Category: Phoenix Suns Blog

Suns blog – Phoenix Suns blog, on Suns basketball news, rumors and more

Suns sign Duane Washington Jr.

The Phoenix Suns have signed free agent guard Duane Washington Jr.

Washington (6-3, 197 pounds) averaged 9.9 points on 40.5% shooting from the field, 37.7% from three-point range and 75.4% from the free throw line in 48 games as a rookie with the Indiana Pacers last season. Among qualified NBA rookies, he ranked 12th in points per game, third in three-point percentage and ninth with 81 made three-pointers. Washington set a Pacers rookie record by making seven three-pointers at New Orleans on Jan. 24. He also appeared in 11 games with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League last season, averaging 19.5 points, 4.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds.

The 22-year-old went undrafted in 2021 following a three-year career at Ohio State where he earned All-Big Ten honors in his final season after averaging a team-high 16.4 points. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Washington grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Devin Booker to sign huge Suns contract extension

Via ESPN.com:

Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker has agreed on a four-year, $224 million supermax extension, his agents, Jessica Holtz and Melvin Booker of CAA Basketball, told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Booker’s deal begins in 2024-25 and brings his total contract value to six years and $295 million.

Booker, 25, has become the face of the Suns franchise since being drafted 13th overall by Phoenix in the summer of 2015, including leading the Suns — alongside future Hall of Famer Chris Paul — to the NBA finals in 2021.

Suns name Morgan Cato Assistant GM and VP of Basketball Operations

The Phoenix Suns have named Morgan Cato as Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations.

“We’re excited to welcome Morgan to the Valley and to the Suns organization” said General Manager James Jones. “With the league office Morgan played a pivotal role on countless initiatives to grow the game and strategically develop for it to be played at its best. The addition of her background and knowledge will allow us to elevate our basketball operations in several areas.”

In her position, Cato will report to Jones and work with Head Coach Monty Williams to lead the team’s strategy and business processes for basketball growth and performance with a focus on coaching development, player engagement and front office personnel operations. Cato becomes the first woman of color to hold the Assistant General Manager title for an NBA team.

Cato joins the Suns after spending the last decade with the NBA league office, most recently as Associate Vice President of Business Operations for NBA League Operations.

Suns coach Monty Williams wins 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year award

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams is the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year, the NBA announced today.

This is the first NBA Coach of the Year Award for Williams, who joins Cotton Fitzsimmons (1988-89) and Mike D’Antoni (2004-05) as head coaches to earn the honor with the Suns.

Williams received 458 points (81 first-place votes) from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins finished in second place with 270 points (17 first-place votes). Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra finished in third place with 72 points (one first-place vote). Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote

Williams guided the Suns to an NBA-leading 64-18 record in the regular season, the most victories and the highest winning percentage (.780) in a season in franchise history. Phoenix had identical 32-9 records at home and on the road. The Suns tied for the third-most road wins and fifth-best road winning percentage (.780) in a season in NBA history.

Phoenix won a franchise-record 18 consecutive games from Oct. 30 – Dec. 2, 2021. The streak included a 16-0 record in November, tied for the second-most wins in a month without a loss in NBA history, trailing only the Atlanta Hawks’ 17-0 record in January 2015.

The Suns finished first in the NBA in net rating (+7.5), third in defensive rating (106.8) and fifth in offensive rating (114.2), making them the only team to rank in the top five in all three categories. They were 47-0 when leading after the third quarter, the most such wins without a loss in a season in the shot clock era (which began in the 1954-55 season).

Williams was named the NBA Western Conference Coach of the Month twice (October/November and January). He and his staff also earned the spot to coach Team LeBron in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.

This is Williams’ third season as the Suns’ head coach. Last season, he guided Phoenix to a 51-21 record and its first appearance in the NBA Finals since the 1992-93 season, finishing in second place in the voting for the 2020-21 NBA Coach of the Year Award. Williams previously served as head coach of the New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans for five seasons.

Williams will be presented with a special edition 75th Anniversary commemorative trophy today in celebration of winning the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year Award, gifted in addition to the Red Auerbach Trophy, which he will receive later. The commemorative trophy, composed of a solid crystal basketball, features the NBA 75 logo 3D laser etched and suspended within its center.

The NBA Coach of the Year Award trophy is named in honor of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Red Auerbach. The legendary head coach guided the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships, including eight in a row from 1958-59 – 1965-66.

Pelicans forward Jaxson Hayes ejected from Game 3 vs. Suns

Jaxson Hayes of the New Orleans Pelicans was ejected from Game 3 of the NBA Playoffs on Friday night in the second quarter after receiving a flagrant foul 2 for shoving Phoenix Suns player Jae Crowder.

Hayes was pounding the boards from the left corner after a made CJ McCollum jumper with 5:15 remaining in the first half when he crashed past Crowder, slamming him to the ground.

Initially, no foul was called, but play was paused and the play was reviewed as Crowder rushed across the floor to confront Hayes and Suns guard Chris Paul quickly sprinted to another official.

– Via ESPN.com. See full article.

Suns guard Devin Booker hurts hamstring in Game 2 loss to Pelicans

The Suns lost a playoff game last night, and have a Devin Booker injury to worry about. Via ESPN.com:

On Tuesday night, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker suffered a hamstring injury, and the New Orleans Pelicans stepped up all night and put had a tremendous finish to win 125-114 Game 2 and even the series at 1-1.

