- The Suns have been searching for a point guard to help lead them back up from the bottom of the Western Conference standings for years now, and the three qualities that veteran Ricky Rubio possesses that makes Phoenix think he’s the guy are playmaking, defense, and leadership, writes Cody Cunningham of Suns.com.
- Duane Rankin examines the state of the Suns in an article for the Arizona Republic, including the team’s projected starting lineup, bench group, and array of intriguing combinations. Phoenix enters next season with several new players around Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, including Ricky Rubio, Dario Saric and Aron Baynes.
George King, a two-way player with the Suns last year, will join Dolomiti Energia Trentino for the upcoming season, relays Dario Skerletic of Sportando. The Italian team made the announcement on Twitter this morning.
The 59th player selected in the 2018 draft, King agreed to a two-way contract with Phoenix last summer. The small forward appeared in just one NBA game, scoring no points and collecting one rebound in six minutes. He posted a 15.5/5.3/2.5 line in 41 G League contests with Northern Arizona.
The Suns will look elsewhere to fill their remaining two-way slot for 2019/20. They signed rookie guard Jared Harper to a two-way deal this week.
JULY 19: Rice won’t sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Suns after all, according to Carchia, who hears from Rice himself that he wants to keep his overseas options open (Twitter link).
JULY 18: After participating in Summer League play with the team earlier this month, free agent guard Rayvonte Rice is expected to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Suns, a source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Carchia notes that the news was first reported by Italian outlet La Prealpina.
Rice, who went undrafted out of Illinois in 2015, has played professionally in a handful of international leagues since then, spending time with clubs in Italy, France, and Mexico.
The 27-year-old joined the Suns for Las Vegas Summer League this year and appeared in three games for the team, averaging 9.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 1.3 SPG in 19.7 minutes per contest. Much of his production came in a single game against the Knicks, when he scored 19 points in 22 minutes.
Assuming the Suns and Rice do finalize an Exhibit 10 deal, he’d be a long shot to make the regular season roster, but could end up playing for the Norther Arizona Suns, Phoenix’s G League affiliate.
The Suns have signed undrafted rookie Tariq Owens to a one-year contract, per RealGM’s NBA transactions log.
Owens, a 6’10” forward, played college ball at Tennessee and St. John’s before joining Texas Tech for the 2018/19 season. He helped lead the team to the national title game by averaging 8.7 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 2.4 BPG in 38 games (25.4 MPG).
The Suns carried Owens on their roster this month for Summer League play, though he didn’t see any action.
The undrafted free agent likely signed an Exhibit 10 contract, so he looks like a candidate to end up with the Northern Arizona Suns, Phoenix’s G League affiliate.
JULY 18: The Suns have officially signed Harper to a two-way contract, per RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.
JULY 17: The Suns have reached an agreement to sign undrafted rookie Jared Harper to a two-way contract, reports Gina Mizell of The Athletic (via Twitter).
A 5’11” point guard, Harper declared for the 2019 draft as an early entrant after helping lead Auburn to the Final Four as a junior. In 40 games for the Tigers, he averaged 15.3 PPG and 5.8 APG with a .399/.370/.828 shooting line.
Although Harper wasn’t selected on draft night, he caught on with Phoenix for Summer League play, averaging 10.5 PPG, 2.5 APG, and 2.5 RPG in four games in Las Vegas (21.8 MPG). The Suns liked what they saw from Harper enough to commit one of their two-way contract slots to him.
Phoenix’s other two-way contract slot remains open for now, as our tracker shows.
As the last restricted free agent on the market this summer, Kelly Oubre may have preferred to resolve his free agency situation a little sooner. However, as Gina Mizell of The Athletic relays, Oubre – who didn’t have to wait until the fall to get a new deal like other RFAs have in recent years – had no complaints about the process after signing a new two-year, $30MM contract with the Suns.
“It was a little prolonged due to the things of the business,” Oubre said. “I was blessed enough to be able to watch it happen. Everything works out for people who put the right energy into the world. So I can’t really complain. It’s been a great two weeks.”
