Where are the 2009-10 Phoenix Suns Now?

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PHOENIX – MAY 29: The Phoenix Suns stand attended for the National Anthem before Game Six of the Western Conference finals of the 2010 NBA Playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers at US Airways Center on May 29, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Lakers defeated the Suns 111-103. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

The Phoenix Suns are about to enter the ten-year anniversary of the last time the franchise made the playoffs. So where are those players now?

The Phoenix Suns missed the playoffs in 2009 for the first time since 2004, and while they were predicted to make the jump back in in 2010, nobody expected the ride that they would take their fans on as they would run all the way to the Western Conference Finals, finishing 96 minutes from the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance in 18 years.

With both Shawn Marion and Shaquille O’Neal now gone and Alvin Gentry re-installing the Mike D’Antoni run-and-gun style with Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Grant Hill, Jason Richardson as the heart of a still very exciting core, the team not only managed to win 54 games after only winning 46 the season before, but made what no one would have ever believed to be the franchise’s last playoff appearance in at least nine years.

Today, in the midst of the longest non-playoff appearance stretch in franchise history, if the team misses the playoffs again this season, it will have been for an unprecedented 10th consecutive season.

Let us look back at the players and coaches that made up that team, and see where they are ten years later.

* denotes retired

Lou Amundson* – Looooooouuuuuu was acquired by the franchise in 2008 following a successful stint in the Summer League with the Golden State Warriors. He would play two seasons in Phoenix, coming off the bench in each appearance and missing only nine games in those two years. Amundson had the two best seasons of his career (the only time of his career that he would spend more than one season with a single team) before returning to Golden State following the Phoenix Suns’ playoff run and playing with eight teams from 2010 to 2016. Amundson was waived by the Knicks on October 21, 2016, never to appear on an NBA roster again.

Leandro Barbosa* – 2009-10 would mark the end of Leandro Barbosa’s first stint with the Phoenix Suns, which had lasted seven full seasons. He would bounce around the league for the final seven years of his career, which would not only include two additional stops with the Suns (2013-14 and 2016-17), but a two-year stay with the Golden State Warriors from 2014-16, winning the 2015 NBA Championship.

Earl Clark* – When the 2009 trade of Amar’e Stoudemire to the Warriors for a package that included the pick that would become Stephen Curry fell through, the Phoenix Suns selected Earl Clark 14th overall, ahead of Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Darren Collison, Taj Gibson, DeMarre Carroll, Wayne Ellington, Patrick Beverley, Danny Green, and Patty Mills, among others. Clark averaged just 2.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in his only full season with the franchise before being traded in December 2010 to the Orlando Magic. Clark hung around the NBA for six seasons, his best in 2012-13 for the Los Angeles Lakers, but played in only 261 of 492 possible games of his career.

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