2014–15 Phoenix Suns season


The 2014–15 Phoenix Suns season was the 47th season of the franchise in the NBA. It was also the last season that the arena was called the US Airways Center, before it was renamed Talking Stick Resort Arena beginning in October 2015. With Channing Frye and Leandro Barbosa leaving in free agency and Goran Dragić being traded to the Miami Heat near the end of the trade deadline, no other player on the team had made the playoffs with the organization in previous years now. The Suns were in playoff contention for much of the season but suffered in the final weeks, partly due to injuries involving Brandon Knight and later Alex Len, and partly due to the number of players added and taken away during the trade deadline. The Suns capped off the 2014–15 NBA season with five consecutive losses and losing 10 out of 11 games total, finishing third place in Pacific division and tenth place in Western Conference with a 39-43 record. The Suns did not qualify for the playoffs for the fifth straight year, which tied the stretch from the 1970–71 to 1974–75 seasons as the team's longest playoff drought.
What marked this season in particular were the trades the Suns made. In the offseason, the Suns traded for point guard Isaiah Thomas for 2013 second round pick Alex Oriakhi. Thomas was later traded in an infamously massive multi-team trade that also resulted in the Dragić brothers, rookie guard Tyler Ennis, and center Miles Plumlee going to some different teams in exchange for guard Brandon Knight from the Milwaukee Bucks, Marcus Thornton from the Boston Celtics, Danny Granger from the Miami Heat, and three different future first round picks. Before then, the Suns tried to remain competitive with smaller trades like trading Anthony Tolliver to the Detroit Pistons for Tony Mitchell, trading a future Minnesota Timberwolves first round pick to Boston for center Brandan Wright, and being involved in a three-way trade with the Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers that gave them Reggie Bullock for Shavlik Randolph.

Key dates

Draft picks

RoundPickPlayerPositionNationalityCollege / Club
114T. J. WarrenSmall forwardUnited StatesNorth Carolina State
118Tyler EnnisPoint guardCanadaSyracuse
127Bogdan BogdanovićShooting guard Serbia Partizan Belgrade
250Alec BrownCenterUnited StatesWisconsin–Green Bay

The Phoenix Suns had three first round picks and one second round pick this season. Their highest first round 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. 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 and the Toronto Raptors in the 2012–13 season. 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 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 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. 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, 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, Okafor was out for four whole seasons before signing a new training camp deal to play for a newly reformed Philadelphia 76ers squad on September 23, 2017.
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 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 for the final roster spot; everyone that was waived after the pre-season played in the affiliate Bakersfield Jam soon afterwards. However, Barron signed 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, they first gave him a 10-day contract. After succeeding in his initial test with limited playing time, the Suns gave 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 signed 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 was 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 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 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 never played 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 took 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 grabbed Reggie Bullock from the Clippers while the Celtics took on Shavlik Randolph's salary 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, the Suns engaged in the equivalent of a seven–way trade that involved the likes of the Boston Celtics, as well as the Miami Heat, the Milwaukee Bucks, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Detroit Pistons.
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, as well as veteran swingman John Salmons from the Pelicans, while New Orleans received two-time champion guard Norris Cole, power forward Shawne Williams, center Justin Hamilton, and cash considerations, which all came from the Heat. With their second trade, the Suns received guard Marcus Thornton and a 2016 first round draft pick 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 traded 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 that was ultimately conveyed by 2018 to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for point guard Brandon Knight and injured former Suns point guard Kendall Marshall. Phoenix waived both John Salmons and Kendall Marshall later that day. Marshall joined the Philadelphia 76ers after this season ended, while Salmons still had before unofficially announcing his NBA retirement on September 23, 2018.

Roster

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, 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 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.

Pre-Season

Regular season

Standings

Game log

Player statistics

Injuries/Personal games missed

Awards and records

Awards

All-Star

Trades

Free agents

Additions

Subtractions