1987–88 Phoenix Suns season

The 1987–88 Phoenix Suns season was the 19th season for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. The team was led by new head coach John Wetzel. Having missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, Suns management made a midseason trade with Cleveland in attempt to return the Suns to postseason play. The trade would in part send All-Star Larry Nance in exchange for rookie Kevin Johnson. All home games were played at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Despite Nance's quality play (he was leading the Suns in scoring with 21 points and 10 rebounds per game), Suns director of personnel, Cotton Fitzsimmons, stated the reason for the trade. "It's obvious we are not happy with our current record and we are not happy with our record over the last few seasons. We talked to a lot of teams about Nance. We felt it (the trade with Cleveland) was the best deal for us in regard to the youth of the players and draft choices involved."^[1] On February 25, the 29-year-old Nance, along with Mike Sanders and a 1988 draft first round pick, were sent to Cleveland in exchange for Johnson, Tyrone Corbin, Mark West, 1988 draft first and second round picks, and a 1989 second round pick. (The 1988 draft first rounder would turn out to be Dan Majerle.)^[2] On the day of the trade, the Suns beat Cleveland (none of the players involved in the trade recorded any minutes). The Suns would, however, lose their next nine games in a row.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	2	Armon Gilliam	Forward	United States	UNLV
2	46	Bruce Dalrymple	Guard	United States	Georgia Tech
3	53	Winston Crite	Forward	United States	Texas A&M
4	76	Steve Beck	Guard	United States	Arizona State
5	99	Brent Counts	Forward	United States	Pacific
6	122	Marcel Boyce	Forward	United States	Akron
7	145	Ron Singleton	Guard	United States	Grand Canyon

The Suns finished the 1986–87 season with the seventh worst record in the league, but managed to secure the second pick in the 1987 Draft through the Draft Lottery. They lost the first pick to the San Antonio Spurs, who selected future Hall of Fame center David Robinson. With the second pick the Suns selected forward/center Armon Gilliam from UNLV. Gilliam averaged 17.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in three years with the Runnin' Rebels. In his senior year, he led the team to a 37–2 record while averaging 23.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.^[3] On October 8, the Suns signed Gilliam to an undisclosed contract, which general manager Jerry Colangelo stated was "for a long period of time", and was "the largest contract ever signed by a rookie with the Phoenix Suns."^[4] Gilliam would play part of three seasons with the Suns, averaging 14.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in 145 games, before being traded to the Charlotte Hornets in December 1989.^[5]

The Suns traded the 30th pick to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1985. With the pick the Blazers would select forward Nikita Wilson.^[6] The Suns acquired the 46th pick from a trade with the Detroit Pistons in 1983. With the pick they would select guard Bruce Dalrymple from Georgia Tech. On October 3, Dalrymple was signed to a one-year contract, but was waived on October 13 before ever playing for the franchise.^[7]

The Suns used their third-round pick to select forward Winston Crite from Texas A&M. Crite averaged 12.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in four years with the Aggies. Crite would play part of two seasons with the Suns, averaging 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in 31 games, before being waived in December 1988.^[8]

Death of Nick Vanos

On August 16, 1987, Suns center Nick Vanos and his fiancee Carolyn Cohen were among 156 killed in the Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crash. Vanos and Cohen, who had spent four days on vacation in Michigan, were returning to Phoenix when the flight crashed after takeoff due to pilot error. Separate lawsuits were filed against Northwest Airlines by the Suns and Vanos' parents. The team filed a property damage suit against the airline, due to the three years remaning on Vanos' five-year contract, claiming the center to be "irreplaceable".^[9] Nick's parents, Peter and Josie, filed a wrongful death suit seeking $13.85 million in damages.^[10]

We are stunned, shocked, and deeply saddened at the loss of Nick Vanos. It's just a terrible shock when a young man loses his life at such an early age. Nick recently appeared to be coming into his own and to have his life taken away at this time is a tragedy to his family, friends and to our organization.

