Duane RankinArizona Republic
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The Phoenix Suns are very limited in acquiring free agents being they’re over the second tax apron, but they’ve have had success in the past.
Here’s a look at the top-five free agent signings in franchise history. Only have one requirement.
The players had to spend more than one season with the team.
That takes guys like Quentin Richardson and Tim Thomas out of consideration. Tough call as they both had a tremendous impact in their one season with the Suns.
Richardson was rocking the headband and knocking down 3s with that head tapping celebration for that 2004-05 team that reached the Western Conference finals and Tim Thomas delivered 15.6 points a game and in the 2006 playoffs as the Suns picked him up after Chicago waived him during the 2005-06 season.
They’ll forever be remembered in Phoenix, but the list ranks players who suited up for more than just one season for the Suns.
1. Steve Nash (2004 signing)
Dimensions/position: 6-3, 195, point guard.
Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa.
College: Santa Clara.
1996 draft: 15th overall, Phoenix Suns.
Suns stats (1996-98, 2004-12)
Regular season: Avg. 14.4 points on 50.4% shooting, 9.4 assists and shot 43.5% from 3. Playoffs (seven years) – Avg. 18.2 points on 49.7% shooting, 9.7 assists and shot 38.2% from 3.
Best regular season: 2006-07 – Avg. 18.6 points on 52.2% shooting, 11.6 assists and shot 45.5% from 3. This was after two MVP seasons as he led the NBA in assists for a third straight year.
The orchestrator of Mike D’Antoni’s "Seven Seconds or Less," Nash finished second in the MVP voting to Dirk Nowitzki after winning the award the previous two years. One of the best individual three-year runs in NBA history.
Best postseason: 2005 – Avg. 23.9 points on 52% shooting, 11.3 assists and shot 38.9% from 3. The Suns reached the Western Conference finals before losing to San Antonio, which won it all that season.
The Suns drafted Nash out of Santa Clara, but they traded him to Dallas after two seasons. He developed into an All-Star point guard with the Mavericks playing alongside Michael Finley and Nowitzki, but Nash was a free agent after six seasons in Dallas.
Phoenix came calling with a five-year, $65-milllion deal that Nash looked for Mavs team owner Mark Cuban to match. When Cuban didn’t, Nash re-joined the Suns and became a two-time MVP who was the ultimate playmaker.
He’s arguably the best to ever play for the Suns next to Charles Barkley, but Nash played more years in Phoenix than the fellow Hall of Famer.
2. Tom Chambers (1988 signing)
Dimensions/position: 6-10, 220, power forward.
Birthplace: Ogden, Utah.
College: Utah.
1991 draft: 8th overall, Seattle SuperSonics.
Suns stats (1988-93)
Regular season: Avg. 20.6 points (career-high), 46.3% FG, 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists. Playoffs (five years): Avg. 16.2 points, 43% FG, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists.
Best regular season: 1989-90 – Avg. 27.2 points on 50.1% shooting, seven rebounds and 2.3 assists. Chambers made All-NBA second team a second straight year and finished eighth in MVP voting.
A big man with athleticism, Chambers received All-Star nods in three of his five seasons with Phoenix (1989, 1990, 1991).
Best postseason: 1989 – Avg. 26 points on 45.9% shooting, 10.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists in leading the Suns to the Western Conference finals where they lost to the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The Suns reached the playoffs in Chambers’ five seasons, going to the conference finals in 1989 and 1990. He played a lesser role in Phoenix’s run to the 1993 finals with Charles Barkley leading the way, but Chambers did have 12 points in that historic triple-overtime Game 3 win in Chicago after the Suns dropped Game 1 and Game 2 at home.
Chambers’ impact goes beyond his stats. He was the first unrestricted free agent to sign with another team as Phoenix landed him with a five-year, $9-million deal contract.
This was all part of the new Collective Bargaining agreement at the time in which a player who had been in the NBA seven years or longer and whose second contract had expired could become an unrestricted free agent.
The Sonics had offered Chambers a four-year deal for $5 million to stay, but he took his talents to Phoenix.
3. Raja Bell (2005 signing)
Dimensions/position: 6-5, 206, wing.
Birthplace: Virgin Islands.
College: Florida International (Undrafted).
First NBA season: 2000-01 (Philadelphia 76ers).
Suns stats (2005-09)
Regular season: Avg. 13.4 points on 43.7% shooting overall (42.4% from 3). Playoffs (three years). Avg. 12.5 points on 48.4% shooting overall (48.3% from 3).
Best regular season: 2006-07 – Avg. 14.7 points on 43.2% shooting overall (43.2% from 3). Bell made NBA All-Defensive first team that season, establishing himself as one of the league’s best defenders.
