We now know how two of the three players on the Milwaukee Bucks who have player options will use them, with Kevin Porter Jr. reportedly opting to decline his ahead of free agency. This comes just days later after we found out that veteran swingman Pat Connaughton will reportedly opt in to his final year for $9.4m. The reports of Porter’s decision came in from two reporters, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype and Jake Fischer, who writes for The Stein Line Substack:
Per Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype and Jake Fischer of the Stein Line, Milwaukee Bucks point guard Kevin Porter Jr. will decline his player option. Sources also told Scotto that they hope to keep him next season. He averaged 11.7 points, 3.9 boards, and 3.7 assists in 19.9 minutes with Milwaukee
— Jackson Gross (@jgrossreporter.bsky.social) 2025-06-11T18:33:46.350Z
Porter made his way to the Bucks as one of the last trades at this year's deadline for former first-round pick MarJon Beauchamp. It seemed to be a trade to see if anything stuck after Porter was only playing around 19 minutes per game with the Los Angeles Clippers. While he would go on to see roughly the same amount of court time in his 30 games with the Bucks, he became the Bucks' lead backup point guard behind Damian Lillard and saw increased minutes once Lillard went down with blood clots, playing an average of 24.7 minutes per game to end the regular season. Porter seemed to return to his old self, from before his locker room blow-up with Taurean Prince in Cleveland years ago and his domestic abuse arrest that got him cut by the Houston Rockets. In those final 13 games without Lillard, the Bucks went 9-4, and Porter averaged healthy numbers of 14.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 4.7 APG. His shooting percentages even rose, after only shooting 24.5% from three with the Clippers, it jumped to a gaudy 40.8% on 2.8 attempts per game.
While he ended the season well, his first run in the playoffs was a different story. While the counting stats look fine, 11.2 PPG, 5.4 APG, 3.6 RPG, on 46.7% from the three-point line, his overall field goal percentage was a less than ideal 39.6%. At times, he stopped any momentum the Bucks had going for them, and in their only win in the series, Porter scored just one point. He had two games with three turnovers, including the deciding Game 5, where he shot 4/10 from the field and also picked up four fouls.
The Bucks do not have Porter’s Bird rights, due to his contract being signed last offseason, and he will be an unrestricted free agent. The Bucks can offer him another veteran minimum deal or a new deal with Non-Bird rights that would be around $3m. If they want to do anything over that amount, they will have to dip into either their non-taxpayer midlevel exception or the taxpayer midlevel exception of $5.6 million. If they want to keep both him and Gary Trent Jr., they will likely need to use into the full MLE of $14.1m, triggering the Bucks to be hard-capped at the first apron, currently projected at $195.9 million.
As always, we will keep you updated on where KPJ ends up signing, once the legal tampering period begins on June 30.