A Ten Year Timeline of the Suns Playoff Drought

Start the celebrations, Phoenix Suns are going to be in this year’s playoffs! It has been far too long since the Suns have graced the post-season. Not since the surprising Western Conference Finals run in 2010, Phoenix have never been back to the playoffs since then.

This got me thinking about the last 10 years. A wise person once said, “to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been”.

Below is a season by season review on how we got here as we are on the cusp of being on the NBA’s greatest stage.

2010-11 Season

Draft Additions

Gani Lawal

Dwayne Collins

Notable Players In

Hedo Türkoğlu

Vince Carter

Channing Frye

Marcin Gortat

Aaron Brooks

Notable Players Out

Leandro Barbosa

Amar'e Stoudemire

Goran Dragic

Jason Richardson

In the summer before the season got underway, star player Stoudemire opted out of the final year of his contract and became an unrestricted free agent. He eventually joined the NY Knicks in a $100 million deal. This left a huge hole in the Suns offence. To try and combat that, Phoenix went on a spending spree by bringing in Vince Carter via a trade. Newly acquired Hedo Türkoğlu was only with the team for a few months and was traded to back to the Magic in the Carter trade. The Suns still had team captains Steve Nash and Grant Hill. Nash still put up the standard 15 points and 11 assists every night and Hill provided leadership and good defence. Unfortunately for the Suns, there too many moves and the team never really gelled together and finished 10th in the West.

Regular Season Record

40-42

2011-12 Season

Draft Additions

Markieff Morris

Notable Players In

Shannon Brown

Notable Players Out

Vince Carter

Aaron Brooks

In a lockout shortened season, the Suns struggled to stay above .500. Marcin Gortat was top scorer who benefitted by playing with Nash in a Pick n Roll style offence. The Polish Hammer ended the season with averages of 15 points and 10 rebounds. During the season, Steve Nash was a member of the Western Conference All-Stars for the 8th time. He also passed Oscar Robertson for 5th all-time in assists in April. The Suns again finished 10th in the West therefore missing out on the playoffs.

Regular Season Record

33-33

2012-13 Season

Draft Additions

Kendall Marshall

Notable Players In

Goran Dragic

Michael Beasley

Wesley Johnson

Jermaine O’Neal

Marcus Morris

Notable Players Out

Steve Nash

Grant Hill

Robin Lopez

The Suns traded Steve Nash to the Lakers for draft picks, bringing the end to a legendary run of Nash in Phoenix. We did bring back Dragic to run the point and he ended up being the best scorer on the team with nearly 15 points and 7 assists a game. In January, Head Coach Alvin Gentry was fired and replaced by Lindsey Hunter on an interim basis. Probably the best thing the Suns did this season was bringing in Markieff’s brother Marcus Morris via a trade. It was always the Morris brothers dream to play together in the NBA. Sadly, this did not translate to wins this season as the Suns finished 15th in the West.

Regular Season Record

25-57

2013-14 Season

Draft Additions

Alex Len

Archie Goodwin

Notable Players In

Eric Bledsoe

Gerald Green

Leandro Barbosa

Notable Players Out

Wesley Johnson

Jermaine O’Neal

Jared Dudley

Marcin Gortat

Shannon Brown

Kendall Marshall

There were a lot of changes for the Suns for 13-14 season. We have a new Head Coach and GM with Suns favourite Jeff Hornacek and Ryan McDonough taking over these roles. The Suns should not have been any good this season with a flurry of changes, however the 2-point guard setup of Dragic and Bledsoe seemed to work, and Phoenix ended up being one of the surprising teams of the year. Hornacek finished runner up for Coach of the Year in his first season. Dragic won the Most Improved award and PJ Tucker was nominated for Defensive Player of the Year. Adding in Tucker and the Morris twins defensive intensity, combined with Green’s 3-point shooting, the Suns looked like they could have ended the playoff drought. Unfortunately, they fell just short and finished 9th in the conference, despite having a winning record.

Regular Season Record

48-34

2014-15 Season

Draft Additions

TJ Warren

Bogdan Bogdanovic (Draft Rights)

Notable Players In

Isaiah Thomas

Brandon Knight

Notable Players Out

Goran Dragic

Channing Frye

Leandro Barbosa

The infamous 3-point guard experiment. The Suns tried and failed to combine Isaiah Thomas, Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe in a confused line up that only lasted half a season. We also signed Bledsoe to a 5-year $70 million contract, which we will come to regret later. At the trade deadline, we traded Isaiah Thomas to BOS Celtics for pretty much nothing in one of the dumbest trades in Suns history or to be honest NBA history. Thomas went onto have 2 of the best individual seasons in NBA history. We also shipped off Goran Dragic again, this time to the MIA Heat. Eric Bledsoe led the team in points and assists (17 and 6), but this was another season that ended in disappointment with a 10th place finish in the conference.

