B. Patrick
The Phoenix Suns have never won the big one.
At the same time, they have always been a winning franchise.
The 2012-13 season brought many changes for the Suns, but the biggest blow would be the team finishing with their second worst record in franchise history at 25-57. The only record worse was their inaugural season in 1968.
As someone who grew up watching this team, whether the Suns had a legitimate chance to win it all or not, there was seldom a season without a playoff visit. For those who have been following the team, their most recent rise in the early 2000s was also the start of the decline seen in 2012.
In the summer of 2004, Robert Sarver purchased the Phoenix Suns. Sarver, the founder of The National Bank of Arizona in the 1980s, had made huge money selling his bank to Zions Bankcorporation and supposedly followed his lifelong dream buying a sports franchise. In what should have been a sign of what this man was willing to spend, he celebrated the purchase by taking his family to Red Robin. Bottomless fries for all.
In the offseason following the blue collar Pistons beating the Kobe-Shaq-Malone-Payton Lakers, many teams were hoping to pry Kobe Bryant from the Lakers amidst the drama between Shaq and Kobe. The Suns made their biggest splash by bringing in Mavericks All-Star and former Suns lottery pick, Steve Nash. While many loved in Phoenix loved Nash, as he left their Mavericks, their owner Cuban admitted saw his contract as “too rich”, even going as far in a 2012 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph that he did not expect Nash to even be walking eight years later, yet alone achieve the great levels of success he had with the Suns, that paid off more than most would have expected for the franchise.
Nash teamed with a young core of Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, and Shawn Marion to surge to a 62-20 record, the best in the league that year. Johnson was hurt in a critical playoff game and the Suns would bow out in the Western Conference finals. Nash was named the league MVP that season and the Suns were looking up.
Joe Johnson left the team to pursue the chance to become an All-Star himself with the Atlanta Hawks, as he was considered a fourth option in Phoenix. Some fans saw this as a selfish move on Johnson’s part. Some saw it as a necessary move for a budding star and were confident the Suns would pull it together. In reality, this was a sign of the revolving door the Suns would have during their potential contending years.
After having the best record in the league, the Suns lost two starters in Johnson and Quentin Richardson. They were replaced by Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. Stoudemire would go out with a season-long injury during training camp and leave minutes for a newly acquired Kurt Thomas.
The Suns would collapse in the playoffs again, with accusations of a thin roster. Anyone who has had Mike D’Antoni coach their team in recent years will recognize it may not be the quality of the bench, as much as D’Antoni refusing to use many off of his bench. The Suns talent and location would attract solid veterans and bench players to fill roles, only for them to not get minutes.
The Suns would go deep in the playoffs again with the return of Stoudemire in 2006-07, only to be shut down by the eventual Finals representative again in one of the many times the 2000s Suns were haunted by the Spurs of San Antonio.
In this time it started to become clear, the Suns were never getting the extra player or extra help to push themselves over the hump. Although it was never admitted publicly, in 2008, ESPN would report franchise staple Shawn Marion being unhappy in his role behind Nash and Stoudemire and subsequently The Matrix would get traded to Miami for Shaquille O’Neal, during a year many had considered Shaq’s career to be done. The Suns would continue to rotate players, more at the thought of cost than winning. Despite becoming a solid role player in Dallas years later, Marion’s other stops showed him off as more of a product of the system and he never reached the same All-Star heights he did as a Sun.
When Sarver appeared, he tried acting like Mark Cuban by jumping and screaming behind the bench. Sarver would not do the thing that made Cuban a legitimate compelling owner: show his passion by spending whatever was necessary to get his team better.
The Suns let many key players walk, they avoided picking up players that could be the final piece, and they refused to use their draft picks. By either selling or trading the rights, the Suns drafted and gave up the following players during the Steve Nash era:
2004
Luol Deng (sold to Bulls)
2005
Nate Robinson (traded with Quentin Richardson to New York for Kurt Thomas and Dijon Thompson)
Marcin Gortat (traded for cash)
2006
Rajon Rondo (traded to Boston with Brian Grant for Cleveland’s 2007 1st round pick)
Sergio Rodriguez (sent to Portland for cash)
2007
Rudy Fernandez (traded with James Jones to Portland for cash)
The 2007 draft would be where the Suns would start to retain their draft picks. The Suns would keep Alando Tucker (the pick in the Rondo trade) and DJ Strawberry briefly. The only pick in the few years following they would keep and attempt to develop was Robin Lopez. They gave up on Tucker, Strawberry, Earl Clark, and others early with very few opportunities.
