2014–15 Phoenix Suns season

Key dates

Draft picks

The Phoenix Suns had three first round picks and one second round pick this season. Their highest first round pick (the 14th pick) was their own that was also a part of the NBA draft lottery. Both of the extra draft picks the Suns had this season involved trades the Suns made last season. The 18th pick came from the Washington Wizards by the Suns trading Marcin Gortat, Kendall Marshall, Shannon Brown, and Malcolm Lee, with Phoenix also getting the rights of Emeka Okafor out of it. Their 27th pick, however, came from the Indiana Pacers due to the Suns trading power forward Luis Scola, with Phoenix also gaining Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee in the process, both of whom would be beneficial to their improvement from the 2012–13 season. The lone second round pick they have is also the pick they had on their own accord due to their 48–34 record being one of the best in the NBA that past season. Before the draft came up, the Suns also had two other second round draft picks they had acquired from trades with the Los Angeles Lakers (Steve Nash for four draft picks and cash) and the Toronto Raptors (Sebastian Telfair for Hamed Haddadi and Toronto's second round pick) in the 2012–13 season (the last season Lance Blanks was the Suns' general manager). However, both of those second rounders went to the Milwaukee Bucks due to the former first being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a three–way trade that had the Suns getting rid of Robin Lopez and Hakim Warrick for the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for taking on a one–year deal with Wesley Johnson and the possibility of having a future Timberwolves first round pick (which would eventually get traded anyways) before being involved with Milwaukee in a later three–way trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the latter being involved with the Suns' own three–way trade with the Bucks and the Los Angeles Clippers in acquiring Eric Bledsoe (and Caron Butler) in exchange for Jared Dudley.

With the 14th pick, Phoenix selected T.J. Warren, a sophomore from North Carolina State University. Warren averaged 24.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, which earned him ACC Player of the Year and consensus second team All–American honors.The Suns also selected Canadian–born Tyler Ennis, a freshman from the Syracuse University with the 18th pick. Ennis averaged 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 2.1 steals in 35.7 minutes per game. Phoenix then selected the Serbian international prospect Bogdan Bogdanović of Partizan Belgrade as their 27th pick. Bogdanović averaged 14.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and assists, and 1.6 steals in 31.4 minutes per game for Partizan Belgrade, which helped him win the Euroleague's Rising Star award and the Basketball League of Serbia's Finals MVP award (as well as multiple international championships beforehand). Finally, with their 50th pick in the second round, the Suns decided to select Alec Brown, a senior from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Brown averaged 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks in his final season with the Phoenix, was named All–Horizon League first team, and won the Horizon League's Defensive Player of the Year award. He also co-led the Horizon League in career blocks with 309 total blocks, scored 1,678 points and grabbed 800 rebounds during his time in Green Bay.

Free agency

Veteran players Emeka Okafor and Leandro Barbosa, as well as the newly signed Shavlik Randolph, Ishmael "Ish" Smith, and Dionte Christmas all became unrestricted free agents as of the end of the 2013–14 NBA season. In addition, both co-star point guard Eric Bledsoe and P.J. Tucker ended up being restricted free agents as well. Not only that, but on June 22, 2014, Channing Frye decided to decline his final year of his contract he had earlier on with the team and decided to pursue free agency as well. On July 7, 2014, Frye ended up signing a 4-year, $32 million contract to play for the Orlando Magic. During the July Moratorium (July 10), the Suns re–signed P.J. Tucker to a three–year contract worth $16.5 million. Ish Smith became a free agent on July 15, 2014 during the deadline for teams to decide on whether they want to make Smith's, Randolph's, and Christmas' non-guaranteed contracts become fully guaranteed this season; Smith signed with the Houston Rockets three days later. Meanwhile, Shavlik Randolph's $1.23 million contract became guaranteed on July 17. A week later, Dionte Christmas was waived from the team. Leandro Barbosa left to sign a one-year veteran's minimum contract with the Golden State Warriors on August 28, 2014. On September 10, 2014, Dionte Christmas joined the New Orleans Pelicans. The only player to have not been signed at all was Emeka Okafor due to his injury problems and was originally planning to fully recover sometime around the 2015–16 NBA season. However, as of February 13, 2017, Okafor would not a find a new team to play for yet.

