Milwaukee Bucks: Gauging the stock of their impending free agents

Gauging the stock of the Milwaukee Bucks’ impending free agents – Wesley Matthews

Just like Lopez, Wesley Matthews holds the cards when it comes to his decision over what to do with his $2.6 million player option after having signed a two-year deal worth the veteran minimum last offseason.

The question that Matthews and the Bucks are wondering is whether the 34-year-old’s play this season has exceeded the value of his current contract.

Offensively, Matthews’ role was never more simplified than what it was with the Bucks where he almost exclusively spaced the floor and averaged 7.4 points per game on a streaky 36.4 percent clip from beyond the arc. On the other side, Matthews was regularly tasked with tough defensive assignments all the way into the Bucks’ brief playoff run and turned back the clock with the way he left his imprint on the best defensive unit.

Even in what will be a very depressed free agent market for a variety of reasons, players of Matthews’ skill set and role are paid handsomely and are in demand for far less than what the Madison native showed in his Milwaukee homecoming this year. The question is whether that will be in the realm of mid-level or even bi-annual exception money if Matthews seeks a pay rise.

Even without knowing what those figures will look like with the cap for the 2020-21 season not yet set, the Bucks await what Matthews’ decision will be amid all of the uncertainty surrounding their wing rotation.