—Jerry Colangelo, ^[11]

Vanos had spent most of his two seasons as a backup center. Appearing in 11 games his rookie season, Vanos averaged 4.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Through 57 games in his sophomore season, he averaged 2.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. Vanos' role would increase late in the season due to injuries to centers James Edwards and William Bedford. He would start the final 10 games of the season, during which the team would go 9–1. His production jumped to 7.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game during the stretch.^[12] His promising developments would lead the Suns to trade Bedford, their number one pick in the 1986 Draft, to the Detroit Pistons the day before the 1987 Draft. With their longtime center Alvan Adams nearing retirement, and with Edwards facing trial on cocaine conspiracy charges, Vanos was expected to be the team's starting center to start the 1987–88 season.

The 7'2", 260 pound left-hander had become a cult favorite with Suns fan. He had developed a 145-member fan club, which sold "Let Nick Play" t-shirts.^[13] The Suns dedicated the 1987–88 season to his memory, and the players wore a black #30 patch on their jerseys throughout the year.

Roster

Phoenix Suns roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB (Y-M-D) From 5.5 !F/C 33 USA ! Adams, Alvan 81 !6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1954-07-19 Oklahoma 4.0 !F 2 USA ! Bailey, James 81 !6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1957-05-21 Rutgers 5.5 !F/C 45 USA ! Cook, Jeff  82 !6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1956-10-21 Idaho State 4.0 !F 23 USA ! Corbin, Tyrone 78 !6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1962-12-31 DePaul 4.0 !F 12 USA ! Crite, Winston 79 !6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 233 lb (106 kg) 1965-06-20 Texas A&M 2.5 !G/F 6 USA ! Davis, Walter 78 !6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 193 lb (88 kg) 1954-09-09 North Carolina 4.0 !F 44 USA ! Gattison, Kenny  (IN) 80 !6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1964-05-23 Old Dominion 5.5 !F/C 35 USA ! Gilliam, Armon 81 !6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1964-05-28 UNLV 1.5 !G 25 USA ! Hodges, Craig 74 !6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1960-06-27 Cal State Long Beach 1.5 !G 14 USA ! Hornacek, Jeff 75 !6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1963-05-03 Iowa State 4.0 !F 8 USA ! Johnson, Eddie 79 !6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1959-05-01 Illinois 1.5 !G 11 USA ! Johnson, Kevin 73 !6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 180 lb (82 kg) 1966-03-04 California 6.0 !C 53 USA ! Moore, Ron 84 !7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 260 lb (118 kg) 1962-01-16 West Virginia State 2.5 !G/F 7 USA ! Thompson, Bernard 78 !6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1962-08-30 Cal State Fresno 6.0 !C 41 USA ! West, Mark 82 !6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1960-11-05 Old Dominion	Head coach John Wetzel (Virginia Tech) Assistant coach(es) Herb Brown (Vermont) Athletic trainer(s) Joe Proski (Montana State) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Reserve	Inactive
C	Mark West	Alvan Adams		Ron Moore
PF	Armon Gilliam	James Bailey	Winston Crite	Jeff Cook Kenny Gattison
SF	Eddie Johnson	Tyrone Corbin
SG	Jeff Hornacek	Walter Davis	Bernard Thompson
PG	Kevin Johnson	Craig Hodges

Regular season

Standings

Awards and honors

Week/Month

• Larry Nance was named Player of the Month for December.
• Larry Nance was named Player of the Week for games played December 14 through December 20.
• Kevin Johnson was named Rookie of the Month for April.

All-Star

This was only the second year in franchise history that the Suns were not represented in the All-Star Game.

Season

• Armon Gilliam was named to the All-Rookie First Team.
• Craig Hodges led the league in three-point field goal percentage, making .491% of his attempts. Hodges had a .466% average with the Bucks, and a .544% average with the Suns.

Player statistics

Season

* - Stats with the Suns.
^ - Minimum 125 free throws made.
+ - Minimum 50 games played.

Transactions

Trades

Free agents