Paul Coro

azcentral sports

The Suns made an easy call on veteran small forward P.J. Tucker, keeping him on the roster on Thursday to guarantee his full salary for next season.

Tucker, 31, only had a partial guarantee of $1.5 million for the 2016-17 season until Thursday, when his final contract year’s full salary of $5.3 million became guaranteed. Tucker’s salary already was a fair price but becomes an even more financially prudent number with the NBA's rising team salary cap.

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Tucker has been with the Suns for four seasons, starting 269 of 360 games in Phoenix. Last season, he played in all 82 games and started 80 of them with a career-high 31.0 minutes per game.

Tucker averaged 8.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals with a career-low 41.1 field goal percentage.

The 6-foot-6 forward is considered one of the team’s leaders for his on-court effort, defense-first approach and vocal ways.

Reach Paul Coro at paul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him attwitter.com/paulcoro.

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