The Phoenix Suns seem to have woken up after a quiet first day of free agency. With teams around the league making moves, the Suns seemed to be a little too quiet. Boy, were we wrong.
The rumored 5 year, 70 million dollar contract for Brandon Knight became official this morning, per Yahoo sports. This contract is identical to the one Eric Bledsoe signed last summer and the Suns are more than happy to lock up Brandon Knight for five years. The 23-year-old combo guard averaged 17 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds per game last season while also shooting threes at a 40% clip.
A few hours later, ESPN's Marc Stein reported that the Suns had then signed Tyson Chandler, free agent center of the Dallas Mavericks, to a 4 year, 52 million dollar deal. The 32-year-old big man is exactly what this young, inexperienced Suns team needed. He is a former NBA Champion and will immediatly have the respect of one of the youngest locker rooms in the league. He averged 10 points, 11.5 rebounds per game last season on 66% shooting from the field.
The biggest news of the day comes from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who reported that Tyson Chandler is with the Suns brass in Los Angeles today helping them recruit free-agent power forward Lamarcus Aldridge. Lamarcus Aldridge seems to have his mind set on the Spurs, but that was before the Suns signed former NBA champion Tyson Chandler and re-signed up and coming point guard Brandon Knight. The Suns are trying to sell Aldridge on the fact that he would become the face of the franchise, play with a defensive minded center that complements his game, and two near-all-star point guards.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports tweeted that Aldridge was "very engaged" during his two-hour meeting with the Suns. In that meeting, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, and newly-acquired Tyson Chandler were present, along with plenty of Suns brass. Earl Watson, new member of Phoenix's coaching staff and long time friend and former teammate of Lamarcus was also present.
While it is an extreme long shot that the Suns will sign Lamarcus Aldridge, they already improved the team by bringing in just what the team needed in Chandler. A veteran voice in the locker room was stressed as something that needed to be adressed this summer by the Suns front-office. They also re-signed Brandon Knight to a contract of good value with no opt out clauses. It will be interesting to see if they entice All-Star power forward Lamarcus Aldridge enough to sign. What seemed like a slow start to free agency for the Suns has bolted out full speed ahead.