Best postseason: 2006 – Avg. a playoff career-high 13.6 points on 47.9% shooting overall (46.5% from 3) as the Suns reached the Western Conference finals before losing to Dallas.
Part of "Seven Seconds or Less," Bell had played for three teams in his first five NBA seasons before joining the Suns as a free agent on a five-year deal for nearly $24 million. He made his early mark in the league as a defender, but developed into a very good 3-point shooter.
Bell brought both of those skills to the Suns and started every game he played with the Suns (254 in the regular season, 33 in the playoffs) before being traded to Charlotte in December 2008. His battles with Kobe Bryant became legendary that reached its peak in 2006 when Bell took the all-time great down to the ground with a close-line move around the neck.
The Suns weren’t known for their defense, but Bell set a physical tone on that end for them. The highly competitive Bell was ejected from Game 5 the Suns won to avoid elimination. He was suspended for Game 6, but Phoenix won that game and Game 7 to take the first-round series.
4. Grant Hill (2007 signing)
Dimensions/position: 6-8, 225, small forward.
Birthplace: Dallas.
College: Duke
1994 draft: 3rd overall (Detroit Pistons).
Suns stats (2007-12)
Regular season: Avg. 12.1 points on 49% shooting, six rebounds, 4.1 assists and shot 35.4% from 3. Playoffs (two years). Avg. 8.7 points on 47.8% shooting, four rebounds, two assists and shot 18.8% from 3.
Best regular season: 2010-11 – Avg. 13.2 points on 48.4% shooting, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shot 39.5% from 3. He finished seventh in the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Best postseason: 2010 – Avg. 9.6 points on 48%, 5.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and shot 18.8% from e as the Suns reached the Western Conference finals before losing to the Lakers.
Injuries had taken prime years off Hill’s Hall of Fame career, but he found new life in Phoenix. Hill had a three-year stretch in which he missed only three regular-season games.
He became a glue guy who played standout defense.
5. Goran Dragic (2012 signing)
Dimensions/position: 6-4, 190, point guard.
Birthplace: Slovenia.
College: Didn't play college ball.
2008 draft: 45th overall, San Antonio Spurs.
Suns stats (2008-11, 2012-15)
Regular season: Avg. 12.3 points on 46.9% shooting, 4.5 assists and shot 36.1% from 3. Playoffs (one year, 2010) – Avg. 7.6 points on 43% shooting, 2.3 assists and shot 32.5% from 3.
Best regular season: 2013-14 – Avg. 20.3 points (career-high) on 50.5% shooting (career-high), 5.9 assists and shot 40.8% from 3. Dragic made All-NBA third team and won the league's most improved award that season.
Best postseason: 2010 – He only made the playoffs once with the Suns as a backup to Nash the year Phoenix advanced to the conference finals before losing to Bryant and the back-to-back NBA champion Lakers.
Dragic's career with the Suns has parallels to Nash's. They both started their careers in Phoenix, were traded by the franchise to an NBA team in Texas (Nash to Dallas, Dragic to Houston) and then brought back as free agents.
Dragic signed a four-year, $34 million deal with the Suns as a free agent after completing a sign-and-trade deal with Nash that sent him to the Lakers. Essentially Nash's replacement, Dragic had great individual success in Phoenix, but the Suns never made the playoffs with him during his second stint with the team.
They had a nasty breakup, too.
Dragic wanted out in what proved to be his final season in Phoenix in the 2014-15 season, saying, "I don't trust them anymore," heading into the trade deadline. The Suns dealt him to Miami right as part of a three-team deal right before the deadline. Still one of the franchise's best pick ups in free agency despite how things ended.
Five more in the conversation
Cliff Robinson, Channing Frye and Jae Crowder should be in the conversations as impactful free agent signings, too.
From Phoenix, Frye hit 43.9% of his 3s as a stretch-four his first season with the Suns in helping them reach the Western Conference finals in 2010 to begin a two-year deal for just $3.8 million.
Robinson kept the Suns a playoff team after they traded Barkley to Houston following the 1995-96 season. Crowder had a bad exit in refusing to join the team his third year, but he played a key role in the Suns reaching the finals in 2021 and winning a franchise-record 64 games the following season.
Then there’s Danny Manning, one of the biggest what-ifs as far as free agent signings for the Suns.
The versatile forward was having a very good first season in Phoenix, but Manning suffered a season-ending knee injury in February 1995. The power forward took less money (one year for one million) to play for the Suns, but his injury woes continued and was sorely missed in the postseason.
Lastly, P.J. Tucker was on some of the worst Suns team ever (2012-17), but he became a fan favorite for his hustle and intensity. Tucker established his NBA career in Phoenix that continues to this day.
Have opinions about the current state of theSuns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin atdmrankin@gannett.comor contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at@DuaneRankin.
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