As the Milwaukee Bucks season winds down, it appears Monta Ellis’ days in a Bucks uniform are numbered as well.

At least, that’s the prevailing sentiment of some Ellis acquaintances. They claim Ellis, the Bucks’ potent-scoring guard, has indicated to them that he intends on opting out of his contract after the season and becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Ellis, who has adamantly refused to discuss his future plans, came to the Bucks last March in a major deal with Golden State. In that transaction, the Bucks acquired Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown in exchange for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

In his short tenure with the Bucks, Ellis’ play has wildly fluctuated. He has exhibited brilliance like in a 10-day stretch from Feb. 27 until March 17 when he scored 26 or more points on seven occasions.

He is also averaging 19.3 points a game. That’s the 11th-highest average in the league. The only shooting guards with higher scoring averages are Kobe Bryant (24.6), James Harden (24.3) and Dwyane Wade (21.2).

But Ellis has also had performances where’s he been awful. In a game against Oklahoma City, he went 3 for 17 from the field. In games against Atlanta and Memphis, he went 2 for 14 and 1 for 14, respectively.

Ellis has shot the ball poorly for most of the season. He’s made 41 percent of his field-goal attempts and is a measly 27 percent from 3-point range. Furthermore, the 27-year-old Ellis has been a turnover machine, committing 3.1 a game. He’s had 17 games where he’s had five turnovers or more.

Yet, Ellis contends he’s among the best at his position in the league. Earlier this season, he favorably compared himself to Wade. But if Ellis expects to command Wade-like money ($18.5 million next season), he’s in for a rude awakening this summer.

In conversations with several general managers, not one said they would pay Ellis more than he’s already receiving. That’s $11 million, which is the same amount he would be paid next season if he opted to remain with the Bucks.

But as one general manager noted, it only takes one team to be enamored with Ellis’ explosive scoring abilities and give him a long-term deal in excess of $11 million per season.

Working in Ellis’ favor is that there are nearly a dozen teams that will have ample salary-cap flexibility this season. At least four of them will be in the market for a shooting guard. Those teams are Atlanta (Ellis’ name was prominently mentioned with the Hawks at the trading deadline), Phoenix, Dallas and Minnesota.

Source: http://journaltimes.com/sports/bucks/bucks-beat-ellis-set-to-bolt/article_0f6d4f2a-a3fa-11e2-9cdd-001a4bcf887a.html

Free Agents/Opting Out
Monta Ellis
OJ Mayo
Kevin Martin
Manu Ginobli
JJ Reddick
Nick Young
JR Smith

On the Trading Block
Eric Gordon

Not enough money to go around for all those guys. Anyone who signs with us knows they will get plenty of shots and minutes. OJ Mayo would be sweet.

Im worried about Atlanta offering JR Smith a 7 million per deal to replace the high flying Josh Smith this summer.

AnubisADL wrote:

As the Milwaukee Bucks season winds down, it appears Monta Ellis’ days in a Bucks uniform are numbered as well.

At least, that’s the prevailing sentiment of some Ellis acquaintances. They claim Ellis, the Bucks’ potent-scoring guard, has indicated to them that he intends on opting out of his contract after the season and becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Ellis, who has adamantly refused to discuss his future plans, came to the Bucks last March in a major deal with Golden State. In that transaction, the Bucks acquired Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown in exchange for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

In his short tenure with the Bucks, Ellis’ play has wildly fluctuated. He has exhibited brilliance like in a 10-day stretch from Feb. 27 until March 17 when he scored 26 or more points on seven occasions.

He is also averaging 19.3 points a game. That’s the 11th-highest average in the league. The only shooting guards with higher scoring averages are Kobe Bryant (24.6), James Harden (24.3) and Dwyane Wade (21.2).

But Ellis has also had performances where’s he been awful. In a game against Oklahoma City, he went 3 for 17 from the field. In games against Atlanta and Memphis, he went 2 for 14 and 1 for 14, respectively.

Ellis has shot the ball poorly for most of the season. He’s made 41 percent of his field-goal attempts and is a measly 27 percent from 3-point range. Furthermore, the 27-year-old Ellis has been a turnover machine, committing 3.1 a game. He’s had 17 games where he’s had five turnovers or more.

