Bucks have started negotiations with Salmons and his agent

St. Francis — It's clear the Milwaukee Bucks want guard John Salmons in their lineup again next season.

Bucks general manager John Hammond confirmed Thursday that he has discussed a contract extension with Salmons and his agent, Joel Bell.

Hammond would not discuss specifics of the offer, but it is believed the Bucks have offered a maximum extension that would include Salmons' opt-in year and three additional years for a total of nearly $27 million.

The 30-year-old Salmons has a player option for $5.8 million for the 2010-'11 season, but he could choose to opt out of the deal and become a free agent. If he does that, the Bucks and other NBA teams would not be able to negotiate with him until July 1 when the free agency period begins.

"He did a great job for us," Hammond said at a season-ending news conference held at the Bucks' Cousins Center headquarters.

"He was integral in where we ended up, the fact we won 46 games, made it to the playoffs and went to seven games (against Atlanta in the opening round). Give him a lot of credit for what he did for our organization."

Salmons was acquired in a February trade deadline deal with Chicago and made an instant impact. He averaged 19.9 points in 30 games for the Bucks and led the team in scoring 16 times. The Bucks went 22-8 after his arrival and secured the sixth-seeded spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

He also averaged 17.0 points against the third-seeded Hawks in a tightly contested postseason series that concluded Sunday with Atlanta's Game 7 victory.

Salmons hinted after the season that he may opt out of the contract but said he wanted to pray about the decision.

"He has some decisions he has to make," Hammond said. "The first decision is does he opt out. You may expect him to do that. If that happens, he becomes an unrestricted free agent and we can't have official conversations with him or his representative until July 1.
"Of course we'd like to have him back and we appreciate what he did for us."

Hammond also said the team would bring back starting small forward Carlos Delfino, who is under contract for $3.5 million next season. But a clause in the deal guaranteed only $500,000 if the Bucks had chosen to release him for any reason.

"We appreciate the great season Carlos had for us and our intentions are he will be part of our organization for the next two years and maybe beyond," Hammond said.

The Bucks hold a team option on Delfino for the 2011-'12 season at $3.5 million.

The 27-year-old Argentine player made 66 starts and appeared in 75 games while averaging career bests in points (11.0), rebounds (5.3) and assists (2.7).

"I'm pretty happy about how the season went," Delfino said earlier this week. "I think we had a great year as a group.

"It was a good year personally, and I look forward to improve and develop."



(jsonline.com)