Age:
32
Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
Birthday: Aug. 24, 1979
Height: 6-6
Weight: 215
Position: SG
Experience: 11
Draft: 2000, 43rd overall by Milwaukee
College: Ohio State
2011-12 Salary: $1,050,000
Consult our advanced stats page for a glossary and discussion of the preceding metrics.
2011-12 Season Outlook: The Suns are well-aware that Michael Redd won’t serve as Phoenix’s knight in shining armor. At 32 years old, he’s fresh off of two major knee surgeries that limited him to only 28 games over the last two seasons.
That doesn’t mean Redd can’t help the Suns, however. Redd’s mobility is most likely damaged forever, but he made his living as a set shooter, and that stroke is most likely more than intact. He’ll spread the floor for the Suns and give Nash one more shooter to choose from, while serving as a low-risk solution to Phoenix’s perimeter scoring woes.
The days of 20-point per game seasons and Team USA stints are long gone, but with Phoenix’s heralded training staff, Redd should be able to carve out a niche with the Suns as a shooter and quick-strike scoring option. — Mike Schmitz
Biography: Michael Redd has gone from a second-round afterthought to an Olympian with a 20 points per game career scoring average entering 2011-12. Before knee injuries felled him, Redd established himself as one of the elite scorers of the 2000s. Redd ranked in the top 11 in the NBA in scoring all five years between 2003-08 and he averaged 20 or more in six straight seasons from 2003-09; only 10 NBA players scored more points in that span. He also earned his only All-Star berth in 2003-04, when he was named All-NBA third team.
Redd, a career 38.3 percent three-point shooter entering 2011-12, is one of nine NBA players to hit over 1,000 three with one team (Milwaukee). He increased his scoring average in each of his first seven NBA campaigns, culminating in his 26.7 ppg average in 2006-07 that ranked fifth in the league. Thanks to his prolific jump shooting abilities he was chosen as a member of the US Olympic “Redeem Team” in 2008 that earned a gold medal.
However, Redd was never really the same after that summer as he played a total of 61 games the next three seasons due to tearing the ACL and MCL in his left knee in both 2008-09 and 2009-10. Thus he provided the Bucks little bang on the back end of his six-year, $91 million contract that expired after the 2010-11 season and then he signed a one-year veteran’s minimum deal with the Suns two games into the 2011-12 season.
Redd grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and played his collegiate career for the hometown Ohio State Buckeyes. He teamed with Scoonie Penn to form a superb backcourt that led OSU to the 1999 Final Four before the Buckeyes lost to eventual champion UConn in that round. Redd averaged 19.6 points and 6.2 boards a game as a Buckeye and earned honorable mention All-American honors as a sophomore and junior.
Links to ValleyoftheSuns coverage of Redd:
Phoenix Suns’ signing of former All-Star Michael Redd a low risk situation