Suns Sign Ish Wainright To Two-Year Standard Deal

7:55pm: Wainright has officially inked a multiyear contract, the Suns announced (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports).

5:47 pm: The Suns are promoting forward Ish Wainright from his two-way contract to a two-year, $2.5MM standard deal, his agents, Jim Tanner and Deirunas Visokas of Tandem Sports, tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

There will be a club option for 2023/24 on Wainright’s new deal, Charania adds. It’ll be worth the minimum ($1,927,896).

Wainright was active for his 50th game prior to the All-Star break and thus had maxed out the games-played limit on his two-way contract. Phoenix could have kept him on his two-way deal for the rest of the season, but he would have been ineligible to be activated for another regular season or playoff game; now that he’s getting promoted to a standard deal, those restrictions no longer apply.

While Wainright’s counting stats of 4.3 PPG and 2.1 RPG on .384/.339/.810 shooting in 42 games (15.5 MPG) don’t jump off the page, his plus-6.3 net rating is excellent (the Suns’ season-long net rating is plus-1.5), and he is an above-average defensive player. He has been a rotation player since the start of December.

At 28 years old, Wainright is an unusual second-year player. In addition to a temporary attempt at switching to football, the 6’6″, 250-pound combo forward also played international basketball in Germany and France. He has been with the Suns for the past two seasons on a two-way deal.

The Suns had an opening on their 15-man roster, so they won’t need to waive anyone to promote Wainright. They now have one two-way slot available — Saben Lee occupies the other.