What Should the Indiana Pacers do with their rotation players?
By Tony East
Monta Ellis: How should the front office proceed?
Monta Ellis, like Al Jefferson, was a quintessential Larry Bird signing. He had impressive flashes as a scorer in Dallas, Milwaukee, and Golden State. He went into free agency at age 30, and as all Pacers fans know, that is the perfect age for a Larry Bird free agent target. The Pacers signed Ellis in the summer of 2015 to a 4 year, 44 million dollar contract with the 4th season being a player option.
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As of right now (and almost certainly by next summer), Monta Ellis will not be worth the amount that he would make if he accepts his player option. Thankfully, he has at least some value to the Pacers. He is pretty awful on defense, but off the bench, he offers a modicum of value on offense. He isn’t the worst shooter ever, and he is a decent creator as well. He occasionally played backup point guard for Indiana last year and started at the 2 multiple times. He is, however, not worth his contract.
Thankfully for the Pacers, Monta’s contract is structured like Rodney Stuckey’s (was). If they feel like they won’t want him in 2018-2019, they can waive him anytime before April 2018 and he won’t count against the Pacers 18’-19’ cap. The Pacers probably won’t want him that season, unless they think they won’t reach the salary floor, but look for the Pacers to keep him until as close to that date as they can.
If he somehow ends up rebuilding his trade value, or another team does something dumb and offers too much for him, the Pacers would gladly give him up in a trade. This isn’t something to plan on, but Monta contributes just enough to keep him around as long as possible. Monta Ellis future with the Pacers looks pretty grim, but the shooting guard has at least has some time left with the team.