D’Antoni had left due to hurt feelings when then GM Steve Kerr questioned his use of bench talent. The Suns replaced him with Terry Porter and gave up on him halfway into the season. They promoted Alvin Gentry from the bench and in 2010, he surprisingly led a Suns team to the 2010 Western Conference Finals. Instead of capitalizing on this, the Suns would chase more people out of town.
Amare Stoudemire was allowed to walk. This move is still debated. At the time, he was coming off a successful season and started his career in New York as a legitimate MVP candidate. Injuries have plagued him in following seasons but questions remain if he would’ve been as unhealthy with Phoenix’s miracle medical staff. Shaquille O’Neal, Antonio McDyess, and others had years added onto their career. Grant Hill actually played an entire 82 game season, playing the majority of his games in good health during his multi-year stay.
Steve Kerr was removed from the front office and the front office, on a budget, became little-known NBA bench player Lance Blanks and former agent Lon Babby. Babby started using all of the Suns mid-level money on his former clients such as Josh Childress.
By the summer of 2012, the Suns were now a team fighting for the final playoff spot instead of competing. Steve Nash still was effective but not All-Star level. The Suns decided it was time to part with one of the biggest stars in the history of their franchise.
Nash wanted to stay close to home for his children and go to a contending team, so he was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers. As many in Phoenix see the Lakers, a team in the same division, as a rival, this came as a big blow to the fan base.
The Suns promised a youth movement, bringing back fan favorite Goran Dragic, who looked to be budding in Houston after a failed swap for Aaron Brooks. They signed Eric Gordon to an offer sheet. Despite Gordon publicly telling ESPN and anyone else who would listen of his displeasure with the Hornets and the fact his “heart was in Phoenix”, the Hornets matched the sheet. The Suns would pick up former top picks who had not yet reached their potential such as Michael Beasley and Wes Johnson. They fell into an amnestied Luis Scola and drafted North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall. PJ Tucker, a 2006 2nd round pick out of Texas, returned to the NBA after some time as an MVP in Israel.
The Suns had a final roster spot to fill and went with a tall, outside shooting white guy named Luke Zeller. They had a penchant for getting the “other brother”. When Brook Lopez came in the league, the Suns picked up Robin. When Blake Griffin came in the league, the Suns took Taylor. When the Morris twins went pro, Marcus was ranked higher, but the Suns, who had their choice of either, took Markieff. With Luke, he was the older brother of Cavalier rookie Tyler Zeller, the “other brother” to one of the top-ranked college stars of the year, Cody Zeller.
The franchise began changing off the court as well. Long time local announcer Tom Leander, who had been calling games since the Jason Kidd days, was moved to the pregame show in favor of Marv’s brother, Steve Albert. I never was a fan of Leander but the move seemed odd. Scott Williams, who had been decent as a play by play man for Cleveland before regressing in Phoenix, was dismissed and replaced by Hall of Famer Ann Meyers-Drysdale. While Meyers is an amazing talent and person, it seemed like a PR move, as everything notated her being the first female calling NBA games in years.
At first, I had thought I would not attend any games.
The Suns had players I liked, but were not looking competitive. They were a team of role players. Marcin Gortat had a nice season the year before, Dragic showed promise, and Scola was always solid. Jared Dudley was a great guy and would make an awesome spark plug off the bench for a contender. He was now a team captain and considered a star of the team. Would Beasley live up to potential or would he continue to be the Ryan Leaf to Derrick Rose’s Peyton Manning?
The Suns opened the season on Halloween losing at home to Golden State. The opening day depth chart:
PG- Goran Dragic
SG- Jared Dudley
SF – Michael Beasley
PF – Luis Scola
C – Marcin Gortat
Bench players (in order of most minutes played): PJ Tucker, Markieff Morris, Shannon Brown, and Jermaine O’Neal
Bench players with DNP or Inactive: Wes Johnson, Kendall Marshall, Luke Zeller, Diante Garrett, and Channing Frye (who was out for the season with heart issues and very seldom with the team)
They took on Detroit for a home win to start November and after a road trip, returned home 2-3 to play Cleveland.
