{"id":84426,"date":"2024-07-03T12:33:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T16:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84426"},"modified":"2024-07-03T12:51:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T16:51:21","slug":"phoenix-suns-re-sign-former-champion-to-one-year-deal-damion-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/03\/phoenix-suns-re-sign-former-champion-to-one-year-deal-damion-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns Re-Sign Former Champion to One-Year Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to ESPN&#8217;s Adrian Wojnarowski, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/phoenix-suns-looking-for-backup-point-guard-targeting-3-veterans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix Suns<\/a> have re-signed guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leeda03.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damion Lee<\/a> to a one-year contract. Lee became an unrestricted free agent after declining his $2.8 million player option. News of Lee re-signing with Phoenix comes less than 24 hours after the team signed free agent guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/morrimo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Monte Morris<\/a> to a one-year deal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Free agent guard Damion Lee is returning to the Phoenix Suns on a one-year deal, sources tell ESPN. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wHcqunaKm9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/wHcqunaKm9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1808534967380488359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Lee joined the Suns as a free agent during the 2022 NBA offseason after four years with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/03\/warriors-finalizing-trade-klay-thompson-replacement-buddy-hield\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Golden State Warriors<\/a>. In his first year with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/03\/phoenix-suns-expected-to-re-sign-7-year-nba-veteran-royce-oneale\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix<\/a>, the one-time NBA champion appeared in 74 games, starting five of them. In those games, he averaged 8.2 points, 3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. Furthermore, he shot 44.2% from the field and 44.5% from the three-point line. His 3FG% during the 2022-23 season ranked third in the NBA. Only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kennalu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Kennard<\/a> (49.4%) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/horfoal01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Al Horford<\/a> (44.6%) ranked higher.<\/p>\n<p>After a solid season, Lee suffered a knee injury during training camp. This caused Lee to miss the entire 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<h2>Phoenix Suns Re-Sign Former Champion to One-Year Deal<\/h2>\n<h3>Damion Lee Lee Offers a Lot to the Suns<\/h3>\n<p>Although he is just a role player for the Suns, Lee proved to be valuable in his first season with the team. The Maryland native is a good three-point shooter and even provides size as a 6&#8217;5&#8243; guard. Furthermore, he is a solid rebounder and can create his own shot. Additionally, although he is not a great defender, Lee can hold his own and contribute at times.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Lee&#8217;s championship experience is a boost for the Suns as well. Besides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilleco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Collin Gillespie<\/a> (who is on a two-way contract), Lee is the only member of the Suns roster with a championship. For a team like Phoenix, who is contending for a championship now, Lee&#8217;s experience could be useful. In <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/06\/16\/warriors-claim-2022-title-over-celtics-nba-finals-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Golden State&#8217;s 2022 championship run<\/a>, Lee appeared in 16 games, averaging 7.8 minutes per game.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word on Damion Lee<\/h3>\n<p>Re-signing Lee is a good move for Phoenix, especially for one season. He is a veteran with championship experience and is a good role player. Lee will turn 32 years old in October. After missing the entire 2023-24 season, it will be interesting to see how he comes back from his knee injury. Regardless, a reunion makes sense for both sides and is very low-risk, high-reward. Last season, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/30\/phoenix-suns-2023-24-and-miami-2010-11-similar-big-threes\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Suns<\/a> finished with a 49-33 record. As the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, the team got swept by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/minnesota-timberwolves-free-agent-far-apart-in-discussions-kyle-anderson\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in the first round. Although having Lee back will not move the needle too much for the Suns, it is a good signing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to ESPN&#8217;s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Phoenix Suns have re-signed guard Damion Lee to a one-year contract. Lee became an unrestricted free agent after declining his $2.8 million player option. News of Lee re-signing with Phoenix comes less than 24 hours after the team signed free agent guard Monte Morris to a one-year deal. Free [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":77113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,62,3,28],"tags":[49059,250,1731,2794,69,769,2157],"class_list":["post-84426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","tag-2024-nba-free-agents","tag-al-horford","tag-collin-gillespie","tag-damion-lee","tag-kevin-durant","tag-luke-kennard","tag-monte-morris"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}