The Brooklyn Nets first free agent signing of the 2026 off-season is Keon Ellis, a 26-year-old 6’4″ 3-and-D shooting guard. Ellis, who played last season for the Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers, will be paid $18 million over the next two seasons under the proposed deal.
Shams Charania was first with the news…
Shams also noted that the contract
has an odd “mutual option” …
Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic explained the option this way…
Ellis, a product of Alabama, is going into his fifth season. After going undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft, Ellis signed a two-way contract with the Sacramento Kings in July 2022 and established his reputation as tough defender and solid shooter. At the trade deadline, Ellis was traded to the Cavaliers where he finished out his three year, $5.1 million vets’ minimum deal.
For the season, in 72 games, 11 starts, Ellis averaged 6.7 points, 1.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 20.5 minutes, with 44/36/73 shooting splits. For his career, Ellis has shot 40.7% from deep. But his big attraction to the Nets is on the other side of the court, being a solid point-of-attack defender in Jordi Fernandez’s schemes.
Indeed, Fernandez was the associate head coach of the Kings when Ellis played in Sacramento between 2022 and 2024. Among available free agents, Ellis is seen as younger — and cheaper — than for example Lu Dort of the Thunder.
There presumably be a logjam at guard, with Terance Mann, second year players Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell and Ben Saraf as well as this year’s lottery pick, Mikel Brown Jr. Other than Mann and to a lesser degree Powell, however, none are known for the defense.
Yossi Gozlan quickly turned out one of his patented updates on how the signing will effect the Nets salary cap.
Ellis later reported that the 3-and-D guards’ value has been difficult to guage, noting that Ellis will make considerably more than Jordan Goodwin, who is at $6.3 million, and Jose Alvarado with a brand new $4.9 million deal, but none of them is as good a 3-point shooter as Ellis.
Bottom line: Sean Marks & co. still have more than $30 million available.
- Nets bolstering backcourt with two-year, $18 million Keon Ellis contract – Brian Lewis – New York Post
- Nets agree to two-year deal with guard Keon Ellis: report ($) – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News
- Nets bringing in Keon Ellis on $18 million contract – Erik Slater – Clutch Points