The Suns, meanwhile, made Oubre a priority this offseason due to the way he approaches the game, as general manager James Jones told reporters, including Mizell, this week.
“When you watch the games, you watch effort,” Jones said. “You watch the competitiveness. You watch the passion. That’s who you are. (Oubre) was consistent every game, every day. … Those are the foundational characteristics and traits that you look for in players when you talk about building a core, building a foundation.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Dewayne Dedmon‘s ability to shoot three-pointers and run the floor could help maximize the Kings‘ run-and-gun offense in 2019/20, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. For his part, Dedmon is looking forward to fitting into Sacramento’s system. “I had my free agency meeting with my agent and he broke everything down, talked about the teams and whatever, and Sac came with the best offer,” Dedmon said. “Best fit, best offer, everything was good, and it’s somewhere I can call home for the next three years, hopefully.”
- Tyler Lydon‘s new two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Kings is only partially guaranteed for $50K in year one, tweets Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. Given how little salary protection he has, the former first-round pick isn’t necessarily a lock to earn a regular season roster spot for Sacramento in 2019/10.
- Nearly two weeks after Kawhi Leonard announced that he’d be joining the Clippers, Michael Lee of The Athletic looks back at the way Leonard wielded his power during the free agent process and the ripple effect the decision had on the Raptors, Lakers, and Thunder, among other teams.
JULY 17: The signing is official, the Suns announced on Twitter.
JULY 1: The Suns and free agent big man Frank Kaminsky have reached an agreement on a two-year deal worth approximately $10MM, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Phoenix is expected to complete the signing using the team’s $4.8MM room exception after using up all of its cap space to sign Ricky Rubio to a three-year, $51MM contract.
Kaminsky, the ninth overall pick in the 2015 draft, was the subject of trade and buyout speculation earlier this year as he fell out of the Hornets’ rotation for several weeks. The 26-year-old ultimately earned a more regular role in the second half, but had a down year in Charlotte, averaging 8.6 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 47 games (16.1 MPG).
Kaminsky didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Hornets, so he entered the market as an unrestricted free agent. Despite a somewhat disappointing stint in Charlotte, he still has some upside as a stretch big man.
The Suns, whose Ryan Anderson experiment failed last season, have now lined up deals for two bigs who can knock down three-pointers. In addition to agreeing to sign Kaminsky, they’ll also acquire Dario Saric in a trade with the Timberwolves once the July moratorium ends.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Suns have reached a two-year deal with Cheick Diallo, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Phoenix holds a team option on the second season, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The 22-year-old power forward spent the past three seasons in New Orleans. He has been a steady rotation player during the last two years and averaged 6.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in 64 games this season.
Phoenix could only offer Diallo a veteran’s minimum deal, which will pay about $1.7MM and $1.8MM over the next two years, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The Suns now have 15 players under contract, not counting their two-way deals.
JULY 17: The Nets have officially signed Nwaba, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 14: David Nwaba has agreed to a two-year contract with the Nets, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The deal includes a team option for the second season, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, who adds that the Pacers, Kings, Rockets and Suns all had interest in Nwaba (Twitter link).
It’ll be a minimum-salary deal for Nwaba, who will make approximately $1.7MM for the upcoming season and $1.8MM in 2020/21 with a July 7 deadline for the option decision, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Nets now have 15 players with guaranteed contracts.
Brooklyn will be the fourth stop in four years for the 26-year-old shooting guard, who spent his first three seasons with the Lakers, Bulls and Cavaliers. He appeared in 51 games for Cleveland this year, averaging 6.5 points in about 19 minutes per night.
The Cavs opted last month not to tender a $1.9MM qualifying offer to Nwaba, making him an unrestricted free agent. Even so, Cleveland had expressed some interest in bringing him back.
The addition of Nwaba continues an impressive summer for Brooklyn, which hit the free agent jackpot by signing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.