Monta Ellis is the highest profile free agent left on the market after Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Andre Iguodala and after meeting with teams and looking at his situation, the star has narrowed his list of teams to sign with to just four, including the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Bobcats and it appears now that the star has inked a deal with the Mavs.
According to ESPN.com, Ellis has signed a deal that could be up to $30 million over three years, with reports saying that $25 million is the minimum range. (This article was updated from a previous post). Ellis has a tough decision to make after leaving the Milwaukee Bucks and opting out of his deal and he could end up joining Carl Landry with the Kings, Al Jefferson with the Bobcats or decide to head to the Hawks or Mavericks, who both lost out on Dwight Howard this offseason. The Bucks offered Ellis a contract extension with over $36 million after they acquired him from the Warriors for the next three seasons, but instead he turned that down and will be looking to get a contract around that number.
The four teams mentioned all could make the deal, but not without some work on the salary cap and other trade moves or releases or players. The Hawks have already started to move on that front, as they are trying to work on a sign-and-trade deal involving Jeff Teague that could get the deal done. Larry Drew is now coach of the Bucks and he coached Teague last season and there is also some speculation about what the Bucks will do regarding star point guard Brandon Jennings, who is a restricted free agent and received an offer already from the team.
The Kings are one of the surprise teams in the mix and they already offered Ellis a deal, but if he wants a contract of the size he says, they will need to make another move. Sources say they could be moving Marcus Thornton and one reason the Kings are a good fit is the fact that coach Mike Malone formerly worked with Ellis while he was with the Warriors.
The Mavericks are hoping to land Ellis or another premier free agent, as they already lost out on Howard and Josh Smith and now they have set their sights on Andrew Bynum and Ellis. The team likes what it has in Jose Calderon and that Ellis could make a nice team in the backend for the Mavericks and they also could move Shawn Marion to get the space they need.
The Bobcats are the wild card in the mix, as they already landed a top free agent for the first time in a few years with Jefferson and adding Ellis would be a huge coup for Michael Jordan. The team has to move players to get a deal done and they also have to deal with shooting guard, Gerald Henderson.