I decided to pick up cheap tickets to see Kyrie Irving in person and was shocked when I got there. I arrived maybe an hour until tip off and the arena was empty. Usually any game I had ever been to, it was hard to not bump into the mass of people. One hour before tip off on a Friday night game, the hallways were a ghost town. The Suns, who were getting beat down for the better part of the game, were put on the back of Shannon Brown and had the biggest comeback in franchise history. The Suns moved to .500 at 3-3 and seemed to maybe have just enough spark to be a competitive team.
I enjoyed myself enough and a few players I was curious about seeing live were coming with cheap tickets available. Denver was coming next with “The Manimal” Kenneth Faried. New Orleans with Anthony Davis were coming shortly after. I picked up tickets for these games and the Portland Trailblazers, missing only Chicago and Miami, who were listed at premium pricing. I couldn’t rationalize paying $200 for a nosebleed seat to see a curb stomping of my team.
When I went to the Denver game, I had reached my seat when a woman working for the Suns approached. She noted that wearing Suns gear was appreciated and they asked if we wanted to move down to the lower level. The seat upgrade was surprising and pretty cool considering the price paid for the tickets. When I returned for the New Orleans game, this happened again. At this point, early in the season, the Suns were still winning. They were hovering back and forth near .500, had a team of young guys who mostly came across as if they wanted to play hard and I was getting high quality seats to wins at a price cheaper than I had paid for most nosebleeds in the preceeding seasons.
The Suns went on a few week road trip following the New Orleans game and ended the first month of the season at 7-9. Upon return, the organization tried to reverse the negative home attendance by guaranteeing a good time. They offered any Suns fan who did not enjoy the game against Dallas on December 6th a full refund. It didn’t seem to be any coincidence that a promotion meant to fill the house happened on a night where ESPN had the misfortune of booking a national television game between the role-playing Suns and a Dallas team that was missing Dirk Nowitzki due to injury.
While the Suns lost, they touted the success of the Guarantee night, though this promotion would not return.
I had bought $5 seats to see the Orlando Magic and this would be the game that sucked me in for the season.
I walked the upper level in the same fashion that I had gotten upgrades in the previous three games I attended. I got stopped at the Magic game but the upgrade was a bit better than expected. I was moved to court side recliners that featured a free buffet. It didn’t register to me that the Suns got beat for the second time in the season by Orlando, the team that would end the season with the worst record in the league. 2 of their 20 wins would be their sweep of Phoenix. It didn’t matter. I got to sit court side for $5. Watching bad games became a game to me.
Following Orlando in December; the Suns got a string of home wins with a last second winning basket by Dragic over the Grizzlies, who owned one of the top records in the league at the time, a victory over the Jazz followed by victories over Sacramento and Charlotte. Two title contenders would come in before and after Christmas with a crushing loss to the Clippers (the first blowout loss I went to of the season) and JR Smith’s last second dagger the day after Christmas.
The four consecutive home wins would be the only victories in December and as of the end of 2012, the Suns sat at a record of 11-20.
2013 began with some home cooking, pulling a victory over the struggling 76ers before Utah and Memphis came to avenge their losses weeks earlier. Another road trip led to more losses, the exception of a shocking win in Chicago, where Michael Beasley had one of his strongest games of the season and looked like the player the organization was hoping he would be.
There was buzz around Beasley’s performance as OKC came to town. While Beasley’s stat line wasn’t the same, he seemed more motivated having to guard Kevin Durant, until things got very ugly. I was fairly close to the action on the bottom level for that game and saw a Durant dunk which is probably the nastiest dunk I had ever seen up close (NOTE: In my first ever NBA game, I did see Kevin Johnson’s classic dunk over Hakeem from the upper level of the then named America West Arena).
Rumblings were beginning about a shake-up. I personally did not believe it, thinking this franchise wouldn’t pay two coaches, even if Gentry had a low salary. After a home loss to Milwaukee, the first since the late 1980s, the Suns axed Alvin Gentry during a week break between games when the team was halfway through the season with a record of 13-28.
The Suns had Elston Turner, a veteran assistant considered comparable to successful coach Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau. They also had Dan Majerle, who left his position as the color commentator to join the staff when Alvin Gentry became head coach. One of the legends of the Suns, he had been in consideration for the Philadelphia job when Doug Collins took the position.
