Milwaukee Bucks do not extend Jaime Jaquez Jr.

The Milwaukee Bucks and Jaime Jaquez Jr. did not come to terms on a rookie scale extension by the league’s 5 p.m. CT deadline Oct. 19, and the 25-year-old wing will play out the 2026-27 season and head into restricted free agency next offseason.

Only first-round picks are eligible for such extensions, and just seven players from 2023 draft came to agreements with their respective teams. That group included San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (No. 1), Charlotte’s Brandon Miller (No. 2), Houston’s Amen Thompson (No. 4), Detroit’s Ausar Thompson (No. 5), Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace (No. 10), Utah’s Keyonte George (No. 16) and Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski (No. 19).

Jaquez, the No. 18 pick, was acquired by the Bucks from Miami in July in a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. Though Jaquez was the runner up in Sixth Man of the Year voting a season ago for the Heat, the Bucks are just beginning the process of redefining the direction of the organization.

Jaquez said before the start of training camp that he was going to keep a professional mindset and that, “I’m here to work right now. My contract is the one that is going into next year, and that’s the only one I can really worry about.”

As a restricted free agent in the offseason, Jaquez and the Bucks could have several options in front of them:

• They could come to terms on a new contract.
• The Bucks could make a qualifying offer (QO), then match any offer another team gives Jaquez.
• The Bucks and another team could work out a sign-and-trade.
• The Bucks could offer, and Jaquez could accept, to play under the one-year qualifying offer.
• The Bucks could elect not to offer the QO and let Jaquez become an unrestricted free agent.

In his public comments regarding extensions for either Jaquez or Tyler Herro [who is eligible to sign one through June 30], Bucks general manager Jon Horst has maintained that reaching an agreement on new contracts might not happen.

“We targeted these guys for a reason,” Horst told the Journal Sentinel in late September. “We value them significantly. And we’ll, in good faith and sincerely, engage in those conversations.

“But we may or may not do an extension, and that’s OK. Just because we don’t doesn’t mean we don’t value them. Those are opportunities for them and for us.”