The 5: Great moments from low-key Suns free agent signings
Jun 30, 2017, 6:17 AM | Updated: 3:00 pm
The Suns signed the first-ever NBA free agent, Tom Chambers, in 1988. Before the 2004-05 season, their backup plan after a failed run at free agent Kobe Bryant was signing aging point guard Steve Nash.
Both of those decisions turned out pretty well.
Free agency isn’t always about getting the best players. It’s often times about getting the right players. Those two stand out as the most significant.
There have been a dozen or so great pickups in Phoenix history, from the negotiation of Goran Dragic’s contract in an arena parking garage that led to his Most Improved Player Award in 2014 two years later to Rodney Rogers winning the Sixth Man of the Year after joining the Suns in 1999.
The entire list of Suns free agents isn’t overflowing with star power, but some role players not only made themselves integral parts of various teams but made memorable moments.
Here are five of those moments that won’t let us forget about these players’ tenures with Phoenix.
Rex Chapman, G, 1996
Should this be a top-five on the all-time “Shazam!” list?
The series and the game didn’t end well for the Suns, but Rex Chapman deserves some kudos anyway.
Arguably one of the most difficult shots in Suns history, Chapman’s running, wing three-pointer at the buzzer in Game 4 of the 1997 first-round matchup against the Sonics is imprinted in the brains of Suns fans. The trey pulled Phoenix even at 107 to force overtime, where the Suns eventually lost.
Phoenix would also lose the series, understandable considering the talented opponent and what the team was working with.
Also on that Suns team: Jason Kidd and an aging core of Kevin Johnson, Hot Rod Williams, Wayman Tisdale and Danny Manning. Oh, and some backup point guard named Steve Nash, who played sparingly.
Tony Delk, G, 2000
Devin Booker is not the only Kentucky guard to score more than 50 points for the Suns. It was Jan. 2, 2001 when Delk went off on the Sacramento Kings, who he served the year prior as Jason Williams’ backup at point guard.
Paired with Kidd, Delk got red hot by scoring 53 points on 20-of-27 shooting against his former squad. Amazingly, he did so without hitting a three-pointer and added 13 points from the foul line. Indeed, it was an overtime game and his total came in 50 minutes.
If you find a short-list of the most random 50-point scorers in NBA history, Delk is on it thanks to a lot of inside the three-point arc two-point jumpers (that’d be a no-no in today’s NBA).
Quentin Richardson, G, 2004
Quentin Richardson provided rebounding and some trigger-happy gunning to complement the first Nash-led Suns squad, and his win in the Three-Point Shootout exemplified everything he was about — taking lots of shots and having no qualms about it.
What he did before and after the All-Star break was important as well.
Ten of the 12 players ahead of Richardson on the list of those who took the most three-point attempts in a single-season might want to thank him.
The Suns’ Seven Seconds or Less era began in Richardson’s first season with Phoenix, and by the end of it he’d finished the year just third all-time in total treys attempted for a regular season with 631 — behind George McCloud’s 678 for Denver in 1995-96 and Antoine Walker’s 645 for Boston in 2001-02.
Since, Seven Seconds or Less-inspired offenses under former Suns GM Steve Kerr and coach Mike D’Antoni have produced six more individual seasons of more attempts from deep.
Stephen Curry (three times), James Harden (twice — once under D’Antoni), Klay Thompson (twice), Eric Gordon, Ray Allen and Isaiah Thomas have since taken more threes in a single season.
Raja Bell, G, 2005
You know where this one is going.
Raja Bell broke into the league with Allen Iverson’s gritty 76ers teams five years earlier and after a strong stint in Utah earned himself upward of $25 million over five years with Phoenix. His first postseason foray with the Suns came in a first-round matchup against the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.
Phoenix found itself down 3-1 entering Game 5 when Bell clotheslined Bryant to earn an ejection. Safe to say it didn’t hurt the Suns, who won that game, 114-97, before taking Game 6 in overtime without Bell, who was suspended.
Later in the playoff run against the Clippers, he forced overtime with a corner three-pointer when Los Angeles decided to play defense rather than foul.
And that segues us perfectly into …
Tim Thomas, F, 2006 (March)
While the Suns signed Bell before the 2005-06 season, it inked veteran forward Tim Thomas in March of 2006 before making a playoff run that ended in a 4-2 Western Conference Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
In a cold spell down the stretch of Game 6, the Suns found themselves in trouble. And because of Bell’s clothesline, the Suns started Leandro Barbosa on the perimeter alongside Steve Nash and Shawn Marion.
Mind you, they were undersized with Thomas and Boris Diaw playing power forward and center as Kurt Thomas and Amare Stoudemire, both injured and out for the year, watched from the bench.
Down 105-102, Marion grabbed an offensive board and kicked it out to a wide-open Thomas before the 6-foot-10 shooter pump-faked Kwame Brown and drilled a three to tie it. Stoudemire was excited — and so was Nikoloz Tskitishvili.
Phoenix forced overtime and won 126-118 — that’s 21 points in five minutes — before rolling to a 121-90 win in Game 7 to complete the series comeback.
