No shocker here, as the long time Buck wants to stay in Milwaukee.
One of the last remaining members of the 2021 NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks wants to stick around another year, as Pat Connaughton will reportedly do what was widely expected and opt into the final season of the three-year, $28.2m contract he signed in summer 2023. ESPN’s Shams Charania confirmed today that he has exercised his $9.4m player option for 2025–26. He had until Tuesday to make a decision, per Spotrac. Marc Stein reported about two weeks ago that Connaughton would indeed do this, which is no surprise: if he opted out and hit free agency, he was likely looking at minimum-level deals.
Connaughton joins Giannis, Damian Lillard, Kyle Kuzma, and Tyler Smith as only the fifth Buck whose salary is locked in for next season; Bobby Portis and Kevin Porter Jr. have player option decisions to finalize by June 29th. No word yet on the former, but the latter will reportedly opt out of the just $2.5m he’s guaranteed for the upcoming campaign in hopes of something longer and more lucrative. AJ Green, Andre Jackson Jr., and Chris Livingston’s salaries are not guaranteed for 2025–26, and Milwaukee must make decisions on whether or not to guarantee that trio between July 7th and July 15th.
As Jack pointed out when writing about the expectation of Connaughton opting in, which seemed all but guaranteed even this time last year, the Bucks could waive him by August 31st and spread that $9.4m over the next three years. That would amount to a $3.1m cap hit on Milwaukee’s books through the summer of 2028. Maybe this would give them some extra space below a tax apron this year, should they become hard-capped at one. However, it’s worth noting that next summer, the Bucks currently can create up to $19m in cap space as things stand now, so waiving-and-stretching wouldn’t really benefit them beyond the present.
His $9.4m expiring contract could be useful in a trade, though. If nothing else, Connaughton is more tradeable now than he was last season, and certainly more than last offseason. As Bucks fans well know, the 32-year-old is no longer providing anywhere near as much on the floor. Outside of his 43-point outburst in game 82 after Milwaukee’s seeding was wrapped up, this was his least productive season since leaving Portland after his second year. His 14.7 MPG was the lowest of his Bucks tenure, as was his 5.3 PPG and 32.1% shooting from deep.
While some teams might value his veteran qualities, he probably wouldn’t be in the rotation in many places, so he probably won’t fetch much on his own. Perhaps a bad contract where a player is under contract for longer than a year, but if the Bucks wanted to salary dump him somewhere with the cap space to absorb his deal, they’d need to attach at least a second-round pick. I anticipate GM Jon Horst will try to use him as a salary-matching piece in a larger, multiplayer deal before he tries to trade him for nothing in return but tax relief. If that fails, he probably would only be waived-and-stretched if they really need to create room under a hard cap.