younger player is the better one as well, Jennings not showing any kind of “club loyalty” and already declaring his intentions of wanting to play somewhere else steered the Bucks towards making that kind of offer for Ellis.
Ellis isn’t in the stage of his career that makes a player think about dropping money for the chance to win a title. He’s 27, entering his ninth season in the NBA. The kind of contract the Bucks are offering him will probably still be on the table even if he opts out of his deal and tests the waters of free agency, as Milwaukee are unlikely to be able and sign one of the bigger and more expensive names out there this summer, which include Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and Chris Paul.
Ellis led the team in scoring last season with 19.2 points per game, but his per-minute scoring was a lowest since his second season in the league, also shooting 41.6% from the field, his lowest since his rookie season and a terrible 28.7% from beyond the arc, not stopping him from taking four shots from three each night, or attempting 17.5 field goals per game.