PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns have reached an agreement with forward P.
Markus Hannikainen Jersey .J. Tucker on a three-year contract worth $16.5 million with the third year only partially guaranteed. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the contract details on Thursday, requesting anonymity because the deal had not been officially announced. Tucker was the top defender and acknowledged leader in the Suns surprising turnaround last season. He was a restricted free agent and several teams had shown an interest in him. Tuckers agreement was first reported by azcentral sports, which includes the Arizona Republic. The person also confirmed that restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas visited the Suns on Thursday with more meetings set for Friday. The Suns envision Thomas as a third point guard behind the double-point guard starting duo of Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe. Adding Thomas would create a crowd at point guard. The Suns also have Ish Smith, second-year pro Archie Goodwin and first-round draft pick Tyler Ennis at the position. Thomas averaged 20.3 points and 6.3 assists last season with the Sacramento Kings, who are not expected to match any significant offer sheet he signs. Phoenix, with a load of cap space and a talented young roster, made a long-shot run at LeBron James before turning its attention elsewhere. The person emphasized that the talks with Thomas are unrelated to Bledsoes situation. Bledsoe is a restricted free agent but general manager Ryan McDonough has said the Suns would match any offer sheet he signs. The Suns are attempting to reach an agreement with Bledsoe before he inks any offer. Bledsoes agent, Rich Paul, also represents James, and could be occupied by those negotiations. Tucker was the heart of the energized Suns team that went 48-34 and just missed the playoffs in the tough Western Conference. Tucker, who played at Texas and helped recruit Kevin Durant to the Longhorns, was with Toronto as a rookie in 2006-07, then played in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy and Germany before coming to the Suns in 2012. The 6-foot-5 small forward started all but one game, averaging a career-high 9.4 points per game. He shot 39 per cent from 3-point range, almost always from the corner. Earlier, Phoenix lost forward Channing Frye, who agreed to a contract with the Orlando Magic.
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Columbus Blue Jackets Jerseys . The punch happened in the fourth quarter of Milwaukees 116-102 loss to the Kings on Wednesday when the two players became entangled while battling for rebounding position.OAKLAND, Calif. -- With the Texas rotation ravaged by injuries early in the season, Martin Perez has more than filled the void. Perez pitched his second consecutive shutout to extend his scoreless innings streak to 26 and the Texas Rangers wrapped up a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 3-0 victory Wednesday. "Hes been the glue," manager Ron Washington said. "Hes held it together. Hes the one guy in that rotation whos been in it from last year who hasnt had a blip yet." The Rangers have been without Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis already at times this season but still find themselves in first place thanks to some strong play from fill-ins and major improvement from Perez. Perez (4-0) outpitched Sonny Gray (3-1) in a heralded matchup of emerging stars, allowing just three hits and two walks in his first start since throwing a three-hitter against the White Sox for his first career shutout. "I dont want to think too much about my ERA and the games that Ive thrown before," Perez said. "Im going to focus on my game today. We had a great game." Perez, who also threw eight scoreless innings against Houston on April 13, is the first Rangers pitcher to have three straight scoreless starts since Kenny Rogers had four straight over 30 innings in 2005. Perez also joined Charlie Hough in 1983 as the only Texas pitchers to have three straight starts of at least eight scoreless innings. "He knows how to pitch," Washington said. "He has weapons and he can throw them all for strikes and he has poise. He does a great job of staying with the game plan and thats something that hes learned from last year, how to study, how to go out there and just execute his pitches." Donnie Murphy homered and Michael Choice scored one run and drove in another for the Rangers, who moved a half-game ahead of Oakland in the AL West with their first sweep of the As since August 2011..
David Savard Blue Jackets Jersey. . The As never even threatened Perez on their way to getting swept at home for the first time since September 2012 against the Angels, ending a streak of 32 straight home series with at least one win. "Youre going to have your little lumps in the road," As third baseman Josh Donaldson said. "Everybody knows that here. We just have to come back." Oakland got leadoff singles from Jed Lowrie in the fourth and Derek Norris in the fifth for its first two hits off Perez. But Perez followed each of those hits by getting the next batter to hit into a double play, giving him a major league-leading 11 groundball double plays. Donaldson doubled with one out in the seventh, but was stranded there when Alberto Callaspo grounded out with runners on first and second to end the inning. "He keeps the ball off the barrel of the bat," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Hes pitched really well this year. The reason he can get deep in games is hes not striking a lot of guys out, hes just keeping it off the barrel of the bat." Gray allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to end a six-game winning streak in the regular season dating to last September. He fell behind when Choice led the game off with a walk and scored on Alex Rios triple. The Rangers were poised for a possible big inning when Rios was originally ruled safe at home on a grounder Lowrie at shortstop. But Melvin challenged the call and Rios was ruled out on instant replay. Choice, traded from Oakland to Texas in the off-season, added an RBI single in the fifth and Murphy hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to make it 3-0. NOTES: Rangers 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff was held out with a sore back. ... Scott Kazmir (2-0) will take the mound against Brett Oberholtzer (0-3) on Thursday when Oakland opens a four-game series in Houston. ... Texas is off Thursday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle on Friday. ' ' '