Aaron Holiday traded from Wizards to Phoenix Suns for cash
Feb 10, 2022, 12:54 PM | Updated: 6:54 pm
The Phoenix Suns have acquired point guard Aaron Holiday from the Washington Wizards in exchange for cash considerations, the team announced Thursday.
The news was first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
As a result of Phoenix’s two deadline-day deals, the team has waived forward Abdel Nader and released forward Justin Jackson.
Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro reports they will take on his salary by using a disabled player exception created by Dario Saric’s contract. Saric has not played this season due to an ACL tear suffered in the NBA Finals last July.
That means the Suns were granted the exception by the NBA, meaning Saric’s availability thorugh June 15 is in question.
Phoenix already had filled 15 players on the roster and will need to cut a player on the current roster to make space.
Holiday, in his first year with Washington, shot a career-high 47% from the field and averaged 6.1 points and 1.9 assists per game.
He is the brother of NBA players Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks and Justin Holiday of the Sacramento Kings.
The 25-year-old out of UCLA, who went 23rd overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Indiana Pacers.
Holiday is on a $4 million contract and will be a restricted free agent following this season if the Suns opt to pick up a qualifying offer. If the team does so, it would count $5.8 million against the salary cap until he is re-signed or on a new team.
Holiday’s best NBA season came in 2019-20, when he averaged 24.5 minutes per game while starting 33 of 66 games played during the shortened pandemic year. The 6-foot guard averaging 9.5 points and 3.4 assists while shooting 41% overall and 39% from three-point range.
With Phoenix, Holiday slots in as another ball-handler. He could compete with Cam Payne, Landry Shamet and Elfrid Payton as a offensive initiator behind the All-Star starting backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker.
It’s the Suns’ second move before the 1 p.m. Thursday trade deadline, as they dealt big man Jalen Smith and a future second-round pick to the Indiana Pacers to reacquire Torrey Craig, who helped Phoenix to the NBA Finals last year.
