The Washington Wizards are keeping Khris Middleton around next season.
Middleton picked up his $33.3 million player option for the 2025-26 campaign on Monday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. That is part of the initial three-year, $93 million deal he first signed with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2023.
The Bucks dealt Middleton to the Wizards ahead of the deadline last season in a move that sent Kyle Kuzma to Milwaukee. Middleton ended up playing in just 14 games for the Wizards, who went 18-64 and missed the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year, while dealing with a knee injury. In total, Middleton averaged 11.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game last season — which were his lowest numbers since his rookie campaign.
The Wizards are just the third team that Middleton, who will be 34 next season, has played for throughout his career. He spent 12 years with the Bucks, and he was a key piece of their championship team in 2021 alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. The three-time All Star averaged 20.4 points, six rebounds and 5.4 assists during that season.
Though he’s on the back half of his career, Middleton should be able to provide a solid veteran presence for the franchise as it attempts to regroup under head coach Brian Keefe, who just completed his first full season at the helm after taking over for Wes Unseld Jr. The Wizards hold the No. 6 and No. 18 overall picks in the NBA Draft later this week, too, which should help significantly in that quest.
While the Wizards’ rebuild has been a tough one in recent years — they’ve won just 33 games over the past two seasons combined, and haven’t won a playoff series in just shy of a decade now — the Middleton piece is a good one for the franchise to lock down in the short term. And, if nothing else, Middleton is making sure he gets his money before finding a new, likely less-lucrative deal somewhere else next summer.
