With the deadline for teams to exercise their options for current third- and fourth-year players having passed, the Washington Wizards have decided not to pick up their option on young forward, Chris McCullough. This will mean that he will become an unrestricted free agent next year, according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders.

The 6-foot-9 forward out of Syracuse impressed the Brooklyn Nets, which resulted in him getting selected 29th overall back in 2015 despite still recovering from an ACL injury that time. He missed the first half of his rookie season, but was able to appear in 24 games for them.

The following season, he received an assignment to the Long Island Nets of the G-League to gain more experience, before getting recalled and suiting up for 14 games in the NBA. He was ultimately traded to the Wizards last season, as part of the deal that landed them Bojan Bogdanovic.

McCullough may not be getting a lot of playing time, but knowing that he will be a free agent after this season, it could lead to better performances in the future whenever he gets fielded in. He needs to prove that he belongs at the highest level, and make a good account for himself, in order to generate some interest from teams around the league once he becomes unrestricted.