After trying to woo the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and even Chris Bosh to sign with the Suns, they ended up pursuing the likes of different free agents that were going under the radar at the time. For starters, a day after the Suns got P.J. Tucker to agree with a new deal for the Suns, the Sacramento Kings' point guard Isaiah Thomas ended up agreeing to a four-year contract worth $27 million. However, to ensure the Suns got Thomas, they agreed to trade last season's second round pick Alex Oriakhi and a traded player exception worth $7 million in order to make sure the Kings didn't match their offer since Thomas was still a restricted free agent at the time. On July 16, 2014, the Suns signed power forward Anthony Tolliver, who had played for the Charlotte Bobcats back when they were named that before they became the new Charlotte Hornets, a two-year contract worth $6 million, with his second year only having $400,000 guaranteed with his contract. After the 2014 FIBA World Championship ended for Goran Dragić's team in Slovenia, the Suns planned on getting his brother Zoran Dragić on a contract buyout from Unicaja Málaga in Spain on September 12, 2014. The planned buyout involves the Suns paying $600,000 for the $1,100,000 required by the team, while Goran helped pay his brother the rest that was required for his buyout. The transaction was completed on September 24, 2014; he signed a two-year contract worth $4,012,500. Finally, after months of inactivity and even a trade rumor relating to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Suns and Eric Bledsoe met over a new contract on September 23, 2014 finally agreeing to a five-year contract worth $70 million a day later. The new contract was the biggest since 2006 with Boris Diaw's 5-year, $45 million deal. Six days later, the Suns extended the contracts of Markieff and Marcus Morris to 4 year contracts worth $32 million and $20 million respectively.

On August 26, 2014, the Suns decided to sign both former Suns player Earl Barron (who last played for the New York Knicks) and the undrafted Casey Prather from the Florida Gators to non-guaranteed contracts for training camp. After that, the Suns signed the undrafted Joe Jackson from the Memphis Tigers under that same sort of deal. The Suns also signed Jamil Wilson of the Marquette Golden Eagles in September as well. However, the Suns waived Wilson, Jackson, and Prather from the team on October 14, 2014, while Barron was waived on October 25, 2014 after battling Shavlik Randolph (and Anthony Tolliver) for the final roster spot; everyone that would be waived after the pre-season would end up playing in the affiliate Bakersfield Jam soon afterwards. Funnily enough, though, Barron would end up signing up with the Suns again on February 20, 2015 well after both Shavlik and Anthony left the team in different trades. This time in his second stint with the Suns, however, they would first give him a 10-day contract to test out how Earl would do this time around. After succeeding in his initial test with limited playing time, the Suns would give him a second 10-day contract on March 3, 2015 before keeping him for the rest of the season on March 13, 2015. Around the time Earl was playing in his second 10-day contract, the Suns would sign Stephen Curry's brother Seth Curry to a 10-day contract on March 10, 2015 after an injury Brandon Knight got against the Golden State Warriors a day earlier. After completing his 10-day contract, Seth would be waived and replaced with back-up point guard A.J. Price on March 20, 2015 instead. When he failed under his 10-day stint as a player, he was waived on March 31, 2015 and replaced by affiliate Bakersfield Jam player (and eventual D-League Impact Player of the Year winner) Jerel McNeal a day later. Finally, after he finished his own 10-day contract, the Suns decided to sign Jerel into the 2015–16 season (so long as he'd meet team options by July 21, 2015, which was after the team's Summer League stint ended) on April 11, 2015.

Trades

During Christmas Eve, the Suns traded Anthony Tolliver to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for the rights to Tony Mitchell from North Texas University. Mitchell would never play for the Suns, though, and on January 9, 2015, the Suns traded the conditional Minnesota Timberwolves first round draft pick to the Boston Celtics in exchange for power forward/center Brandan Wright hours before their road game against the San Antonio Spurs began. That prompted the Suns to waive their rights to Tony Mitchell before they became guaranteed for the Suns. Nearly a week later, the Suns would take part in another trade with the Celtics, this time being part of a three-way deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. In that deal, the Suns would grab Reggie Bullock from the Clippers while the Celtics would take on Shavlik Randolph's salary (as well as Chris Douglas–Roberts and a future second round pick) in order for Doc Rivers' son Austin Rivers to play for the Clippers and be reunited in the process. Finally, during the trade deadline on February 19, 2015, after announcements of Goran Dragić displaying his major displeasure with the team as it was and wanting to be traded to a specific list of teams (those teams being either the rival Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks with Carmelo Anthony, or the Miami Heat with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh), the Suns engaged in the equivalent of a seven–way trade that involved the likes of the Boston Celtics (once more), as well as the Miami Heat, the Milwaukee Bucks, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Detroit Pistons (the only team Phoenix did not directly make a move with that day).

