Make our alltime 15 man roster

[JDLAW]

Suns top 15 - in no positional order (caveat - must have played for min of 3 meaningful seasons in their prime or close to their prime)

Nash
KJ
Dennis Johnson
Walter Davis
Paul Westphal
Majerle
Hawkins
VanArsdale
Barkley
Stoudemire
Marion
Nance
Adams
Kidd
Chambers

Honorable Mention - Shaq (does not make cut because only played 2 yrs), Neil Walk, Paul Silas, Maurice Lucas

Best Coaches - Fitzsimmons, McLeod, D'Antoni, Westphal and Ainge.
Worst Coaches - Wetzel, VanBredaKoff, Johnny Kerr, Porter and Hunter

Best Suns defensive team 82-83

Best Suns team(s) 92-93, 2004-05 and 2006-07

Favorite Suns teams 68-69 (don't care about the record, saw the first game played, the Christmas game against Celts and got to listen to Wilt score 66 against Suns in a game), 82-83, 93-93, 97-98, 2004-05 with honorable mention to 75-76 and 96-97 (most fun after the miserable start).

Least favorite Suns teams 73-74, 86-87, 2012-13

Worst trade Dennis Johnson and a 1st for Rick Roby.

Edit - addition in bold

[GMATCallahan]

I would have loved to have seen

Nash / Rondo
Iggy / Bell / Barbosa
JJ / Diaw
Marion / Frye / Amundson
Amare / Thomas

That team can throw out so many different lineups.

Ugh.

I assume that you're respectively referring to James Jones and Kurt Thomas, yes?

Well, the Suns probably could not have possessed both Andre Iguodala and Kurt Thomas, because selling that 2004 draft pick enabled Phoenix to give Quentin Richardson a free agent offer that the Clippers declined to match, and then a year later, the Suns sent Richardson to New York in exchange for Thomas.

Iguodala isn't a natural shooter, but he would have been intriguing in D'Antoni's system. On the other hand, I don't see D'Antoni as likely to have ever possessed much interest in Rondo. Granted, Rondo's speed, passing skill, and love for setting up teammates (sometimes too much love, because fishing for assists isn't always the right play, nor is passing always the right play) would have been intriguing in an up-tempo system alongside athletes such as Stoudemire, Marion, and Barbosa. But as D'Antoni virtually acknowledged later, his pick-and-roll-on-steroids system (which has basically taken over the NBA) is predicated on the point guard being a shooting threat. Therefore, the defender either won't drop behind the screen and stands a good chance of being picked off (creating a two-on-one situation or a defensively disadvantageous switch) or the defender will drop behind the screen and stand a good chance of being burned via the point guard's pull-up jump-shot. But Rondo was so lacking in that regard when he first entered the NBA (and in his early years in the league) that D'Antoni's offense would have lost much of its predication. Indeed, in my first post in this thread, I was discussing how Danny Ainge mismanaged the '97-'98 Suns, at least offensively. Mike D'Antoni, conversely, certainly would not have mismanaged that offense, for he would not have predicated his offense on a point guard who you don't want to shoot the ball (Jason Kidd, in that case).

That said, having Rondo learn behind Nash and provide even more speed behind the veteran would have been exciting and compelling. Rondo's presence could have also encouraged the Suns to trade Nash sooner and jump-start their much-needed rebuilding process after 2010, rather than wasting two or three years doing who knows what. I realize that trading Nash before he became a free agent would not have been popular, but 'trading' him as a thirty-eight-year old free agent who was already leaving surely did not prove optimal.

[nevetsov]

I assumed he meant Joe Johnson.

[TASTIC]

Yeah I meant Joe Johnson.

Kurt Thomas while he wouldn't have been acquired as you say using Q, we could have gotten him from free agency also

[Amen316]

Nash / KJ / Penny
J.Johnson / Westphal / Finley
Marion / W. Davis / Ceballos
Barkley / Chambers / Nance
Stoudemire / Shaq-tus / Adams

Should put together a list of the players we passed on in the draft or sold their rights for:
Rajon Rondo - Loul Deng - Mark Eaton - George Gervin - Nate Robinson - Byron Scott

Lost coin flip - Kareem Abdul Jabaar

Just because Byron Scott played at Arizona State doesn't mean that the Suns passed on him. The Clippers selected Scott with the fourth overall pick in the 1983 draft (long before Phoenix could have plucked him), and then traded him a few months later to the Lakers in exchange for Norm Nixon, one of the top point guards in the game.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1983.html

... unless you know something that I don't.

I might stand corrected: I thought the Suns had been given the Clippers 1st round pick but opted with the Clippers for their 2nd and 3rd because the Suns did not like the way Thurl Bailey worked out for them.(they had no interest in Bryon Scott)
Weeks before the draft was my understanding the Suns recieved the 2nd and 3rd round picks from San Diego which they used on Rod Foster and Derrick Whittenburg giving back San Diego their 1st round pick. Which they ultimately traded to LA Lakers in the Norm Nixon - Bryon Scott trade.
IT was a long time ago and I knew the actual "people" pulling the strings on the trade. History and my memory are not quite lining up but here is the only thing I could find on it. (If I am wrong not the first time!)
Remember the 82, 84, 85 drafts were loaded and at the time it was felt this draft was going to be a stinker and teams did not want to tie up payroll with high first round picks.

June 27, 1983 - Robey and the Clippers 1983 2nd round pick the Celtics acquired in the Archibald trade in 1978 were packaged together with the Celtics own 1983 2nd round pick and shipped to the Phoenix Suns for Dennis Johnson, Phoenix’s first round pick (which was later used to select Greg Kite) and a 1983 3rd round pick.