Milwaukee Bucks reportedly extend qualifying offers to Jabari Parker, two-way players

As expected, the Milwaukee Bucks have reportedly extended qualifying offers to restricted free agent Jabari Parker as well as two-way players Xavier Munford and Marshall Plumlee in advance of this year’s free agency.

With the opening of this year’s NBA Free Agency looming, the Milwaukee Bucks have reportedly made a few major housekeeping moves Friday afternoon.

First reported by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Bucks have extended their qualifying offer to impending free agent Jabari Parker, which ensures that he will become a restricted free agent starting on July 1.

Per source, the Bucks have extended a qualifying offer to Jabari Parker, making him a restricted free agent. As expected.

Bucks also extended qualifying offers to two-way players Marshall Plumlee and Xavier Munford to make them restricted as well.
— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) June 29, 2018

Additionally, Velazquez relayed that the Bucks have also extended qualifying offers to both of their current two-way players, Xavier Munford and Marshall Plumlee. Much like Parker, those moves make Munford and Plumlee restricted free agents once free agency opens up as well.

While Parker’s free agency is heavily shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, the Bucks tendering their qualifying offer to the Duke product shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at this point.

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Considering the cap crunch they’ll have to navigate around this summer, the Bucks will undoubtedly be looking to explore any and all avenues that results in getting a little more breathing room on their books.

Of course, that leads to the big question regarding whether Parker ends up returning back to Milwaukee or land elsewhere if the Bucks ultimately decide to move on from the 23-year-old due to the high level of risk involved.

Earlier this week, James Ham of NBC Sports California reported that the Sacramento Kings hold an interest in Parker, something ESPN’s Zach Lowe more or less confirmed in his essential free agency preview Thursday evening.

But much like the Bucks, opposing teams are obviously facing the same dilemma of walking the tightrope of making a significant financial commitment to a player who has plenty of talent, but has yet to realize that due to a variety of factors.

While a specific figure from the Bucks and Parker’s extension talks from last fall has yet to be locked down, Lowe has repeatedly been consistent that the Bucks were offering as much as $18 million over an unspecified amount of time as he communicated again later in his preview.

Despite this report, many twists and turns are nearly guaranteed to be on the way and it’s very hard to project when this upcoming saga between the Bucks and Parker will come to a conclusion over the course of free agency.

As for both Munford and Plumlee, the Bucks extending their qualifying offers to both of their two-way players is standard operating procedure, given their interest level in both of them.

Had they not done so, the Bucks, and more specifically the Wisconsin Herd, would have lost the player rights to both Munford and Plumlee as Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days explored earlier this week.

Next: Win in 6 Podcast #229: Preparing for Jabari Parker’s free agency

As this year’s NBA Free Agency officially opens up, we’ll keep up with all the details and reports you need to know as it relates to the Bucks and beyond.