NBA Free Agents 2011: Shannon Brown Joins Suns, Is Grant Hill Done in Phoenix?

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Shannon Brown has agreed to a one-year deal with the Phoenix Suns for $3.5 million.

The Cavs drafted Brown with the 25th overall pick in the 2006 draft. After bouncing around between three teams in his first three seasons, Brown finally found a home in L.A., where he played close to 20 minutes per game. Brown has been a solid scorer and defender off the bench for the Lakers but could never crack the starting lineup because he played behind Kobe Bryant. 

The Phoenix Suns signed Brown because they were in desperate need of some guard help with all of the players it appear won’t be returning from last year's team.

A recent problem we’ve seen since the lockout ended is players not being able to get out of the contracts they signed to play in China during the lockout. This has affected the Nuggets the most, with Wilson Chandler, Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith all struggling to return to the States, but the Suns are also finding themselves in a bad situation with reserve guard Aaron Brooks stuck overseas as well.

Another apparent loss from last year’s squad will be starting shooting guard Vince Carter. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein and Chris Broussard, the Suns will take advantage of a clause in Carter’s contract that allows them to waive him within 72 hours of when the free-agent window opens Friday.

This leaves the Suns short-handed at the guard position already without considering the fact that Grant Hill is still yet to re-sign with the Suns. Hill has supposedly narrowed his choices down to the Suns, Knicks, Bulls and Spurs. This can’t make Suns management confident in Hill’s return since the other three teams he’s considering all had winning records last season and made the playoffs.

Numerous reports have been coming out that Hill is leaning towards the Knicks out of the four teams, but it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet. The signing of Brown also leads me to believe Hill will leave the Suns because you know he will only sign somewhere where he will be the primary SG. This causes some conflict, though, because you also know Phoenix must have offered Brown significant playing time in order to entice him to leave the Lakers for the rebuilding Suns.

As a Knicks fan myself, I am not too excited about the possibility of adding the 39-year-old Grant Hill to the Knicks' starting rotation, but the addition of Brown to the Suns may have confirmed Hill’s departure from Phoenix.