The 24-year-old’s time in Milwaukee will likely end sooner rather than later
Today is the deadline around the NBA for teams to exercise or decline 2025–26 team options on rookie-scale contracts, and the Bucks only have one such player who required a decision: third-year wing MarJon Beauchamp. Ever since a disappointing Summer League, it’s been a topic of discussion, and if the results of our Tuesday Tracker are any indication, the majority of Bucks fans feel it should be declined. There have also been rumors that Milwaukee was looking to trade the former 24th-overall pick in order to open up a roster spot.
Well, now we know. The Bucks declined Beauchamp’s option, per ESPN’s Shams Charania:
The Milwaukee Bucks are declining F MarJon Beauchamp’s fourth-year rookie option worth $4.8 million in 2025-26, sources tell ESPN. Beauchamp, the No. 24 pick in 2022 NBA Draft, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. pic.twitter.com/orf27PdSyE
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 31, 2024
With this news, it’s clear that the Bucks or any other team he could be traded to between now and will not have to pay the $4.8m he’s due next season. He’ll now become ineligible for both restricted free agency in summer 2026 and for a rookie scale extension in summer 2025. Instead, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer. The Bucks—or another team that acquires him this season— would not be allowed to offer him a contract with a higher salary than $4.8m, what he would have been due if the option was picked up.
He makes $2.7m this season, but this cannot be aggregated with any other salary to take back a higher dollar figure in return because the Bucks are over the second apron. Similarly, while he can be paired with a higher-paid player as part of an outgoing trade, his salary can’t be aggregated with that player’s, combining them to take back more money than the other player makes. At this point, it seems more likely than ever that he will be traded at some point before the deadline in February.
Beauchamp showed some flashes as a rookie, but hasn’t translated his athleticism and length into a productive NBA player. Though his shooting numbers improved considerably last season to .488/.400/.560, it was on about three fewer shots per 36 minutes. Thought of as a potential quality defender coming out of the 2022 NBA Draft, he’s rarely shown much ability on that end and never seems to be in the right position.
All that results in a player who doesn’t really offer anything to a team trying to make a deep playoff run. He’s buried on the bench so far this season, seeing just nine garbage time minutes across the Bucks’ four games, scoring seven points on 2/6 shooting, plus three turnovers, three fouls, and no assists. No matter which way this decision went, it seems highly unlikely he’ll be a major part of this year’s rotation, and picking it up probably wouldn’t have affected the Bucks’ reported desire to trade him.
Given that they already seemed to be done with him, it’s no less likely than it was yesterday that Beauchamp’s time in the 414 will end sooner than later. Declining his fourth-year option merely opens up the possibility it could end with his contract expiring next summer, and him leaving as a free agent with the Bucks getting nothing. Still, there’s no reason he can’t be in a trade before then, and it could even happen in the coming days or weeks.