The Bucks and sharpshooter A.J. Green are in agreement on a four-year, $45MM contract extension, agent Matt Bollero tells ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). According to Charania, the deal is fully guaranteed.
Green, 26, joined the Bucks in 2022 as an undrafted free agent out of Northern Iowa. After playing a modest role in his first two seasons, he emerged as a consistent part of the team’s regular rotation in 2024/25, averaging a career-high 22.7 minutes per game in 73 outings.
Green is a three-and-D wing, with a career rate of 42.1% from beyond the arc, including 42.7% last season. The Bucks had a +6.4 net rating during his 1,659 minutes of action in ’24/25, compared to a -0.9 mark in the 2,292 minutes he didn’t play.
Because he was an undrafted free agent rather than a former first-round pick, Green was eligible for a veteran contract extension – not a rookie scale extension – as he entered the final year of his current contract.
His salary of $2.3MM in 2025/26 is well below the NBA’s estimated average salary ($13.87MM). That meant he was eligible to sign for a starting salary worth up to 40% of the estimated average salary, which worked out to a maximum of $87MM over four seasons.
However, as I wrote earlier this week when I identified Green as an under-the-radar extension candidate to watch, the Bucks were never likely to have to go nearly that high to retain him. I pointed to **Sam Merrill**‘s recent contract (four years, $38MM) as a point of comparison for Green and noted that he’s three years younger than Merrill and has been a more accurate shooter (albeit on a lower volume), so he had a case for an eight-figure annual salary.
Still, getting four guaranteed years at more than $11MM per season is a big win for Green — as ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out (via Twitter), his career earnings to date, including his salary for the coming season, total just $6.3MM.
More to come…