The former Marquette star returns to his home state
With opening night just over a week away, the Bucks are beginning to shuffle their roster a bit as they prepare to cut down from the offseason limit of 21 guys to eighteen (fifteen standard roster spots plus three two-ways). In the first of what will likely be several moves, we learned yesterday that the Bucks waived Terence Davis, who was on an Exhibit 10 contract, then signed Marquette alum Henry Ellenson to an Exhibit 10 to fill his spot, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic:
The Milwaukee Bucks are signing Henry Ellenson to an Exhibit 10 contract, per a league source.
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) October 16, 2024
The Milwaukee Bucks have waived Terence Davis, per a league source.
It’s worth noting that the Herd acquired his returning player rights earlier this month. https://t.co/iPci6k6olD
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) October 15, 2024
Ellenson is a name that will ring a bell to longtime Wisconsin hoops fans and give some warm fuzzies to Marquette fans. The Rice Lake native was a McDonald’s All-American and Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball in his senior year up north, also appearing on the US national squad at the 2014 FIBA U-17 World Championship, which they won. He chose the Golden Eagles for school, where averaged 17 PPG and 9.7 RPG his freshman season, earning a First-Team All-Big East selection and the conference’s Freshman of the Year in 2016. He went pro after one year and went eighteenth overall to the Pistons in the 2016 draft.
The 6’10” forward’s NBA career was nowhere near as illustrious. Ellenson bounced back and forth between Detroit and the G League affiliate, appearing in just nineteen games as a rookie and averaging just 3.2 PPG in 7.7 MPG on .359/.286/.500 shooting. After just 40 more games over the next season-and-a-half in the Motor City, the Pistons waived him around the 2019 trade deadline. He signed a ten-day with the Knicks soon after, and though he earned a rest of season deal and got into seventeen games, he was released that offseason. A two-way with the Nets followed, but he was waived in early 2020 after just five games with their top squad. For the 2020–21 season, he signed with Toronto and got into two games with them before being waived. He did sign a ten-day with them later that year but didn’t get see any action, and with that, his NBA tenure ended.
Since then, Ellenson has played two seasons in Spain’s top league, averaging double figures in scoring with Obradoiro and Joventut. He also appeared in Japan’s top division in 2023 with a team hilariously named the Ibaraki Robots. The now 27-year-old returns stateside attempting to get back to the Association, but will have an uphill battle to do so. It is likely he’ll be waived soon in a procedural move in order for Milwaukee to control his G League rights. This is pretty standard stuff that we see every year: the Bucks signed Glenn Robinson III to Exhibit 10 around this time last year, only to waive him the same day, just so they got his rights (Little Dog spent twelve games in Oshkosh).
The Wisconsin Herd will have to acquire Ellenson’s G League rights—which are likely still controlled by the Raptors, whose affiliate he appeared in fifteen games for in 2020–21—if they and the Bucks want him to play in Oshkosh. That’s pretty easy to accomplish: as Eric notes, the Herd acquired Davis’ G League rights the same day the Bucks signed him. That was likely the plan all along for the 27-year-old wing. Unlike Liam Robbins and James Akinjo, Milwaukee’s other two Exhibit 10 signees, Davis never had a locker at Fiserv, nor was he listed on the official game-day roster for any of their three postseason contests thus far. It’s likely he didn’t practice with the team either. It’ll probably be the same for Ellenson.
Since both Davis and Ellenson have at least four years of NBA experience, they are no longer eligible for a two-way contract, which teams must convert these non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deals into before opening night or guarantee their regular season salary. But usually, these players are waived before opening night and report to the G League. Signing an Exhibit 10 is the path many veterans trying to get back into the league choose; if they report to their team’s affiliate and spend at least 60 days with the team, they’re eligible for a bonus of up to $77.5k. That’s a big motivation guys have for signing these deals too.
Thus, it’s likely both Davis and Ellenson will be on the Herd’s opening night roster when they tip off on November 8th, and they may spend a couple months or more with the team. We’ll update this story with any further info.