The Suns intend to put a waiver claim on guard Jordan McRae, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
McRae and the Nuggets reached a buyout agreement on Sunday, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reporting that Phoenix would likely be his destination.
McRae, 28, started the season with Washington and was traded to Denver last month. He averaged 12.8 points in 29 games with the Wizards, shooting 42% from the floor and 38% from 3-point range.
The Suns have lost three straight games and currently own the third-worst record in the Western Conference at 24-37. McRae previously spent time with Phoenix back in 2016, signing two 10-day contracts with the organization.
Because McRae is on a minimum-salary contract, the Suns can use the minimum salary exception to place a claim on him. Doing so will give the team his Early Bird rights at season’s end, and won’t cost any extra money, since Phoenix will only have to pay the prorated salary left on his deal. The Nuggets, meanwhile, will get to remove McRae’s cap hit from their books entirely, giving them some extra flexibility below the tax line.
there has been so many players returning to one of their old teams this season. add this one to the list!
With Wendell Carter apparently wanting to move to PF maybe the Suns would be interested in either him or Lauri Markeneen whoever is the odd man out in that situation.
Markeneen would give them better floor spacing which would be nice but Carter would be good for him defence. Both would fit nicely next to DeAndre Ayton and would be a great building block for that team.
Plus they have trade pieces with Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, this years high first round pick, Jerome, Okobo or sign and trade Saric.
Saric and Johnson for either of the two would be a good deal
The Suns aren’t interested in anyone who plays defense. It fact, they seem to actively AVOID that type of player.
Aron Baynes says stop generalizing
Carter Jr and Ayton would be such a solid duo especially with Booker and Oubre providing lots of the scoring at SG and SF. Then in the draft this year they could get a young back up PG (Mannion, Anthony, Hampton, Maxey, Hayes) with lots of options.
Then off the bench to go with your young PG hopefully keep some good young prices like Bridges Kaminsky and so on
Luke, don’t Bird rights get knocked back one tier upon a waiver claim (so McRae has EBR with WAS/DEN currently, but would that drop to NBR w/ PHX)?
That happens for players with full Bird rights when they’re claimed on waivers (they revert to EBR). But players with EBR or NBR keep those same rights when they’re claimed.