Haywood Highsmith has agreed to a one-year deal to return to the Phoenix Suns, less than a week after being waived by the team.
Highsmith's agent, Jerry Dianis, confirmed the agreement to ESPN's Shams Charania.
The 29-year-old forward appeared in seven regular-season games for Phoenix last season after joining the Suns during the second half of the campaign.
At first glance, this is a strange transaction.
Phoenix waived Haywood Highsmith and then brought him back only days later, which makes it look as though the Suns changed their minds almost immediately.
The more interesting explanation is that the roster spot was only part of the story. The contract mattered too.
Highsmith's previous deal contained guaranteed money and an injury-related contract provision, so moving on from that agreement gave Phoenix the chance to restructure its commitment before deciding whether to bring him back.
That turns what looks like an odd reversal into a fairly sensible piece of roster management.
For the Suns, Highsmith still fills a useful role. He is not being brought back to create offence or become a major part of the scoring hierarchy. His value is much simpler: defence, versatility and familiarity.
At 6-foot-5, Highsmith has built his NBA career by defending across multiple positions and accepting the sort of assignments that rarely show up prominently in a box score. That fits particularly well with a Phoenix team that has been trying to establish a more physical defensive identity.
His previous spell with the Suns was too small to draw major conclusions from. Highsmith played only seven regular-season games for Phoenix and averaged 5.4 points in limited minutes.
That is why this deal should not be judged on those numbers alone.
The attraction is that Phoenix already knows what type of player it is bringing back. Highsmith does not need touches, does not require the offence to be designed around him and can be used selectively depending on match-ups.
That becomes particularly useful over an 82-game season.
The Suns have Dillon Brooks taking many of the toughest perimeter assignments, but asking one player to carry that burden every night is unrealistic. Having another experienced defensive forward available gives Phoenix more flexibility with line-ups and allows the coaching staff to protect its main rotation when injuries or foul trouble hit.
There is also very little long-term risk attached to the move.
A one-year agreement allows Phoenix to retain a known role player without tying up future seasons or pretending Highsmith is something he is not. If he earns regular minutes, the Suns have acquired useful defensive depth. If he does not, they have not committed themselves to a long contract.
That makes the sequence of transactions more understandable than it initially appeared.
Phoenix did not necessarily decide that waiving Highsmith was a mistake. It appears to have used the waiver process to reset the contractual relationship and then brought back a player it still valued under terms that better suited the organisation.
LEAN EDGE VERDICT: This is not a signing that changes Phoenix's ceiling, but it is the sort of low-risk roster move that can quietly improve depth. The Suns kept a familiar defensive option while reducing the long-term commitment attached to him. Waiving Highsmith and re-signing him days later looked odd on the surface. From a roster-flexibility standpoint, it makes considerably more sense.