Suns waive injured Frank Kaminsky, opening playoff roster spot for Ish Wainright

Thursday afternoon, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Phoenix Suns would waive Frank Kaminsky:

Kaminsky averaged 10.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in the nine games he played during his second season in Phoenix. Before missing the team’s last 67 games, his best game was on Nov. 10 vs Portland when he totaled 31 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.

While Kaminsky continued to bring great vibes to the organization, he wasn’t going to play again after right knee surgery.

The move opens up a playoff roster spot that could be given to two-way contract forward Ish Wainright, who had a career night vs the Clippers last night.

This morning, Bright Side editor Dave King wrote:

Ish’s greatest skills for this playoff run appear to be the following:
— defensive ballast against burly wings
— occasional corner three-point shot making
— excited cheerleader and teammate
If the Suns want to release one of the players above, they could sign Ish to a contract for the remainder of the season to allow him on the playoff roster. The salary impact would be negligible, even to ownership, because they would just keep paying Ish at the same rate they’ve been paying all season (rookie minimum).

Wainright would mark the first two-way contract to be converted to the playoff roster in the James Jones era; past two-way contracts during that span include Iffe Lundberg (21-22), Ty-Shon Alexander (20-21), and Tariq Owens (19-20).

Ideally, a forward at the end of the rotation (likely 12th or 13th man at best) won’t play in the playoffs, but the injury insurance in case any of the main wings goes down could end up being huge. Any depth in that area helps.