Milwaukee Bucks won’t exercise fourth-year option for Rashad Vaughn
Reports surfaced Tuesday afternoon that the Milwaukee Bucks have declined to exercise guard Rashad Vaughn’s fourth-year option for next season.
The Milwaukee Bucks made a notable piece of housekeeping in regard to the future of third-year player Rashad Vaughn.
First reported by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and confirmed by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, the Bucks have opted against picking up Rashad Vaughn’s fourth-year option, thus making him an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Per NBA source, the Bucks are picking up Thon Maker’s third-year option but are not picking up Rashad Vaughn’s fourth-year option.
— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) October 31, 2017
Bucks won't exercise the fourth-year option on Rashad Vaughn, sources told @BBallInsiders. He'll be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) October 31, 2017
Along with the news of the team passing on Vaughn’s option, the Bucks are unsurprisingly picking up Thon Maker’s third-year option for next season.
The news comes on the heels of Vaughn’s first extended look for the season, which he made the most of as he scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from downtown in the team’s win over the Atlanta Hawks over the weekend.
More from Bucks News
- Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
- Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
- Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
- Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
- New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited
But as has been the case throughout his entire tenure in Milwaukee, the Bucks are still waiting on Vaughn to pop as a serviceable contributor on the offensive end, at the very least.
Through 114 total appearances, Vaughn has averaged 3.3 points on 33.1 percent shooting from the field and 31.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc in a Bucks uniform.
With his struggles on the NBA level, the Bucks have sent Vaughn to the G-League level on a few occasions to similar results during both rookie and sophomore seasons.
As much as the move is an indictment on Vaughn’s stagnant player development, it also creates a little more flexibility for the team’s financial outlook for next year’s offseason, considering the team made similar cost cutting moves over the summer with the luxury tax looming.
Declining Vaughn's $2.9m option provides additional flexibility vs. tax next summer, tho he could also be re-signed (Bird UFA). https://t.co/tL0JWlAPI4
— Frank Madden (@fmaddenNBA) October 31, 2017
Since both Jabari Parker and Greg Monroe are set to enter free agency next summer (Jabari’s being restricted free agency, of course), the Bucks are clearly carving out any resources they can before a big summer.
Unfortunately for Vaughn, the move not only casts doubt over his future in Milwaukee, but it puts his chances on the NBA level in a perilous position as well. With that, the UNLV product has the remainder of this year’s campaign to prove he has something to offer on the NBA setting, should he get a sizable opportunity to do so.
Next: Game Preview: Oct. 31 vs Oklahoma City Thunder
Whether he’ll ultimately do that is the question that all Bucks fans have been asking for the last two years, but we’ll see if this acts as a sort of wake up call for Vaughn.