The 10 Greatest Suns in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)
By Luke Duffy
3. Paul Westphal - 21.3
When you think of Phoenix Suns basketball in the 1970s, Paul Westphal is probably the first player who comes to mind. The shooting guard was a guaranteed 20 points each night, and he was an All-NBA first team selection on three occasions in The Valley.
A different generation of fans will remember Westphal as the head coach when the Suns made the 1993 NBA Finals, but that is going to get him love on an altogether different kind of list. It's all about the productivity here - and in the case of Westphal - there sure was a lot of it. At a time when the league was exploding around Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, he was right there for the ride.
It didn't matter that he was approaching the tail end of his apex when that happened, Westphal was a player in the league and for the Suns. Perhaps the best stat of all, and the reason Westphal ranks so highly on this list? The fewest games he ever appeared in for the Suns in a single season was 80. Yes the league was different and load management didn't exist, but that is still very impressive.