The former Duke guard is an elite vertical athlete could have some untapped potential.
The Valley Suns on Wednesday announced a trade for former Duke guard Cassius Stanley in a six-team deal that saw the Suns give up the returning player rights of Gary Clark and a 2025 second-round pick.
Clark will head to the Wisconsin Herd — who traded for former Phoenix Suns forward Marquese Chriss two days earlier — while the pick will land with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
The Memphis Hustle, Indiana Mad Ants, and Mexico City Capitanes were also involved in the deal.
Stanley was a one-and-done at Duke after showing NBA-level athleticism, but the NBA-level skill has never really matched it to this point.
He played 33 games across his first two NBA seasons and also appeared in the 2021 Slam Dunk Contest. He has not played in the NBA since.
He appeared in 75 G League games over the next two years and had his best 3-point shooting stretch, hitting 72 out of 193 attempts (37.3%) over 47 regular season games (4.1 attempts per game).
Last year, he went overseas to play for the Israeli league’s Hapoel Afula, where he played in 22 games with a much-less impressive 29.1% from 3-point range.
The Suns would likely be focused on getting him back to the positive trajectory his shooting was on late in his G League run, but there remains untapped potential given the athleticism.
Changes of scenery can be helpful, but I wouldn’t count on him contributing at the NBA level anytime in the near future, rather someone who can provide highlights in the short term and upside developments in the long term.