Regular Season Record

39-43

2015-16 Season

Draft Additions

Devin Booker

Notable Players In

Tyson Chandler

Notable Players Out

Gerald Green

Marcus Morris

Markieff Morris

Could this have been the start of the Suns turnaround? As much as the Ryan McDonagh era was a failure in Phoenix, he did select Devin Booker with the 13th pick in the draft. Booker had spent just one year at Kentucky but was the sixth man on a team that included Karl-Anthony Towns. As good as that pick was, things did not go well for the Suns on the court in the 15-16 season. They traded Marcus Morris to the HOU Rockets before the season started. This did not go down well with Marcus or his brother Markieff, who both had negotiated their contacts together in the past. During the season, Markieff became more and more defiant at the front office for what they did to his brother. In the end, we traded Markieff to the WAS Wizards, thus increasing our bad rep in the league for not looking after our players. Despite having Knight and Bledsoe averaging 20 points a game apiece, the Suns only won 23 games which left us 14th in the West. In February, Head Coach Jeff Hornacek was fired and replaced by assistant coach Earl Watson for the rest of the season.

Regular Season Record

23-59

2016-17 Season

Draft Additions

Dragan Bender

Marquese Chriss

Notable Players In

Jared Dudley

Leandro Barbosa

Notable Players Out

PJ Tucker

Bogdan Bogdanovic

I think these draft choices made me start doubting Ryan McDonough and his abilities, and upon reflection I was right. In a pretty weak draft, taking Bender at 4 and then trading up to take Chriss at 8 was a head scratcher for sure. Coach Earl Watson was named Head Coach on a full-time basis, unfortunately this did not translate into many wins. The highlight of the season was the emergence of Booker. He ended the season averaging 22 points a game. This culminated in March in a game against the Celtics where Booker scored a career high 70 points. He became the youngest player in NBA history to record not just 60 points in a game, but 70 points at the age of just 20 years old. Despite this great performance, the Suns finished at the bottom of the Western conference.

Regular Season Record

24-58

2017-18 Season

Draft Additions

Josh Jackson

Notable Players In

Elfrid Payton

Greg Monroe

Notable Players Out

Eric Bledsoe

This was when the wheels started to fall off. After an 0-3 start to the season, Earl Watson was fired as Head Coach and was replaced by Jay Triano for the rest of the season. The same day, Eric Bledsoe’s infamous tweet “I don’t want to be here” echoed across the league. He was suspended from the team and later traded to the MIL Bucks. Brandon Knight missed the entire season with a torn ACL. Devin Booker continued his progression and upped his output to nearly 25 points a game. We once again finished at the bottom of the Conference and we were more of a laughingstock than ever. One hire of note in the front office was that James Jones was named vice president of basketball operations before the season started. James had no experience up until that point so people viewed it as a glossy hire rather than for Jones’s abilities.

Regular Season Record

21-61

2018-19 Season

Draft Additions

Deandre Ayton

Mikal Bridges

Notable Players In

Kelly Oubre Jr.

Notable Players Out

Jared Dudley

Brandon Knight

Marquese Chriss

The Ryan McDonough era ended in Phoenix just before the start of the season after being fired by owner Robert Sarver. However, before he was relieved of his duties, the Suns had the number 1 pick in the draft. There was a well-known debate if the Suns should draft Luka Doncic or DA. McDonough chose DA to pair with Booker, who just signed a maximum extension with Phoenix. He also traded for the draft rights of a one Mikal Bridges. Sarver promoted James Jones to interim GM to replace McDonough. The Suns also had a new Head Coach in Igor Kokoškov who was a well-respected Coach around the league in his first Head Coaching job. There were a lot of transactions made throughout the season as Jones was attempting to undo the wrong doings of recent years. Due to this, the Suns again lost a lot of games and finished at the basement of the NBA.

Regular Season Record

19-63

2019-20 Season

Draft Additions

Ty Jerome

Cam Johnson

Notable Players In

Ricky Rubio

Dario Šarić

Aron Baynes

Jevon Carter

Frank Kaminsky

Cam Payne

Notable Players Out

TJ Warren

Josh Jackson

This is a season that no Suns fan will ever forget. Before the season started, we named James Jones the GM on a full-time basis. We strangely traded T.J Warren to the IND Pacers in the off-season for cash. Again, the Suns had made a lot of new signings heading into the new season. The signing of Rubio was a shrewd move, bringing in his experience and solid point guard play. In April, Igor Kokoškov was fired, and Monty Williams was quickly brought in. Just as we were starting to look like a half decent team, Deandre Ayton was suspended for 25 games due to a failed drugs test. The Suns were struggling with form in Ayton’s absence; and then the whole world stopped.

The entire NBA stopped from the middle of March until 30th July when the league resumed with their “bubble” at Disney behind closed doors. The league picked the best 22 teams in terms of record and luckily the Suns had held on just enough to be included. A lot of media wondered why the Suns were included as there was no chance of them making the post-season. Bleacher Report had stated before the season resuming that the Suns would not win a single game in the bubble. Instead, the Suns went through a renaissance and won every game and narrowly missed out on the playoffs by way of a tiebreaker with the MEM Grizzlies. The Suns lead by Booker, who was outstanding for the 8 games, finished 2nd behind Damian Lillard for MVP of the bubble. The Suns were back in the mainstream NBA discussions and oh had I missed it.

Regular Season Record

34-39

There you have it, that brings us all the way to this season where lead by Chris Paul, Devin Booker and a solid bench unit, the Suns have made the post-season for the first time in a long time. This makes the last 10 years all the more sweeter. I do not think that any team will want to face us in the playoffs and to be honest we have the potential to make a deep run this year.

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