New Phoenix Sun Sonny Weems improved his game while away from the NBA

Sonny Weems joining the Phoenix Suns was a bit of a surprise.

And why shouldn’t it have been? The last time he suited up for an NBA team was in 2011, when he was putting the finishing touches on his second season with the Toronto Raptors.

Weems averaged 9.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game that season, but instead of sticking around in the NBA decided to take his game overseas.

Last season, playing for CSKA Moscow, he averaged 11.5 points and 3.5 assists on .464 shooting.

The 29-year-old Weems told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM playing in Europe really wasn’t all that bad.

“It turned out to be a great situation for me,” he said. “And now I’m signed to a two-year contract with the Phoenix Suns, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.”

A second-round pick of the Chicago Bulls in 2008, the 6-foot-6, 203-pound Weems said his game grew while he was away from the NBA.

“Being in Europe, it was an experience I had to learn,” he said. “You have to learn how to become an all-around basketball player. You have to learn how to play the half-court basketball game.

“And that’s one thing, you have to learn how to use pick-and-rolls, you have to read the game a lot more over there, and that’s one thing that I learned over there.”

Yet, Weems would not recommend his path to everyone. He said he was able to play at one of the higher levels of European basketball, which made things better, but players without the kind of resume he had would likely struggle.

The NBA, he said, is about what about a player can do for them now, while in Europe it’s about what they have done in the past. Over there, he notes, the mentality is more of it being a privilege for a player to be on a team than the team to have the player.

But though his career took a slight detour, Weems is now back in the NBA looking to make an impact for the Suns. He wouldn’t be the first player — his new teammate P.J. Tucker being a prime example — to go from a relative unknown to key cog in the organization. It really just comes down to whether or not he can help them win.

“Great on the ball defense, great off the ball defense, help side defense, I know how to use the pick-and-rolls, I know how to find open teammates, I rebound the ball, I run in transition,” Weems said when asked what he brings to Suns. “I’m just a totally different player from four years ago than I am now.

“I’m totally different. My game has improved a lot more, my game has developed a lot more. I’m shooting the ball a lot better. I’m handling the ball a lot better. It’s just only so much that I can say, I think, just only come in and show you guys what I have.”