Milwaukee Bucks Rumors: Had offered a contract to Elijah Bryant
By Dalton Sell
According to a report from Eurohoops, the Milwaukee Bucks offered Maccabi tel Aviv star guard Elijah Bryant a contract, but he ultimately declined in taking up their offer.
Adding more shooting and playmaking around superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has been an offseason priority for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks have made plenty of moves that fall in line with those needs throughout this compacted offseason, whether it was the headlining addition of Jrue Holiday or adding depth shooters such as D.J. Augustin, Bryn Forbes or their part of draft picks, Sam Merrill and Jordan Nwora.
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That makes the Bucks’ reported interest in Elijah Bryant, currently in his second season with Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, easily understandable as Bryant’s agent, Adam Pensack, recently shared to Leftis Moutis of Eurohoops:
"“Maccabi got the 98-81 win on Sunday over Ironi for the Israeli Winner League and Elijah Bryant had a great game with 25 points on 9/10 FG. Those kinds of performances and potential led the Milwaukee Bucks to make him recently an offer.”"
As the report noted, Bryant had declined the Bucks’ offer in favor of finishing out the season in Israel where he has been playing valuable minutes in the Israeli league as well as a prominent role in their EuroLeague run. Bryant is currently averaging 10.6 points on a .500/.457/.625 shooting splits, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.1 steals over 12 appearances across all competitions.
Although most fans might know Elijah Bryant, he is a familiar face for the Milwaukee Bucks.
This isn’t the first time that Bryant has been tied to the Bucks in some manner. After all, Bryant had turned in an impressive run while with the Bucks during their most Summer League run in Las Vegas during July of 2019. That included a 31-point performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves that certainly showed off his enticing offensive capabilities.
Bryant averaged 14.5 points on a 529/.500/.833 slash line, 4 rebounds and 3.2 assists over 23.3 minutes per game across four his Summer League appearances with Milwaukee.
Between his standout showings in Summer League and the impressive resume he’s been building while overseas, the prospect of jumping to the NBA looks to be a real one if Bryant wants to make the leap. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ($$) had reported earlier this year that Bryant had been on the radar of teams looking to bring in overseas players going into the 2020-21 season.
That’s where the question of what kind of deal the Bucks offered to the 25-year-old. Given their cap constraints, despite having an open roster spot, it almost certainly had to have been an Exhibit 10 or training camp deal. We’ve seen Milwaukee recently bring in the likes of Treveon Graham, EJ Montgomery, Justin Patton and Nik Stauskas on those types of contracts.
But given Bryant’s growing pedigree, making the leap to the NBA without a guaranteed deal is hard to stomach and he’s certainly been showing why he may be worthy of such a deal next summer once his contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv reportedly ends.
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Given that Bryant continues to bet on himself as he’s putting in starworthy performances in Israel, only time will tell what his future has in store. Perhaps the Bucks revisit contract negotiations with Bryant to add more shooting and playmaking around their cornerstones next offseason.