January 12: The Suns have officially signed Bass to a second 10-day hardship deal, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter link).
January 11: Rookie small forward Paris Bass is expected to sign a second 10-day contract with the Suns via the team’s hardship exception, his agent Daniel Hazan tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Bass will likely rejoin the team on Wednesday, Wojnarowski adds.
The 6’8″ forward out of Detroit Mercy, 26, signed his first such deal with Phoenix in late December. He has appeared in two games for Phoenix so far, averaging 3.0 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 3.5 MPG.
After going undrafted, Bass played for a variety of international clubs, including teams in Austria, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan, and most recently Puerto Rico. He also earned some G League experience, joining the then-Erie BayHawks for the 2016/17 season. He averaged 3.9 PPG and 2.7 RPG across 11.9 MPG in 15 games for the BayHawks. The team was subsequently relocated to Lakeland, Florida from Erie, Pennsylvania in 2017, and re-branded as the Lakeland Magic.
Earlier this season, Bass returned to the G League, receiving significantly more playing time in his second stint. He averaged 17.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.1 SPG and 0.8 BPG in 14 games with the Lakers’ NBAGL affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.
As of this writing, forward Ish Wainright is the only Sun in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols and the team already has Justin Jackson under contract on a 10-day hardship deal. In order to sign Wainright on Wednesday, Phoenix will have to either terminate Jackson’s deal early or place a second player in the protocols.