With two fairly solid candidates to choose from, the Suns went with Lindsey Hunter.
Hunter had joined the organization as a player development guy and in following media releases, was seen to be a spy for the front office, who really had no intention of keeping Gentry around. Hunter had ties from the Pistons with GM Lance Blanks and was someone with zero coaching experience. But the Suns do love their bargains.
As most teams with a new coach typically do, the Suns won their next game, beating Sacramento after having a week off and flew home to shock the world and beat the Clippers at home. I had personally skipped the Clippers game and with the news coming out about the franchise, as well as the overpriced tickets for the upcoming opponents (Clippers, Lakers, Thunder and Mavericks), I watched the games from home.
The Suns lost a couple games on the road and came back to surprise again with a win over the Lakers in Steve Nash’s return to Phoenix.
The trade deadline arrived and the Suns were expected to be one of the teams going for the bigger name players available. They were said to be one of the teams chasing Josh Smith. The biggest deal that seemed realistic would have been swapping starters Marcin Gortat and PJ Tucker to title contenders Oklahoma City for Kendrick Perkins, Jeremy Lamb, and Toronto’s first-round draft pick (which OKC had acquired from Houston in the James Harden deal). This deal seemed like it could benefit both teams but it did not happen.
The Suns did acquire the twin brother of Markieff Morris, Marcus, from Houston, which seemed to play him inconsistently. All they had to do was give up a second-round pick, which seemed like a good deal to reunite the brothers from the Kansas Jayhawks.
At the same time, Lindsey Hunter had stopped using backup point guard Sebastian Telfair in favor of rookie Kendall Marshall. Marshall had a quick stint in the D-League earlier in the season where he showed no progression – he could pass but his shot was atrocious. He would become a frequent part of Hunter’s rotation and Telfair was shipped to the Raptors for a second round pick and Hamed Haddadi. Haddadi was a 7-foot seldom used Iranian center that was a throw in to the Raptors when acquiring Rudy Gay weeks earlier.
The only other transaction for the Suns would be cutting Luke Zeller to open the roster space for Marcus Morris.
I returned to the games on February 22nd when the team I grew up loving before I came to Phoenix, the Boston Celtics came to town. I went in full Celtics gear and watched a Celtics team with no Rondo and no Garnett just lay into Phoenix, winning by 25 under a monster game of Jeff Green. The main highlight for the Suns in that game would be having the first game since the 1970s where twins played on the same team. The last time, it was also the Suns, having the Van Arsdales brothers on the same roster.
The following game featured my on-court debut as I got invited to play an on the court contest against the Spurs. Now Tim Duncan and I have watched each other make baskets. Pretty big deal, we will probably talk about it at each other’s Hall of Fame inductions.
The Suns wrapped February by squeaking a home win over the Wolves and another surprise win over the Spurs in San Antonio and under the first full month of the Hunter regime, February ended with a record of 20-39.
Kendall Marshall wasn’t the only player getting benefit from Hunter’s emergence as coach. Wes Johnson, who was probably the best shooter on the team, would not only get more minutes but get into the starting lineup. While some guys were being used more, efficient players like Jared Dudley were being pushed to the back.
In the most controversial move, Hunter essentially stopped playing Shannon Brown. Brown had been one of the key players for the start of the year and Hunter benched him with no reason. Guys doing less would continue to play, as crowds would chant “We Want Brown”. During the final stretch of the season, I would see Suns SuperFan “Mr. ORNG”, appear to lead chants and seemingly badmouth the team from his seats to people sitting nearby. I think part of that was he used to hang out with Gentry, something I don’t believe Hunter was (rightfully) interested in.
It was pretty clear the season was done. At this point, for the first time I can remember and for sure the earliest, everyone locally just focused on the draft. With no clear franchise player, let alone savior in the upcoming draft class, it was hard to get excited. Most talk became about watching the Lakers struggle, in hopes of getting two of these less-than-desirable lottery picks. The Suns couldn’t even get tanking done correctly.
The inconsistency of the Suns continued as they beat the playoff bound Hawks, while looking awful against the Raptors. The Raptors game would also see starting center Marcin Gortat go down for the rest of the year. Gortat was out and Jermaine O’Neal was shuffling between his own injuries and the heart issues of his teenage daughter, so Hamed Haddadi would get his time to shine.
