Suns Assign Clark to Iowa of D-League

The Phoenix Suns today assigned rookie forward Earl Clark to the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League, it was announced today by Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Steve Kerr.

"He hasn't been able to play extended minutes in all the games so we looked at the schedule and Iowa is in a situation where they'll play three games in four days," Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry said. "We thought about sending him down all year, but wanted to keep him up for the practice situations and things such as that.

"But with those three games there and being able to play extended minutes, we thought that would be able to help him. He's got a real bright future here and we want to do everything we can to help him become a better player and we just thought at this time for him to go down and play, it might really help him and help our team down the road somewhere."

The 6-10, 225-pound Clark was selected by the Suns with the 14th overall pick (first round) of the 2009 NBA Draft and has appeared in 45 games this season for Phoenix. Clark will spend his first stint in the D-League.

The three-year standout at the University of Louisville, Clark owns averages of 2.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 7.6 minutes this season for the Suns. Clark has scored in double figures three times in 2009-10, including a career-high 14 points off the bench Nov. 27 at Minnesota.