- The Suns were trying to trade Archie Goodwin, who was waived on Monday, but when they were unable to find a taker, the team was forced to release him in order to pare its roster down for the regular season, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports.
The Suns have officially exercised their 2017/18 options for guard Devin Booker and forward T.J. Warren, the team announced. Booker will earn $2,319,36 in what will be the third year of his rookie scale contract, while Warren will make $3,152,931 in what will be the fourth year of his current deal.
Booker was an NBA All-Rookie First Team selection in 2015/16 after making 76 appearances, including 51 starts, averaging 13.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 27.7 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .423/.343/.840. The 19-year-old ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring this preseason, averaging 19.6 points in five appearances, including a 34-point performance at Portland on October 7th.
Warren, 23, made 47 appearances for Phoenix a season ago, averaging 11.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists on 22.8 minutes. His slash line on the campaign was .501/.400/.703. The third-year player started all six of the Suns’ preseason games, averaging 12.5 points on 46.6 percent shooting and 4.2 rebounds.
4:25pm: The Suns officially announced that Goodwin was waived.
2:57pm: Another player with a guaranteed 2016/17 salary has been released, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical, who reports (via Twitter) that the Suns have waived former first-round pick Archie Goodwin. The move brings the team’s roster to 15 players, so no additional cuts are necessary before opening night.
[RELATED: Suns’ roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com]
The 29th overall pick in the 2013 draft, Goodwin has appeared in 150 games for the Suns since making his NBA debut. In 2015/16, he averaged 19.5 minutes per contest in 57 games (13 starts), recording 8.9 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 2.1 APG.
While Goodwin has yet to develop into a productive NBA regular, he has shown flashes of promise and explosiveness. The Kentucky product is still just 22 years old, and was set to earn a modest salary of $2,094,089 from the Suns this season before becoming eligible for restricted free agency in 2017. If Goodwin clears waivers, Phoenix will remain on the hook for that salary, but he looks like a candidate to draw interest on waivers from teams with cap room. A club like the Sixers, who are fairly thin in the backcourt and are well below the salary cap floor, could be interested in placing a claim on Goodwin.
The Suns had still been carrying two players without fully guaranteed salaries, in John Jenkins and Derrick Jones. Jenkins’ salary is believed to be fully guaranteed now that he has remained on the roster beyond October 23, whereas Phoenix maintains some flexibility with Jones, whose deal is partially guaranteed for about $43K — it won’t fully guarantee until January 10.
NBA teams have to reduce their rosters to 15 players in about four hours, but the Sixers aren’t quite ready to give up their 20-man preseason roster limit quite yet. According to a team release, Philadelphia has signed Dionte Christmas, bringing the club’s roster count back up to 20.
Christmas, who played his college ball at Temple, saw his only NBA action back in 2013/14 with the Suns. In 31 games for Phoenix, Christmas averaged 2.3 PPG and 1.2 RPG in 6.4 minutes per contest. He has played for various international teams in the years since then.
On the surface, Christmas looks like an unusual pickup for the Sixers. He’s unlikely to make the 15-man roster, so Philadelphia may intend to have him head to the D-League, but the 30-year-old isn’t the sort of developmental prospect the team would typically stash at Delaware. We’ll have to wait and see what the 76ers have in mind for the Philadelphia native.
Assuming Christmas’ deal isn’t fully guaranteed, the Sixers are currently carrying nine players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries. They’ll have to waive five players by 5:00pm eastern time today to get down to 15.
Monday afternoon is the deadline to reach the roster limit of 15, and nine teams still have cuts to make, tweets salary cap expert Albert Nahmad. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Rockets, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, Sixers, Suns and Kings all remain over the limit leading into what should be an eventful day, says Nahmad. By our count, the Grizzlies still have a move to make as well. The Pacers were the latest team to trim their roster, waiving Jeremy Evans and Julyan Stone tonight.
There’s more news from around the NBA:
- J.J. Avila, who was waived Friday by the Bulls, has agreed to play for Chicago’s D-League affiliate, tweets Dennis Silva II of Monitor News. The 6’8″ power forward from Colorado State signed a training camp contract with Chicago in September. Guard Thomas Walkup of Stephen F. Austin, another Friday cut, will also be joining the Windy City Bulls (Twitter link).
- Damjan Rudez and Arinze Onuaku both traveled a lot of miles to realize their dream of returning to the NBA, writes John Denton of NBA.com. After playing overseas and in the D-League, both veterans were told Saturday that they had earned a place on the Magic’s final roster. “It was a big blessing,” Onuaka said. “When you are out here fighting for a spot every day it’s stressful and to get that news, it was great. You’ve always got to wait to hear if you’re in or you’re out, so it wasn’t easy sleeping at night.’’
- Fred VanVleet won the Raptors‘ final roster spot, but coach Dwane Casey said all the training camp invitees were impressive, tweets Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. Casey said Drew Crawford and Brady Heslip have the talent to be NBA players, adding that he was disappointed he didn’t have room to keep all of them.
