Best starting lineup of the decade (part one): 1968-78
By Adam Maynes
Join in on the new Summer Voting Series!
Compose the best starting lineup from each Suns ten-year era in this unique purchasing format!
Each position will have five players ranging in price from $5 – $1. When selecting your starting five, you must select one player from each positional category never repeating the same dollar amount for a total of $15.
For example, when selecting a center, if you selected Paul Silas at $5, you then cannot select another center, nor another $5 player. You must then only select from PG – PF, and from $1 – $4. Once you have made you second selection, say SG Paul Westphal at $4, then you can no longer select another shooting guard, nor can you select another $4 player, and so on.
Players for each decade are selected based on the number of games they played within that specific ten-year period.
This first week of selections are from a list of players who played a majority of their games with the Phoenix Suns from the 1968-69 season through the 1977-78 season.
Paul Westphal, for example, played in a majority of his games with the Phoenix Suns by the end of the 1977-78 season. Whereas Alvan Adams played two seasons in this first decade, the majority of his games with the Suns happened after the 1977-78 season finished and therefore does not qualify for selection in the 1968-1978 era.
Additionally, the positions selected for each player is based on basketball-reference.com’s positional slotting per season. For players who were categorized at different positions throughout their tenure with the Suns, the most games played (per position) will lock them into that one position in the selection process. This is why Paul Westphal is slotted as a shooting guard and not at point guard. According to basketball-reference he played more games at shooting guard than point guard while a member of the Phoenix Suns. (Admittedly there could be some disagreement here, but at least in this first decade where talent was overall slim pickings, having him in a different category from point guard is very helpful to your selection process.)
Your choices are as follows:
| Point Guard | Shooting Guard | Small Forward | Power Forward | Center | |
| $5 | Gail Goodrich | Dick Van Arsdale | Keith Erickson | Connie Hawkins | Paul Silas |
| $4 | Charlie Scott |
$3
$2
$1
Each week we will release a new list to select your starting lineup for the next successive decade.
The release dates are:
- Saturday, July 29: 1968-69 – 1977-78
- Sunday, August 6: 1978-79 – 1987-88
- Sunday, August 13: 1988-89 – 1997-98
- Sunday, August 20: 1998-99 – 2007-08
- Sunday, August 27: 2008-09 – 2017-18
- Sunday, September 3: All-Suns Starting Lineup and Reserves (Slightly different rules will govern this week’s voting which will be discussed upon the release of that list).
Please provide your selections in the comment section below, on Twitter and on Facebook.
On Twitter we will have a poll with our favorite three lineups as well as a fourth option of your choice. Please go to @valleyofthesuns on Twitter to vote for your favorite option.
The three options for voting are as follows:
Twitter Option Number One
- PF – Connie Hawkins ($5)
- PG – Charlie Scott ($4)
- C – Dennis Awtry ($3)
- SF – Corky Calhoun ($2)
- SG – John Wetzel ($1)
Twitter Option Number Two
- PG – Gail Goodrich ($5)
- SG – Paul Westphal ($4)
- PF – Gar Heard ($3)
- C – Jim Fox ($2)
- SF – Jerry Chambers ($1)
Twitter Option Number Three
- SG – Dick Van Arsdale ($5)
- C – Neal Walk ($4)
- PF – Gar Heard ($3)
- PG – Dennis ‘Mo’ Layton ($2)
- SF – Jerry Chambers ($1)