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Greg Monroe has agreed to a maximum contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
The deal is for three years, including a player option for the third year, allowing Monroe to re-enter the market in a more favorable cap landscape at age 27 or 28.
Monroe's salary will depend on where the cap lands on July 9, when the NBA's free-agent moratorium ends. Current estimates place the value around $49.4 million, but that could extend to $50.9 million if the cap comes in higher than originally expected.
The Bucks had been considered front-runners for the unrestricted free-agent center, and Monroe's commitment is bad news for the Portland Trail Blazers, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers, who were also in the mix.
Agent David Falk says all four teams Greg Monroe met with offered the max. Chose Bucks due to better chance to "make playoffs immediately."
— Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) July 2, 2015
Prying a second-tier free agent from a pair of big-market clubs is a nice testament to the momentum the Bucks franchise has right now, though the Knicks reportedly declined to offer the max (or maybe they did offer it). Even if Milwaukee had to overpay slightly - and it's not clear that's the case in a rising-cap environment - the Bucks clearly realized that their cap space was far more valuable in a scarce market than in a flooded 2016 landscape.
The Bucks were in on just about every center on the market, and Monroe is a nice fit. He's an excellent passer from the block and elbows and brings an element of interior scoring that the Bucks don't have anywhere else on their roster. He's limited defensively, but Jason Kidd's system - aggressive, and armed with a plethora of agile and lengthy defenders - is the perfect one to cover up Monroe's limitations at that end.
The 25-year-old averaged 15.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists for the Detroit Pistons last season, shooting 49.6 percent from the floor. He had played the season out on a one-year, $5.5-million qualifying offer, taking a major risk in order to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
That gamble appears to have paid off handsomely, and the Bucks are suddenly an even more intriguing threat in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture than they were a year ago.