The 2016/17 NBA regular season gets underway just a couple days from now, which means it’s time to start getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign. With the help of the lines from offshore betting site Bovada.lv, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division, and having you weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic. Having looked at the Atlantic, Northwest, Central, Southwest, and Southeast divisions so far, we’re moving on to the Pacific today…
Golden State Warriors
- 2015/16 record: 73-9
- Over/under for 2016/17: 66.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Kevin Durant, Zaza Pachulia, David West, Damian Jones, Patrick McCaw, JaVale McGee. Lost Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush.
(App users, click here for Warriors poll)
Los Angeles Clippers
- 2015/16 record: 53-29
- Over/under for 2016/17: 53.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Marreese Speights, Alan Anderson, Raymond Felton, Brandon Bass, Brice Johnson. Lost Jeff Green, Cole Aldrich, C.J. Wilcox, Pablo Prigioni.
(App users, click here for Clippers poll)
Sacramento Kings
- 2015/16 record: 33-49
- Over/under for 2016/17: 34 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Arron Afflalo, Anthony Tolliver, Garrett Temple, Matt Barnes, Ty Lawson, Georgios Papagiannis, Malachi Richardson, Skal Labissiere. Lost Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli, Seth Curry, James Anderson, Quincy Acy.
(App users, click here for Kings poll)
Phoenix Suns
- 2015/16 record: 23-59
- Over/under for 2016/17: 30 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Jared Dudley, Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss, Leandro Barbosa. Lost Mirza Teletovic, Jon Leuer, Ronnie Price, Chase Budinger.
(App users, click here for Suns poll)
Los Angeles Lakers
- 2015/16 record: 17-65
- Over/under for 2016/17: 24.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Luol Deng, Timofey Mozgov, Brandon Ingram, Jose Calderon. Lost Kobe Bryant, Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass, Ryan Kelly.
(App users, click here for Lakers poll)
Previous voting results:
- Boston Celtics (52.5 wins): Under (54.59%)
- Toronto Raptors (50.5 wins): Over (54.63%)
- New York Knicks (38.5 wins): Over (71.41%)
- Philadelphia 76ers (23.5 wins): Under (54.62%)
- Brooklyn Nets (20.5 wins): Under (60.74%)
- Utah Jazz (49 wins): Under (68.72%)
- Portland Trail Blazers (45.5 wins): Over (69.92%)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (43.5 wins): Over (65.71%)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (40.5 wins): Over (50.11%)
- Denver Nuggets (37 wins): Under (68.81%)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (56.5 wins): Over (66.5%)
- Detroit Pistons (44.5 wins): Over (55.03%)
- Indiana Pacers (44.5 wins): Over (73.06%)
- Chicago Bulls (38.5 wins): Over (61.9%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (34.5 wins): Over (67.48%)
- San Antonio Spurs (58.5 wins): Under (57.4%)
- Houston Rockets (44 wins): Over (52.76%)
- Memphis Grizzlies (42.5 wins): Over (59.69%)
- Dallas Mavericks (38.5 wins): Over (69.71%)
- New Orleans Pelicans (37 wins): Under (70.9%)
- Atlanta Hawks (43.5 wins): Over (59.84%)
- Charlotte Hornets (42.5 wins): Under (62.22%)
- Washington Wizards (42.5 wins): Over (51.6%)
- Orlando Magic (37.5 wins): Over (54.42%)
- Miami Heat (34.5 wins): Under (61.45%)
Suns guard John Jenkins is drawing some interest from Euroleague club Baskonia, per Spanish website Encestando (translation via Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype). Jenkins, who is battling an abdominal strain, is currently on a non-guaranteed contract, but it will become fully guaranteed if he remains on Phoenix’s roster beyond October 23, so potential international suitors – like Baskonia – could be preparing to pounce. According to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic, Jenkins remains focused on the NBA for now, saying he hasn’t “thought about anything overseas.”
- There’s a “growing belief” that Brandon Knight would draw a bigger trade return for the Suns than Eric Bledsoe, given Bledsoe’s injury history, writes Kyler. ESPN’s Zach Lowe recently indicated that Knight would be a more likely trade candidate than Bledsoe for the club. Still, sources tell Kyler that the Suns like the “vibe” and culture in Phoenix right now, and are in no rush to clear their backcourt logjam.
[SOURCE LINK]
- Marquese Chriss may be a 19-year-old rookie, but he is impressing his Suns teammates by standing up to veterans in preseason games, relays Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. His latest skirmish was with Mavericks’ center Andrew Bogut on Friday night. “’Quese has to show that he ain’t scared,” said Eric Bledsoe. “Once one of those players or a veteran player feels like he got fear in you, as a young player, it will ride you for the rest of your career. ‘Quese is setting the tone early.”
- Suns rookie point guard Tyler Ulis has been receiving extensive preseason minutes as the team wants to get him as much experience as possible, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “It’s perfect for me,” Ulis said of averaging 17 minutes in four preseason games with two preseason games to go. “I know I’m getting valuable minutes right now. They want to see what I can do. I’m learning more and more. [Coach] Earl [Watson] is teaching me which spots to go at. This is fun. It’s a process. I’m happy to learn and it’s better to learn in a game than watching.”