Milwaukee, WI -- (Sports Network) - The Milwaukee Bucks announced Monday that the team will not exercise the third-year team option on the rookie scale contract of forward Joe Alexander.

"It was a difficult decision not to pick up Joe Alexander's option," said Bucks general manager John Hammond. "Joe has missed valuable on-court development opportunities due to injury during his first two training camps, and this year he will miss almost the first three months of the season with his hamstring injury."

The Bucks announced on October 22 that Alexander aggravated his right hamstring injury during the rehabilitation process and was expected to miss 8-12 weeks.

"We believe Joe can be a good NBA player, but his latest injury had hampered our ability to further assess his progress," Hammond added.

The 22-year-old Alexander originally suffered the injury during voluntary drills prior to the start of training camp on September 17.

In 59 games last season -- his rookie campaign -- Alexander averaged 4.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.