Booker scored 31 points in the first half, including seven 3-pointers. But he did not score in the third quarter, and he injured his right hamstring when contesting a Jaxson Hayes dunk in transition with 4:45 left in the period. He exited the game and headed straight to the locker room.

Multiple key Suns players will be out tonight against Clippers

The Phoenix Suns are resting some key players tonight. Via the Arizona Republic:

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams sounded as if he wasn’t completely in favor of resting players despite having the No. 1 overall seed for the playoffs and franchise record for wins in a single season locked up.

“The resting thing is that, I’m not quite sure if there is a huge benefit, because of the position we’re in with the play-in-tournament,” Williams said after Tuesday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Phoenix. “You get almost a week off and so, at some point, there’s going to be some deconditioning for the top seeds. So, I don’t think there’s a necessary benefit for resting guys right now.”

However, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker, Jae Crowder and Chris Paul are ruled out of Wednesday’s game at the Clippers (39-40) in the second of a back-to-back for the Suns (63-16).

The Suns have already wrapped up the league’s best record this season and will have homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.

Phoenix Suns through 73 games are having their best season in franchise history

PHOENIX SUNS NOTES

The Suns stand at a league-best 58-14 on the season, 9 games ahead of MEM for the best record in the NBA, and the team’s best start through 73 games of a season in franchise history.

The Suns won the Pacific Division title for the second-straight season and the 8th time in franchise history.

Phoenix has scored 125+ points in six-straight games entering tonight, a franchise record and the longest such streak in the league this season (would be 1st team with seven-straight such games since the 1988-89 Nuggets, who did so in seven-straight games).

With his 23rd point last night, Devin Booker became the fourth-yongest player in NBA history to 11,000 career points (25 years, 144 days), trailing only LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant.

The Suns hold a .829 (29-6) win percentage in road games this season, better than every team’s home win percentage.

DEVIN BOOKER totaled 28 points on 7-of-15 shooting in the Suns’ win at Minnesota last night, to go along with 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Booker attempted a season-high 16 free throws, knocking down 13 of them, which matched a season high (has now done so three times). Over the last eight games, Booker is averaging 28.1 points on 53.6 FG%, 6.6 assists and 4.5 rebounds.

ON THIS DAY IN SUNS HISTORY: On this day five years ago (March 24, 2017), DEVIN BOOKER scored a career and franchise record 70 points at Boston. Booker shot 52.5 FG% (21-of-40) in the game and added 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Booker became the sixth player in NBA history to score 70+ points in a game, joining Wilt Chamberlin (six times), Kobe Bryant, David Robinson, David Thompson and Elgin Baylor, and was the youngest to do so at 20 years, 145 days.

DEANDRE AYTON scored a game and career-high 35 points last night on 15-of-24 shooting and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Ayton scored 11 points in the fourth quarter and 19 in the second half, both of which marked personal season highs for fourthquarter and second-half scoring. The game marked Ayton’s 26th double-double of the season, his fourth-straight and seventh in the last nine games. Additionally, the game was Ayton’s second-career game with 30+ points and 10+ rebounds (33 points, 14 rebounds on Dec. 29, 2018 vs. DEN). Improving his career field goal percentage to 60.1 FG% over the last couple of games, Ayton joins Mark West and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in francbhise history with a career FG% above 60.0 (min. 500 field goal makes) while in a Suns jersey.

MIKAL BRIDGES totaled 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 6 rebounds and 3 steals last night in Minnesota. The game marked Bridges’ 13th-straight game scoring in double figures, his longest streak with 10+ points this season (previous was 12-straight spanning Jan. 28-Feb. 24).

First-place Suns fall to Jazz

The Phoenix Suns are having a great season, but their current task is to learn to keep the winning going without injured point guard Chris Paul. Here’s Arizona Sports on Sunday’s Suns loss to the Jazz:

Time to dial those expectations back a bit if you were expecting smooth sailing for the Phoenix Suns without Chris Paul (and, for the meantime, Cam Payne).

Even in a game on Sunday afternoon where they played fairly well against a very good Utah Jazz team, it just wasn’t enough, and that “enough” is a much higher bar in this situation. That brought on a 118-114 loss to Utah.

To rinse and repeat the theme from Friday, the wiggle room for a Paul-less Suns to come out with wins is cut off dramatically. The Suns can still execute to that level, and this is not to say the expectation should be .500 ball until Paul’s back, but there’s an obvious adjustment period they’re going through that we’re seeing.

Phoenix shot 51.2% from the field and 46.4% at 3-point range. But the Jazz decisively won the battles in second-chance (27-14) and bench points (43-11), putting the Suns back in an uphill journey despite the great shooting numbers.

The Suns still have a nice six-game lead on the Warriors in the West. And the Warriors are a few games up on the Grizzlies, who are three games up on the Jazz.

Suns guard Chris Paul injured, out at least 6-8 weeks

The Phoenix Suns are having the best season of any team in the league, but a big hit of bad news came out today. Via the Arizona Republic:

Chris Paul’s right thumb is going to keep him out most of the remaining season.

The Suns gave an official release that Paul has suffered a right thumb avulsion fracture in Wednesdays’ game against Houston and will be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks.

The NBA regular season ends April 10 against Sacramento.

The Suns are 48-10, placing them a full 6.5 games ahead of the 42-17 Warriors in both the Western conference and overall league standings.

Paul this season is averaging 14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 10.7 assists (best in the league) and 1.9 steals (tied for 4th best in the league) per game.