Suns sign Damion Lee as Phoenix makes first free agency move

Outside of seeing former members of the team sign with different franchises, the Phoenix Suns have been relatively quiet through the first two days of free agency. JaVale McGee? In Dallas. Aaron Holiday? ATL.

That silence has been broken.

Phoenix has officially made their first move in free agency 2022. While the team is at the center of discussions relative to landing spots for Kevin Durant, James Jones still has one glaring need for this team: fill out the bench, add depth, and improve a roster that played splendidly during the regular season. Not so much in the playoffs.

The Suns opted to sign Damion Lee to a one-year deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Lee, who is married to the sister of Steph and Seth Curry, was part of the Golden State Warriors team that just won a title, although his contributions to that championship were minimal. He is a career 35.7% shooter from beyond the arc and, with a 6’5” frame, brings some size to the second unit of the Suns.

The 29-year old Lee began his college career at Drexel, and after playing well for the Dragons, suffered an ACL injury during his junior season. Upon recovering from the ordeal, and redshirting that junior season, he fractured his right hand. He would transfer to Louisville and finish his collegiate career under Rick Pitino.

He was undrafted in the 2016 NBA Draft and bounced around prior to earning a 10 day contract with the Atlanta Hawks. That opportunity would be extended for the remainder of the 2017-18 season.

Lee, following a 10 day contract offer from Golden State, would spend the next season between the Warriors’ NBA affiliate and G League team, trying to earn his way into the NBA. The chance Lee needed came via injury, as he garnered plenty of playing time in 2019-20 with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry out of the lineup.

In 2019-20, Lee averaged 12.7 points as he started 36 of his 49 games in the COVID-shortened season. He has spent the last two seasons averaging 19.5 minutes in 120 games for the Warriors.

Damion Lee has proven to be a solid bench player who can provide instant offense on occasion. He dropped 22 points last season against the Miami Heat this past March.

He possesses a scorer’s mentality, and would seemingly assume the role that Landry Shamet currently fills. He can score in a variety of different ways, although he can be inconsistent, as most bench players are. He excels at shooting from the left corner, making 41.5% of his attempts from that spot on the floor.

Make no mistake about it, Lee likes to shoot the three-ball. 49% of his shots were from deep last season. Part of that is due to being in a system like Golden State, but that is where he is comfortable.

This addition adds speculation as to whether or not Landry is being shopped in a deal that could bring Kevin Durant to the valley.

Welcome to Damion Lee, and seeing as you have always donned the number one, it’ll be interesting to see what number you pick.