The Valley Suns, Phoenix’s new G League affiliate, were awarded the returning rights to 14 players as part of the 2024 expansion draft, the league announced in a press release.
Each existing G League team was permitted to protect up to 12 players and had until June 5 to provide that list of protected players to the league. The Valley Suns received the full list of unprotected players on June 6 and had until June 13 at 3:00 pm Eastern time to select up to 14 of those players, drafting no more than two per team.
Crucially, while Phoenix’s affiliate now controls these players NBAGL returning rights, that does not mean all of them – or any of them, for that matter – will suit up for the Valley Suns in 2024/25, since they’re not obligated to play in the G League.
Many could end up playing for teams in non-NBA leagues around the world or even getting another shot in the NBA, in which case the Suns’ rights wouldn’t amount to much. But if any of these players sign G League contracts for next season, the Valley Suns will get first dibs at bringing them to training camp.
Here are the 14 players selected by the Valley Suns in the expansion draft:
- Garrison Brooks (Westchester Knicks)
- Chaundee Brown Jr. (South Bay Lakers)
- Gary Clark (Salt Lake City Stars)
- Matt Lewis (Westchester Knicks)
- Didi Louzada (Cleveland Charge)
- Theo Maledon (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
- Emmanuel Mudiay (Iowa Wolves)
- Mychal Mulder (Capital City Go-Go)
- Jahlil Okafor (Delaware Blue Coats)
- Justin Smith (Delaware Blue Coats)
- Denzel Valentine (Raptors 905)
- Quinndary Weatherspoon (South Bay Lakers)
- Lindell Wigginton (Cleveland Charge)
- Trevion Williams (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
Of those names, Mudiay, Okafor, and Valentine are the most notable. All three are former NBA lottery picks who spent several seasons in the league and are still no older than 30 years old. Brown, Clark, Louzada, Maledon, Mulder, Weatherspoon, and Wigginton have also seen NBA regular season action in recent years.
Returning rights players are just one group of the many that make up a G League team, so if only a small handful of the players listed above sign NBAGL contracts, the Suns will have plenty of other paths to fill out their roster. Those paths are as follows:
- Affiliate players: Players who are signed (generally to Exhibit 10 contracts) and then cut by the parent NBA club, as detailed here.
- G League draft rights: Players who are selected in the G League draft in the fall.
- NBA draft rights: Players who are drafted by an NBA team and sign a G League contract instead of an NBA contract.
- Local tryout: Players who earn a shot via a local tryout.
- G League player pool: Players who sign G League contracts and go undrafted (or sign their contracts after the draft). Newly signed players go through a waiver process and enter the league’s free agent pool if they go unclaimed.
- Two-way contract: Players who are on a two-way contract with an NBA team and are transferred to the G League.
- NBA assignment: Players who are on a standard contract with an NBA team and are assigned to the G League.
Good to know
There stacked im ngl
I think most of these players wont sign with them tho, they will play overseas
Jahlil Okafor is still around?
Okafor hasn’t played a G League game since 2022-23 and none for Delaware.
Jahlil Okafor was a terrible pick by the Sixers. They passed on Porzingis, Booker and Bobby Portis. They’ve made bad decisions in their drafts the last 10 years. Passed on Jayson Tatum to select a player they got rid of. They drafted Mikal Bridges, they traded him for a lower first round pick plus a second. The player they got was a total bust.
They picked players that were good in college but don’t translate to the pros. Lots of bugs that can’t shoot 3s. Wanna blame anyone, blame Steph Curry for being so damn good he changed the whole league.
DangerBone is right and I hate to say that
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to wait until players committed to the G League for next year before doing a draft? Seems useless if a bunch of those guys leave for other leagues. Also if they do leave who fills their spots? Is it just free agents at that point?