In the first trade the Suns did on the trade deadline, the Suns traded away the Dragić brothers in guards Goran and Zoran Dragić to the Miami Heat, while the Suns received veteran former-All-Star small forward Danny Granger and two different first round picks from the Heat (one that was originally protected in 2017 until the Ted Stepien Rule changed it to 2018, with it still remaining protected until 2019 (the latest that Phoenix can receive their first selection as a completely unprotected first round pick instead of having a Top-7 protection at hand) and another that's completely unprotected in 2021), as well as veteran swingman John Salmons from the Pelicans, while New Orleans would receive two-time champion guard Norris Cole, power forward Shawne Williams, center Justin Hamilton, and cash considerations, which would all come from the Heat. With their second trade, the Suns would receive guard Marcus Thornton (who would be on an expiring contract) and a 2016 first round draft pick (that'll be from the eventual NBA Finals champion Cleveland Cavaliers) from the Celtics in exchange for their biggest off-season signing in point guard Isaiah Thomas, with Boston also acquiring power forward Jonas Jerebko and guard Luigi Datome from the Pistons in exchange for the return of champion player Tayshaun Prince. Finally, in what was perceived at the time to be the trade the Suns got the biggest value out of other teams, the Suns would trade away both rookie point guard Tyler Ennis and downgraded center Miles Plumlee to the Milwaukee Bucks and the projected 2015 Los Angeles Lakers' top 5 protected first round draft pick to the Philadelphia 76ers (in which Philadelphia would give up Rookie of The Year winning guard Michael Carter-Williams to the Bucks as well) in exchange for the likes of point guard Brandon Knight and injured former Suns point guard Kendall Marshall. Phoenix would end up waiving both John Salmons and Kendall Marshall later on that day. Marshall would end up joining the Philadelphia 76ers after this season ended, while Salmons still would not find a team to play with as of February 13, 2017, and is now facing the possibility of retirement.

Salaries

Because of a few past transactions made from Lance Blanks' tenure that didn't pan out so well for the Suns, Josh Childress is still owed $7,317,500 due to them amnestying his contract two seasons ago, while under the Michael Beasley buyout the Suns did on September 3, 2013, they now owe Beasley the equivalent of $2,333,333 for the next three seasons as opposed to giving him the guaranteed amount of $3,000,000 he was owed in his original contract. While Josh Childress' salary does not affect the Suns' overall salary cap to their season this year (and is the last time Phoenix would owe money to him, especially considering Childress went to the Sydney Kings in Australia this season), Michael Beasley's contract still affect the Suns' salary despite Beasley going to the Shanghai Sharks in China this season as well before returning to the Miami Heat later on in the season, but only for a few thousand dollars (around $777,778) instead of a few million. In addition, the Suns also bought out the short, small contracts of North Texas University power forward Tony Mitchell, former Suns point guard Kendall Marshall, and John Salmons after finishing their respective deals with the Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, and New Orleans Pelicans.

Player statistics

* – Stats with the Suns.

Awards

All-Star

Records

Team records

Milestones

Team milestones

Trades

^ I: The Minnesota Timberwolves were initially going to send their own first round pick (top–12 protected from 2015–2016) to Boston moving forward. However, because Minnesota could not go over their threshold they set themselves up for the Celtics by 2016 (even with two #1 draft picks at their disposal and them both being Rookie of the Year winners), the Timberwolves would end up conveying their 2016 & 2017 second round draft picks to Boston instead.
^ II: Even though the Suns initially had the Miami Heat's 2017 (top–7 protected) pick as consideration for what transpired in the trade with the Dragić brothers, Philadelphia would wind up having the Heat's 2016 first round pick due to an earlier trade the Heat made with the 76ers during their brief Big Trio era. As a result of the Ted Stepien Rule, the Suns are forbidden from having the Heat's 2017 protected first round pick if it falls outside of protection due to the fact that the Heat would be trading two first round draft picks of their own accord in a row to different teams. Because of this fact, Phoenix will have to wait until either 2018 or 2019 (when protections are officially removed) before having a chance at getting Miami's first of their two first round selections in exchange.
^ III: The Los Angeles Lakers initially would send their 2015 first round selection through an earlier trade involving the (at the time) soon-to-be-retired Steve Nash. However, their selection found itself in the Top 5 that year and their 2016 selection went into the Top 3, so the Lakers will send their own first round pick (Top–3 protected in 2017, unprotected in 2018) to Philadelphia in 2017 at least instead.