The Suns continued to be all over the place, as they would beat the Rockets by two at home, then go to Houston and lose by thirty merely four days later. The Suns would come home, manage to beat the Lakers by 20 (this was after Kobe Bryant was first in question to miss the rest of the season) before hitting their worst stretch of the season. Following the Lakers win the Suns lost ten in a row; including home losses to the Wizards, Wolves, Nets, Kings, Pacers, Warriors, and Hornets.
The most interesting part of this ugly stretch had to the Indiana game, where for the first time in NBA history, each team had a set of brothers with the Morris twins of the Suns facing Tyler and Ben Hansbrough of the Pacers. Another random milestone to witness live in my year long journey.
Dragic had stepped up during this stretch, playing at a high level. He fell just short of a triple-double, with 30+ points to boot as they came close against Brooklyn, until the Suns questionably discussed shutting him down for the year, claiming injury. Dragic would work out before games, showing no signs of being hurt, and the Suns would have no choice but to play him to not further disinterest the dwindling fan base.
The Warriors and Hornets games would be the start of Fan Appreciation Month. In handing the city the worst Suns team since the inaugural season, they had to have a whole month (which really featured three games). Gimmicks were thrown about from t-shirt tosses before the opening tip right down to random prize giveaways where the majority of recipients came across less than enthusiastic to be getting their prize.
They broke their losing streak on the road in Dallas and lost another road game to the Wolves before coming home for one final home game against the Houston Rockets. The first set of games with the team had seen a home win and an away blowout, followed by a road loss when the Suns were penalized for goal tending at the buzzer. There was not a positive energy entering the game.
I acquired Row 10 seats right near the Houston tunnel and the majority of the crowd seemed to be present for either Jeremy Lin or Arizona State’s own James Harden. Jared Dudley gave the fan appreciation speech while sounding the most depressed I have ever heard him as he apologized to the crowd for the year the team had.
The most telling sign I saw all season was that night, as a few older women that were a couple rows in front of me held up a sign reading, “Season Ticket Holders Since 78 – This is Our Last Game”.
Management had effectively chased away people who have been committed to every home game in franchise history. Am I being fair in blaming management? In this case, I feel justified, as the opposite side of the sign featured a heart next to the SUNS with a crossed out heart next to the word SARVER.
The Suns played tough and managed to pull off a win over the playoff bound Rockets. The Suns finished the year throwing out autographed balls to the crowd and walked off the court. As I watched the arena clear out, I went down and had a brief talk with long time Suns announcer Al McCoy, who was shoved off of TV early in the Sarver regime. I went and stood behind Tom Chambers, broadcasting the post game outside the arena. The usually upbeat Chambers seemed spent going through this year.
The Suns went on the road for one last game against the Nuggets. As they fell again to a team that was really already in playoff mode, the announcers would openly question why time wasn’t being given to seldom-used, undrafted rookie Diante Garrett. He had been loaned to the D-League affiliate days earlier and turned in a 32-point, 6-assist, 6-rebound performance.
After the commencement of the season, Hunter would make excuses why the team ended up 26-57. Hunter finished his half of the season with one less win than Gentry. Hunter started accusing the team of not knowing how to play basketball and were not familiar with the weak-side/strong-side.
For the first time since his departure, Alvin Gentry spoke up. He said that they could say what he wanted about him and his coaching skills, but for Hunter to blame the players on something like that was a joke and an insult to their previous coaches during a radio interview with Arizona Sports 620. This team featured players that have played for coaches like Phil Jackson and Roy Williams and Hunter claims they couldn’t win for him for not knowing fundamentals. If this statement wasn’t enough from Gentry, Alvin also pointed out that he would think that learning weak-side/strong-side would be something covered by player development, the position that Hunter had been in before he had acquired Gentry’s position.
If you’ve read all of this, you’ve committed more time than most would or should to the 2012-13 Phoenix Suns season. A franchise with a history of being competitive found itself finally paying for the past sins of bad ownership. While the team has a lot of solid role players and decent character guys, this sadly seems to be the beginning of dark days for a franchise known more for shining.
All photos in this article were taken by the author at games attended.
For a recap of in-game shenanigans, visit the “Live Attendance Suns Blog found on [button size=small style=square color=black align=none url=http://www.therealtsm.com/index.php?topic=7524.0]TheRealTSM[/button]
