Despite early exit from NBA playoffs, front office aims to keep the side together.
The Milwaukee Bucks have made the first move in a bid to keep shooting guard Monta Ellis at the club until the 2015-2016 NBA season.
However, the biggest question that remains in the 27-year-olds immediate future is if he will opt in for the final year of his current deal or decide to become an unrestricted free agent.
If Ellis wishes to get the two-year extension he will have to opt in for next season, which would take his upcoming pay packet to $36 million over the next three years.
That includes the first year at $11 million, with annual raises bringing the total to $11.8 million in the second year and $13 million in the final year.
The average salary would have been about $12 million.
Ellis is owed $11 million in the final year of a six-year, $66 million deal he signed while a member of the Golden State Warriors.
But the contract has a player option for the 2013-’14 season, and he can choose to end the deal. If he does, Ellis will be a free agent July 1.
Being the age of 30 if he was to sign a new deal with the Bucks, it would still give Ellis time to test his value on the open market if his current side has not made any more inroads into the Eastern conference.
Ellis’ news comes on the back of an unsettled time for the Bucks’ backcourt with starting point guard Brandon Jennings becoming a restricted free agent ad J.J Redick an unrestricted free agent.
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