Drew Eubanks of the Suns will reportedly reject his player option to become a free agency.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday, Drew Eubanks will turn down his $2.7 million player option in order to play for the Phoenix Suns again in 2024–2025 and become a free agent.
The 27-year-old backup center, who signed with Phoenix as a veteran’s minimum player, played in 75 games with six starts in 2023–2024.
After starting for 15.6 minutes, he averaged 5.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, trailing starter Jusuf Nurkic.
The Suns pushed to give Eubanks minutes because they needed an athletic big man who could roll the rim, but Eubanks’ defensive shortcomings prevented him from gaining the respect of Frank Vogel’s former coaching staff. In a desperate attempt to stave off a Minnesota Timberwolves first-round sweep, Phoenix entirely disregarded Eubanks for an elimination game.
Wing Nassir Little was the only member of the semi-regular rotation with an on-court plus-minus lower than Eubanks (-1.4). Eubanks’ off-court plus-minus score was the highest at 4.4.
Nonetheless, given that Nurkic had the greatest on-court plus-minus (5.3) and the lowest off-court plus-minus (-1.9), some of those scores did reflect how well he played for the Suns.
After graduating from Oregon State undecided, Eubanks played his first three NBA seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. After being moved in 2022, he participated in 22 games with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021–2022, averaging 14.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in his most important professional role.
