PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns have now completely rounded out their roster of two-way spots and standard contracts.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Suns announced Friday that they have signed guard TyTy Washington to the team’s third and final two-way spot.
Valley native @tytywashington3 is returning home! pic.twitter.com/sIHXI8vbvE
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) August 2, 2024
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier in the day: “Free agent G TyTy Washington Jr., has agreed on a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns, Kevin Bradbury of @LiftSportsMNGMT tells ESPN. Washington — a 2022 first-round pick out of Kentucky — has played 42 NBA games with the Rockets and Bucks.”
Free agent G TyTy Washington Jr., has agreed on a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns, Kevin Bradbury of @LiftSportsMNGMT tells ESPN. Washington — a 2022 first-round pick out of Kentucky — has played 42 NBA games with the Rockets and Bucks. pic.twitter.com/57XX4gvxct
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 2, 2024
Washington, a native of Phoenix (played high school basketball at Cesar Chavez and AZ Compass Prep), was the 29th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft after averaging 12.5 points in one season at Kentucky. After spending his first NBA season with the Houston Rockets, where he averaged 4.7 points on 36.3% shooting and 23.8% 3-point shooting along with 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 31 games, Washington signed a two-way deal with the Bucks last summer.
This happened after he was included as a salary-matching piece in the deal that sent Dillon Brooks to Houston and Washington was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. From there, he was flipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a salary-dump deal for Patty Mills. OKC then waived him, and he signed with Milwaukee, where he averaged 1.3 points on 30% shooting in 5.1 minutes per game across 11 contests.
The 22-year-old, 6-foot-3 Washington played in 24 games for the Wisconsin Herd (Milwaukee’s G League affiliate) last season, averaging a team-high 21.3 points on 46.7% shooting from the field and 42.6% shooting from 3, 8.3 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals. The Suns hired former Wisconsin Herd head coach Chaisson Allen, who was with the Herd since 2021, as an assistant on new coach Mike Budenholzer’s staff.
In eight games with Houston’s G League affiliate in 2022, Washington averaged 26.6 points while shooting 40% from the field and 25.7% from 3, 7.8 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals.
The Suns also signed undrafted Baylor wing Jalen Bridges and former Denver Nuggets point guard Collin Gillespie to two-way contracts earlier this offseason.
Teams are allowed to add three players on two-way contracts in addition to the 15 roster spots they have available. Two-way players can only be active for 50 NBA games per season and cannot appear in playoff games.
Washington could be one of the top players for the Suns’ new G League affiliate, the Valley Suns, depending on how many games he plays between the NBA and G League.
This is the Suns’ projected depth chart with Washington
- PG: Tyus Jones, Monte Morris
- SG: Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, Damion Lee
- SF: Devin Booker, Royce O’Neale, Josh Okogie, Nassir Little
- PF:Â Kevin Durant, Bol Bol, Ryan Dunn (R)
- C: Jusuf Nurkić, Mason Plumlee, Oso Ighodaro (R)
- Two-way:Â Jalen Bridges (R), Collin Gillepsie, TyTy Washington
The Suns now go from having only Isaiah Thomas and two-way guard Saben Lee as point guards on the roster to end last season (who both didn’t play) to having Jones, Morris, Gillespie and Washington at that spot with Jones and Morris expected to be in big roles.
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
