Nowitzki believes Ellis will opt out of contract

DALLAS – Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki believes teammate Monta Ellis plans to opt-out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

"I haven’t talked to him lately, but I’m guessing he wants to opt-out,’’ Nowitzki said Tuesday. "Why would he not?

"He’s had two phenomenal seasons here. He was our closer, he was our leading scorer last year and I’m sure for his market value he feels like he was a little underpaid.’’

Certainly, Ellis and his representatives are fully aware of the three-year, $46 million contract the Mavs signed small forward Chandler Parsons to last summer and believes Ellis is worth at least a contract of that nature. For now, Ellis has until June 24 to decide if he will opt-out of his current contract with the Mavs, or go ahead and play next season for the remaining $9.08 million on his deal.

"We’ll have to wait and see what happens this week, but my gut feeling would be that he’s going to opt out and then that’s another decision we’ve got to make,’’ Nowitzki said. "He’s been phenomenal for us.

"He’s another guy I’d love to keep and build on, because he’s been so phenomenal for us. But we don’t know.’’

This story was originally published June 16, 2015 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Nowitzki believes Ellis will opt out of contract."