Hapoel Jerusalem have found their next guard, and he arrives with seven NBA seasons on his resume. Shake Milton has agreed personal terms on a one-year contract worth $1 million with the Reds, Sport5 reports, capping a chase that also involved city rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Milton, 29, is a 1.96m combo guard who spent parts of seven seasons in the NBA after Philadelphia drafted him 54th overall in 2018 out of SMU. He went on to appear in well over 300 NBA games across stints with the 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers, his most productive spell coming in Philadelphia, where he once dropped 39 points in a loss to the LA Clippers.
He made the jump to Europe last summer, signing a two-year deal with Partizan Belgrade that was billed as his introduction to EuroLeague basketball. It did not go smoothly: a hand fracture disrupted his season, and he managed only modest returns of 6.9 points a game on 49.5 percent shooting from inside the arc while in and out of the Serbian club's rotation. He fared better in Adriatic League play, averaging closer to 12 points a night. Partizan activated an opt-out clause in his contract earlier this month and released him, making him a free agent.
That availability quickly put him on Israeli radars. Israel Hayom first reported him as a target for Maccabi Tel Aviv, who were said to be exploring him as a possible replacement for Lonnie Walker. Hapoel Jerusalem, though, moved into pole position, and according to Sport5 the two sides have now come to an agreement.
Milton becomes the fifth new face of the summer at Pais Arena as coach Sasha Obradović overhauls the Jerusalem roster following his own arrival on a three-year contract in June. The Serbian coach, who has previously taken charge of AS Monaco, Crvena Zvezda and Alba Berlin in the EuroLeague, is reshaping the squad from the backcourt out, and a guard with Milton's NBA pedigree and shooting pedigree fits the profile he has been chasing.
For Hapoel Jerusalem, who play in the Israeli Winner League and continental competition, adding an NBA-tested guard at this stage of the market is a statement of intent after a summer already built around Obradović's arrival. The club has not yet issued a formal unveiling of the signing, and the deal is being reported at this stage as agreed personal terms rather than a signed, announced contract.
Milton's route to Jerusalem underlines how quickly value can shift for fringe NBA players once they test the European market: waived by the Lakers last July, still just 29 and with legitimate NBA-level tools, he now heads to Israel look to rebuild his stock after an injury-hit season in Belgrade.
