How the Phoenix Suns fumbled their breakout 2013-14 season
By Ryan Bawek
Three Point Guards
Thomas was coming off of a breakout season in Sacramento in which he averaged more than 20 points and six assists per game and he was signed to a very reasonable, four-year, $28 million contract.
It was a great value and asset acquisition on paper, but games aren’t played (not professional basketball games anyway) on paper and team chemistry isn’t built on paper.
The Suns already a had a two-headed monster at point guard in Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe, and adding a third, ball-dominant guard was a head-scratching move.
The idea was so novice and counter-intuitive, in retrospect, it actually feels a little ahead of its time in some ways and it actually worked well from an analytical standpoint.
Every lineup featuring Thomas, Bledsoe, and Dragic on the floor together had a positive net rating according to NBA.com.
Related Story. Trade grade for Thomas to Celtics. light
Regardless of its relative success, it clearly cratered all of the goodwill of the year before behind the scenes though as Thomas was unhappy being relegated to the bench and Dragic became disgruntled with the organization as he felt they were dishonest with him and lacked confidence in his ability to be their point guard of the future after making his only career All-NBA appearance the year before.
The Suns were still in playoff contention heading into the trade deadline in 2015, but feared losing Dragic for nothing and decided to move on from him and Thomas in a wild trade deadline flurry of moves that would further bury the momentum of the season before.
They dealt Dragic, Thomas, Miles Plumlee (a pleasant surprise the season before), Tyler Ennis (No. 18 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft who never panned out), and a valuable future first-round Lakers pick for what essentially ended being Brandon Knight, some low-level draft picks and one unprotected pick from the Miami Heat in 2021 that would come in handy years later.