2014–15 Phoenix Suns season

2014–15 Phoenix Suns season
Head coach	Jeff Hornacek
General manager	Ryan McDonough
Owners	Robert Sarver
Arena	US Airways Center
Results
Record	0–0
Place	Division: 1st (Pacific) Conference: 1st (Western)
Playoff finish	TBD
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Local media
Television	Fox Sports Arizona
Radio	KTAR

The 2014–15 NBA season is the Suns' 47th season in the NBA.

Key dates

• May 20, 2014: The NBA Draft Lottery takes place.
• June 26, 2014: The 2014 NBA Draft takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
• July 1, 2014: The NBA free agency period has begun.
• July 7, 2014: Channing Frye agrees to a 4 year, $32 million contract to play for the Orlando Magic, which signifies the completion of dismembering the last Suns playoff roster between then and now (although Goran Dragić would return in 2012 after being traded a year earlier).
• July 10, 2014: Teams could officially sign, trade, and even amnesty players to their liking; P.J. Tucker agrees to a 3 year, $17.5 million contract to stay with the Phoenix Suns.
• July 11, 2014: The Suns complete a sign-and-trade that allows them to trade away the rights of Alex Oriakhi and a traded player exception worth $7 million to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for point guard Isaiah Thomas, who would agree to a 4 year, $27 million contract.
• July 15, 2014: The Suns officially waive Ishmael "Ish" Smith's contract before it became officially guaranteed for the rest of the season. Had his contract officially been kept, his salary of $985,000 would have been fully guaranteed by the team.

Offseason

Draft picks

Main article: 2014 NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College / Club
1	14	T.J. Warren	Small Forward	United States	North Carolina State
1	18	Tyler Ennis	Point Guard	Canada	Syracuse
1	27	Bogdan Bogdanović	Shooting Guard	Serbia	Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
2	50	Alec Brown	Center	United States	Wisconsin–Green Bay

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. 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 (and Caron Butler) in exchange for Jared Dudley.

With their fourteenth pick in the first round, Phoenix selected T.J. Warren, a sophomore from North Carolina State University. Warren would average around 24.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game in his last season playing for North Carolina State, which would not only give him a few honors within the Atlantic Coast Conference (including being the ACC Player of the Year), but also helped result in him being a part of the consensus All–American NCAA second team. The next pick that the Suns would select would be the Canadian–born Tyler Ennis, who was a freshman from the University of Syracuse. Ennis would average 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 2.1 steals in 35.7 minutes per game in his only season with Syracuse, which would help net him a few Atlantic Coast Conference honors in the process. After that, Phoenix selected the Serbian international prospect named Bogdan Bogdanović, who had played for Partizan Belgrade before the draft. During that last season, Bogdanović would average 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 Serbian League's Finals MVP award (as well as multiple international championships beforehand). Finally, with their fiftieth pick in the second round, the Suns decided to select Alec Brown, a senior from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Brown would average 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks in his final season with the Phoenix, which would not only let him be a member of the All–Horizon League first team (again) and win the Horizon League's Defensive Player of the Year award, but he'd also lead the Horizon League in career blocks and score 1,678 and grab 800 rebounds throughout his college career.

Free agency

Main article: List of 2014–15 NBA season transactions

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 officially re–signed P.J. Tucker to a three–year contract worth $16.5 million. Ishmael "Ish" Smith officially became a free agent on July 15, 2014 during the deadline for teams to decide on whether they want to make unguaranteed contracts become fully guaranteed this season.

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.

Roster

2014–15 Phoenix Suns roster

Players

Coaches

} Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB From G 10 Barbosa, Leandro 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 194 lb (88 kg) 1982–11–28 Brazil G 2 Bledsoe, Eric (C / FA) 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1989–12–09 Kentucky C 23 Brown, Alec (DP) 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1992–07–23 Green Bay G 25 Christmas, Dionte 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1986–09–15 Temple G 1 Dragić, Goran (C) 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1986–05–06 Slovenia G 4 Ennis, Tyler (DP) 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 180 lb (82 kg) 1994–08–24 Syracuse G 20 Goodwin, Archie 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 198 lb (90 kg) 1994–08–17 Kentucky G/F 14 Green, Gerald 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1986–01–26 Leader's Academy HS (TX) C 21 Len, Alex 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 265 lb (120 kg) 1993–06–16 Maryland F 15 Morris, Marcus 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1989–09–02 Kansas F 11 Morris, Markieff 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1989–09–02 Kansas F/C 50 Okafor, Emeka  (FA) 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 255 lb (116 kg) 1982–09–28 Connecticut F/C 22 Plumlee, Miles 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 255 lb (116 kg) 1988–09–01 Duke F 43 Randolph, Shavlik 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 236 lb (107 kg) 1983–11–24 Duke G -- Thomas, Isaiah 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1989–02–07 Washington F 17 Tucker, P. J. 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 224 lb (102 kg) 1985–05–05 Texas F 12 Warren, T. J. (DP) 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1993–09–05 NC State

Head coach Jeff Hornacek (Iowa State) Assistant coach(es) Jerry Sichting (Purdue) Mike Longabardi (Frostburg State) Kenny Gattison (Old Dominion) Mark West (Old Dominion) Legend (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended (DL) On assignment to D-League affiliate Injured Roster Last transaction: 2014–07–12

Player statistics

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Transactions

Trades

July 11, 2014

To Phoenix Suns Isaiah Thomas

To Sacramento Kings Alex Oriakhi $7 Million Traded Player Exception

Free Agents

Additions

Player	Signed	Former team
P.J. Tucker	Signed 3 year deal worth $16.5 Million	Phoenix Suns
Isaiah Thomas	Signed 4 year deal worth $27 Million	Sacramento Kings

Subtractions

Player	Reason left	New team
Bogdan Bogdanović	Signed a new contract	Fenerbahçe Ülker
Channing Frye	Unrestricted free agent	Orlando Magic
Alex Oriakhi	Traded under a sign-and-trade	Sacramento Kings
Ishmael "Ish" Smith	Waived / Free Agent	Unknown
Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Okafor	Unrestricted free agent	Unknown

^ a: On July 6, 2014, Bogdan Bogdanović officially signed a contract that would allow him to stay with Fenerbahçe Ülker for at least two seasons guaranteed. Even though his rights are still held by the Suns, Bogdan Bogdanović would be playing in Turkey for two or more seasons.
^ b: Even though Alex Oriakhi never officially 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.