Report: Milwaukee Bucks extend qualifying offer to Tony Snell

After a solid season as a role player, the Milwaukee Bucks have taken some control of where Tony Snell lands in free agency.

After three non-descript seasons with the Chicago Bulls, Tony Snell was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Michael Carter-Williams just prior to the start of last season. It wound up being a new lease on life for the 2013 first-round pick, as Snell started 80 games and averaged career-highs across the board.

Snell still only averaged 8.5 points per game in 2016-17, but he made over 40 percent of his 3-pointers (40.6 percent, on a team-high 4.4 attempts per game) while averaging 29. 2 minutes per game (fourth-most on the team). Snell clearly filled a valuable role on a playoff team, just in time to hit free agency. His market value may never be higher, and the Bucks clearly want to keep him around.

Since he met the “starter criteria” as a restricted free agent, Snell’s qualifying offer from the Bucks is worth just over $4.5 million. As a “3-and-D” wing player with a career 3-point rate of 37.3 percent, Snell is getting some rumored interest from other teams. Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical has suggested $11-$13 million per year is within range for Snell on the open market. If a multi-year offer like that comes from another team, Milwaukee can now match it if they want to. That said, they don’t have a lot of cap room to play with after Greg Monroe and Spencer Hawes picked up their player options.

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It can be argued Snell is more valuable to the Bucks, in the role he’ll be asked to fill, than he will be to any other team in a bigger role. But he is in line for an offer he can’t refuse, and a return to Milwaukee is unlikely.