Scola excited about chance with Phoenix

Luis Scola played five years for the Houston Rockets. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Luis Scola wasn’t particularly surprised when the Houston Rockets designated him as their amnesty player. He already knew they were going to go in a different direction.

What did catch him off-guard was the team that had the winning bid for his services.

While numerous teams were interested in Scola, the Phoenix Suns came from seemingly nowhere and snatched up the rugged forward, adding to their increasingly crowded frontcourt.

“I kind of knew I was going to be playing somewhere else,” Scola said Tuesday. “And when I found out it was Phoenix, I was a little surprised because there was a lot of talking with a lot of other teams that were supposedly going to bid. I didn’t really expect anything from Phoenix, and when they called me, I was a little bit surprised.”

Scola originally was drafted by the Spurs, who later traded his rights to the Rockets. He was a steady player in five seasons in Houston, providing solid scoring, good rebounding and plenty of scrappiness. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 15.5 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, but Houston used its amnesty clause to clear salary cap space.

Wizards waive Blatche: Washington waived Andray Blatche, designating him as the team’s amnesty player.

The move enables the Wizards to remove the $23 million remaining on Blatche’s contract from their salary cap after he failed to live up to expectations and dealt with a series of off-court incidents.

Nets re-sign Humphries: Brooklyn continued its offseason barrage of signings, agreeing to a new, two-year deal with power forward Kris Humphries.

Humphries, 27, averaged 13.8 points and 11.0 rebounds for the team in New Jersey last season.

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