Maccabi Tel Aviv have opened talks with free-agent guard Armoni Brooks, Sport5 reported on Saturday, as the EuroLeague champions look to reinforce a backcourt that could soon lose Lonnie Walker IV.
Brooks, 28, only signed with ASVEL Villeurbanne this summer, arriving in Lyon as one of the headline names in Tony Parker's ambitious rebuild of the French club. That project has since unravelled: ASVEL's original budget of close to €59 million collapsed after the club failed to secure the financial guarantees behind it, and it has been forced to submit a scaled-back plan of roughly €24 million to French regulators.
The fallout has pushed several of ASVEL's marquee summer signings back onto the market, Brooks among them, alongside Daniel Theis, Nick Weiler-Babb and Sylvain Francisco, who has since joined Panathinaikos.
According to Sport5, there is no financial gap standing between Maccabi and Brooks — the club is prepared to meet his price. The sticking point, the report says, is personal: Brooks has reservations about uprooting his family and children to relocate to Israel, and Maccabi are continuing to work to change his mind.
The 1.94m guard was named MVP of the Italian league last season while starring for Olimpia Milano, and followed that with a solid EuroLeague campaign at ASVEL — 13.1 points and 3.5 rebounds a game on 41.6% three-point shooting across 38 appearances.
Sport5 frames the approach as part of a broader guard-market push by Maccabi this off-season, which has also seen the club register interest in both Theis and center Armando Bacot as it reshapes its roster following a title-winning campaign.
Walker's own future in Tel Aviv remains unresolved, with reports in recent weeks suggesting the sides are working toward a separation — adding urgency to Maccabi's search for backcourt depth.
For now, Sport5 stresses that nothing is decided: talks are ongoing, and, in the outlet's words, "the final word has not been said" on whether Brooks will end up in yellow and blue.