Additions

^ a: When Anthony Tolliver first signed up to play for Charlotte, the professional basketball team was known as the Charlotte Bobcats at the time. However, word also quickly spread that after the 2013–14 NBA season (which was also the Bobcats' 10th official season in the NBA), the Bobcats would be renamed to the Charlotte Hornets in order to continue the original team name's legacy that was there from the 1988–89 NBA season to the 2001–02 NBA season before they moved to New Orleans and eventually became the New Orleans Pelicans of today. Even though Tolliver would be on the team when they renamed the Bobcats to the Hornets, he'd never really play for the Hornets and would instead only play under the old Bobcats moniker.
^ b: Both Markieff and Marcus Morris noted that they would be willing to take discounts on their contracts in order to stay with each other in the future. On September 29, the Morris Twins would split the total value among each other in order to sign contracts that allowed themselves to stay in Phoenix together for the long term.
^ c: The last NBA team Earl Barron played for before first trying his hand out with the Suns during pre-season was the New York Knicks late into the 2012–13 NBA season before deciding not to play at all last season for unknown reasons. While Earl did battle hard to steal a spot from either Shavlik Randolph or Anthony Tolliver during his first visit in the season, he ultimately did not make the initial roster. However, he did initially go to the Suns' D-League affiliate in the Bakersfield Jam as an affiliate player after impressing the Suns during the pre-season. Earl would continue playing with the Jam until January 27, 2015 when he was bought out of his contract to play with the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons in China for the rest of their season. Unfortunately for Earl, Shanxi ended their season before he even got a chance to play with that team, so he ended up going back to Bakersfield on February 18, 2015. He would end up playing one more game with the Jam before signing his (first) 10 day contract with the Suns on February and later on sign for the rest of the season on March.
^ d: The last NBA team Seth Curry had technically played for before signing a deal with the Suns was the Orlando Magic during the pre-season this season. However, after not making it to their roster officially, Seth had played the rest of the season up until March 11, 2015 with the Magic's D-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks instead. The last official NBA team Seth played for was the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he would also spend time with the Santa Cruz Warriors before the end of the 2013–14 NBA season instead. He also played for the Suns during this season's Summer League squad in Las Vegas.
^ e: A.J. Price had initially started the season playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers around the pre-season, but like Seth Curry with the Orlando Magic, he was waived before the beginning of the season. Price would then play for an injury-depleted Indiana Pacers team that was at the time without Paul George and some of their other star players on November 6, 2014 before being waived near the end of the month before returning to Cleveland on November 30, 2014 and remained on their roster until January 7, 2015.
^ f: The Suns decided to initially sign guard Jerel McNeal to a 10-day contract worth $29,843 on April Fool's Day in 2015 after waiving A.J. Price off of his own 10-day contract. After making his professional debut in the league during that time, the Suns decided to sign him for the rest of the season and potentially go into the 2015–16 season on April 11, 2015. For the remainder of this season, Jerel would gain an addition $29,843 (thus giving him a total amount of $59,686 for his time with the Suns this season), while he would have maintained an additional $845,059 for the next season in his contract if he remained on the team before July 21, 2015.