Yet, Ellis contends he’s among the best at his position in the league. Earlier this season, he favorably compared himself to Wade. But if Ellis expects to command Wade-like money ($18.5 million next season), he’s in for a rude awakening this summer.

In conversations with several general managers, not one said they would pay Ellis more than he’s already receiving. That’s $11 million, which is the same amount he would be paid next season if he opted to remain with the Bucks.

But as one general manager noted, it only takes one team to be enamored with Ellis’ explosive scoring abilities and give him a long-term deal in excess of $11 million per season.

Working in Ellis’ favor is that there are nearly a dozen teams that will have ample salary-cap flexibility this season. At least four of them will be in the market for a shooting guard. Those teams are Atlanta (Ellis’ name was prominently mentioned with the Hawks at the trading deadline), Phoenix, Dallas and Minnesota.

Source: http://journaltimes.com/sports/bucks/bucks-beat-ellis-set-to-bolt/article_0f6d4f2a-a3fa-11e2-9cdd-001a4bcf887a.html

Free Agents/Opting Out
Monta Ellis
OJ Mayo
Kevin Martin
Manu Ginobli
JJ Reddick
Nick Young
JR Smith

On the Trading Block
Eric Gordon

Not enough money to go around for all those guys. Anyone who signs with us knows they will get plenty of shots and minutes. OJ Mayo would be sweet.

Im worried about Atlanta offering JR Smith a 7 million per deal to replace the high flying Josh Smith this summer.

Cross Manu off that list, there's no way he's leaving SAS. And no one's giving Nick Young any real money, he's terrible. That leaves Monta, OJ, Martin, Reddick, and JR and I would imagine that OKC and Milwaukee are going to try and resign their free agents. So really, the list of potentially difference making SGs hitting free agency is limited to Monta, OJ, and JR. I just took a quick glance on HoopsHype and it looks like around half the league potentially has significant, over $10M, cap space.

holfresh wrote:The Lakers payroll is at 100 mil...We will resign JR..

It's not a question of how much we're willing to pay it's a question of is JR willing to take a large paycut to stay here? We only have his Early Bird rights and can only offer up to $5M/year.

holfresh wrote:

VCoug wrote:

holfresh wrote:The Lakers payroll is at 100 mil...We will resign JR..

It's not a question of how much we're willing to pay it's a question of is JR willing to take a large paycut to stay here? We only have his Early Bird rights and can only offer up to $5M/year.

Obviously I'm not well versed on this...But Im hoping that is what happened last year with the contract we offered JR..Is eary Bird's rights still applicable given that it may have been applied last year???..Are the terms strictly applied to the number of years a player has been with a team???

Bird rights are directly tied to the number of years played with a team; Non-Bird are earned after one year, Early Bird rights are earned after two years, and Bird rights after three. We used our Non-Bird rights to sign JR last season to his current 2-year contract which he can opt out of this Summer. If he opts out he becomes and unrestricted free agent; any team can sign him to whatever contract they want as long as it fits in their salary cap. Any team that's over the cap, like us, would only be able to sign him using one of their exceptions or we can using his Early Bird rights. Early Bird means we can sign him for a contract that's about equal to the MLE, around $5M/year. If he doesn't opt out this Summer we would have his full Bird rights next Summer and could sign him for whatever contract we wanted to. EDIT: The fact that we used his Non-Bird rights to sign him last year doesn't affect our ability to sign him this year.

holfresh wrote:

callmened wrote:Now that kobe is out. I wont be surprised if they amnesty him for a yr and then resign him the following yr.

Heard that on ESPN..Problem with that is the Lakers payroll is at 100 mil and they have to resign Dwight..So using the amnesty on Kobe means nothing...

Amnesty has an effect on their tax situation. His salary wont count toward the cap which means the Laker's save $$$.

knickscity wrote:

callmened wrote:Now that kobe is out. I wont be surprised if they amnesty him for a yr and then resign him the following yr.

A player amnestied can't return to that club until his contract is up, now way that happens.

His contract would be up..They are talking about him being out all of 2013/14 and returning 2014/15...