The Phoenix Suns continued filling out their roster with a pair of minor moves on Wednesday.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Cheick Diallo agreed to a two-year deal with the Suns. The three-year veteran didn't receive a qualifying offer from the New Orleans Pelicans this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. He averaged 6.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in 14.0 minutes over 64 appearances with New Orleans last season, all career-highs. Diallo also shot a personal-best 62.0 percent from the field, an especially impressive showing because he expanded his offensive arsenal to include mid-range jumpers.
At 6-foot-9, 220 pounds, Diallo lacks the sheer size to log major minutes at center, but isn't quite fleet footed enough to play power forward. Despite his improvement as a shooter from just outside the paint, he's still woefully ill-equipped from a skill perspective to play power forward in today's NBA. As such, his ceiling is limited to backup center, but a quality one at that, with long arms, innate shot-blocking ability, and a developing offensive game with clear room to grow.
Expect Diallo to begin the season behind Aron Baynes as Phoenix's first traditional big man off the bench, with the chance to get more playing time as the season progresses.
Also on Wednesday, the Suns signed guard Jared Harper to a two-way contract, according to Gina Mizell of The Athletic. The Auburn product went undrafted in June, but thrived for Phoenix's Summer League squad, averaging 10.5 points, 2.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game.
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