Subtractions

^ g: Even though both Bogdan Bogdanović and Alec Brown initially had contracts to play in European teams for multiple seasons, both players still have their rights retained by the Suns. On July 6, 2014, Bogdan Bogdanović signed a contract that would allow him to stay with the Fenerbahçe Ülker in Turkey for at least two seasons guaranteed. Alec Brown, however, had signed a contract to play for the Obradoiro Clube de Amigos do Baloncesto in Spain for at least one season guaranteed, but he'd never play for the team during this season due to an earlier injury he received during the Summer League and had instead decided to sign with the Suns' D-League affiliate team, the Bakersfield Jam, for the rest of the season starting on February 11, 2015. Brown would, however, decide to have a second chance to play for the Obradoiro Clube de Amigos do Baloncesto a year later on July 31, 2015.
^ h: Despite the fact that Alex Oriakhi never played for the Suns, he still had his draft rights retained to the point where he even would have played for the Suns' Summer League team this season had he not been traded a day before the Las Vegas Summer League competition began. However, because the Kings had no room to offer him a spot on the team, Oriakhi would then sign a one-year contract to play with the Pieno Žvaigždės in Lithuania.
^ i: Both Ishmael "Ish" Smith and Dionte Christmas would be waived from the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans' rosters respectively before the regular season began. Dionte would end up signing with Paris-Levallois Basket in France on November 12, 2014, while Ishmeal would end up signing up with the Oklahoma City Thunder on November 8, 2014 thanks to their roster being depleted with many injuries around that time (especially with both star players Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook) before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans and waived on February 19, 2015 and signing with the Philadelphia 76ers three days later after they waived Malcolm Thomas from their roster.
^ j: Despite the fact that Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Okafor never played a game for the Suns last season, as well as not play at all since early 2013 back with the Washington Wizards, he'd continue to rehabilitate his body throughout the rest of this season and not play in the process. Okafor has still not found a new team to play for as of February 13, 2017, with the idea of potentially retiring before finding a new team to play under still remaining fresh on people's minds.
^ k: Even though Tony Mitchell would be traded to the Suns on Christmas Eve in exchange for Anthony Tolliver leaving for the Detroit Pistons, Mitchell would never play a single NBA game with the team. He would be waived on January 9, 2015 after the Suns traded their conditional first round draft pick they received from the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2012 from the three-way trade with Minnesota (which eventually turned into two second round draft picks for 2016 and 2017) and the then-New Orleans Hornets to the Boston Celtics for power forward/center Brandan Wright. Mitchell would end up signing with the Atléticos de San Germán in Puerto Rico for the rest of the 2014–15 season.
^ l: While both Shavlik Randolph and Isaiah Thomas were traded to the Celtics, they got traded due to separate purposes. Shavlik would be traded as a part of a three-way deal involving the Los Angeles Clippers for the purpose of getting the Clippers' Reggie Bullock, while Isaiah would be traded under a seven-way deal involving the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Philadelphia 76ers, and Detroit Pistons that also involved trading the Dragić brothers, Miles Plumlee, rookie guard Tyler Ennis, and the Los Angeles Lakers' Top-5 protected draft pick this year (Top-3 protected the next two years later) in exchange for Brandon Knight, Marcus Thornton, Danny Granger, Kendall Marshall, John Salmons, the 2016 first round pick Boston got from the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier (which would be Skal Labissière), and two future first-round draft picks from the Miami Heat (one of which would be completely unprotected).
^ m: Initially, both Randolph and Thomas stayed with the team throughout most of the season after their respective trades came up. However, Shavlik Randolph would be waived from the team on April 6, 2015 after Boston found out they had a chance of making it to the playoffs after all the trials and tribulations they went through this season. Randolph would end up signing with the Denver Nuggets two days later, but he would never play a single game with them after his initial signing there as he would be waived on April 9, 2015, one day after he would sign that contract of his to play for Denver.
^ n: While both of the Dragić brothers would play out the rest of the season with the Miami Heat, Zoran would wind up playing some of his games with the Heat's D-League affiliate team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, instead of with his older brother, Goran, at Miami.
^ o: Even though both Kendall Marshall and John Salmons were traded (back) to the Suns on the February 19, 2015 trade deadline alongside Kendall's former Bucks teammate Brandon Knight, Marcus Thornton from the Boston Celtics, and Danny Granger from the Miami Heat (and three future first round draft picks), Marshall would never suit up under his second chance with the Suns in his career (as would Salmons), as they would be waived from the team on the same day, thanks (in part) due to Marshall's ACL injury he sustained from the Bucks earlier in his career. Kendall Marshall would end up signing a multi-year deal for the Philadelphia 76ers on September 13, 2015, while John Salmons has not found any new teams to play under as of February 13, 2017, with the idea of potentially retiring before finding a new team to play under still remaining fresh on people's minds.
^ p: After being waived from the Suns once completing his 10 day contract with the team, A.J. Price would not find a new team to play under until September 11, 2015, in which he would sign a one-year deal to play for the Shanghai Dongfang Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association.