Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2025 Free Agents - Damion Lee
Lee has shown he can provide some decent rotational minutes in recent seasons. He's a career 38% three-point shooter, and lit it up in '22-'23, hitting 45% from three, including 53% from the corners. Lee isn't just a spot-up shooter either, as he can hit tough ones on-the-move or off-the-dribble, although he has had to take fewer of those during the last few seasons on contending Warriors and Suns teams. Lee has shown some ability as a spark-plug creator, while also providing value as a spot-up threat off-the-ball. However, he doesn't really make plays for others, and hardly gets to the rim. Lee will be 31 years old as a free agent in 2024, and I wouldn't expect him to get any long-term offers for performance reasons as much as age reasons. He was mostly out of the rotation for the Warriors in the 2022 playoffs, and while he played really well for the Suns in the '22-'23 regular season, his minutes declined as the season went on and he was mostly out of the playoff rotation in 2023. Lee had knee surgery in October and did not play at all in '23-'24.
Summary
Lee will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.3 million cap hold and Full Bird rights, meaning the Suns will have no restrictions on re-signing him. Since the Suns will be operating over the salary cap, and since his starting salary is unlikely to be more than the minimum, his cap hold is not really relevant. Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Lee as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Lee only gets minimum offers.
Cap Considerations
Seth Curry (1 year minimum, 2024) Joe Ingles (1 year minimum, 2024) Svi Mykhailiuk (4-3 years, $15 million, 2024)