Basketball can be a cruel game of "what if." If you were following the NBA back in 2014, the Phoenix Suns were basically the league's most fascinating science project. They had just come off a shocking 48-win season where they narrowly missed the playoffs, and the vibe in the Valley was electric.
Then came the "Three-Headed Monster."
The phoenix suns roster 2014 was built on a wild premise: what if you just played three starting-caliber point guards at the same time? It sounds like something a teenager would try in a video game, but GM Ryan McDonough and coach Jeff Hornacek actually went for it. They had Goran Dragic, the reigning Most Improved Player. They had Eric Bledsoe, a physical specimen nicknamed "Mini-LeBron." And then, they went and added Isaiah Thomas from the Kings.
It was chaos. Sometimes it was beautiful, high-octane chaos. Other times, it was a locker room disaster that eventually blew the whole franchise apart for years.
The Hydra: How the Phoenix Suns Roster 2014 Was Built
To understand why they did this, you have to remember the 2013-14 season. The Suns weren't supposed to be good. They were supposed to be tanking. Instead, Dragic and Bledsoe formed a "Slash Brothers" duo that terrorized the league with pace. When the 2014 offseason hit, the front office decided that if two point guards were good, three would be unstoppable.
They signed Isaiah Thomas to a four-year, $27 million deal. On paper? A steal. In the locker room? It was the beginning of the end.
The Opening Night Cast
Before the trade deadline carnage, the core rotation looked something like this:
- The Guards: Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe, Isaiah Thomas, Gerald Green.
- The Wings: P.J. Tucker (the enforcer), Marcus Morris, T.J. Warren (the rookie).
- The Bigs: Markieff Morris, Miles Plumlee, Alex Len.
P.J. Tucker was the heart of the defense, often tasked with guarding the opponent's best player because the three-guard lineups were, frankly, tiny. Markieff Morris was actually having a career year, averaging 15.3 points and becoming a reliable mid-range weapon. But let's be real—everyone was watching the backcourt.
Why the Three-Guard Experiment Blew Up
Honestly, it wasn't just about the minutes. It was about the hierarchy.
Goran Dragic had just been Third-Team All-NBA. He was the man. Suddenly, he found himself standing in the corner while Isaiah Thomas or Eric Bledsoe pounded the rock. Dragic eventually admitted he didn't trust the front office anymore. He felt the "three-headed monster" was just a way to devalue him.
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By February 2015, the tension was unbearable.
In one of the wildest trade deadlines in NBA history, the Suns traded both Dragic and Thomas in separate deals on the same day. Dragic went to Miami; Thomas went to Boston. In return, they got Brandon Knight from Milwaukee.
Imagine being a fan that day. You wake up with three star guards and go to sleep with one. It was a massive pivot that left the phoenix suns roster 2014 unrecognizable by the time April rolled around.
The Statistical Reality
Despite the drama, the team wasn't "bad" initially. They were 28-20 at one point.
- Eric Bledsoe averaged 17.0 points and 6.1 assists.
- Isaiah Thomas put up 15.2 points in just 25 minutes a night off the bench.
- Markieff Morris led the team in starts (82) and was a double-double threat most nights.
- Alex Len started to show flashes of being a rim protector, averaging 1.5 blocks.
But the chemistry? It was gone. After the trades, the Suns went into a tailspin, finishing 39-43. They lost 10 of their last 11 games. It was a total collapse.
The Morris Twins and the "Identity" Crisis
You can't talk about the 2014-15 Suns without mentioning Marcus and Markieff Morris. They were inseparable. The Suns had signed them to unique "shared" contract extensions, which was pretty much unheard of.
They played with a chip on their shoulder. Sometimes that was great—they brought a toughness the team lacked. Other times, it resulted in technical fouls and public spats with Hornacek. When the team eventually traded Marcus to Detroit later that summer to clear cap space, it triggered a feud with Markieff that haunted the team for the next season.
The Forgotten Pieces
- Gerald Green: A human highlight reel. He'd come off the bench and hit four threes in three minutes, then get benched for a defensive lapse. He averaged 11.9 points.
- Brandan Wright: Acquired mid-season from Boston, he was a lob threat who shot a ridiculous 58% from the field.
- T.J. Warren: The 14th overall pick. He didn't play much early on, but you could see the "Tony Buckets" scoring DNA starting to form.
Lessons from the 2014 Phoenix Suns
What did we learn? You can't just stockpile talent at one position and expect everyone to be happy.
The Suns tried to be "positionless" before it was cool. They were ahead of their time in terms of pace (3rd in the league) and three-point attempts, but they forgot that players are human beings with egos and career goals. Isaiah Thomas went on to become an MVP candidate in Boston. Goran Dragic became an All-Star in Miami. The Suns, meanwhile, entered a playoff drought that lasted until the Chris Paul era.
If you're looking back at this roster, don't just look at the 39-43 record. Look at the talent. It was an elite group of individuals that simply couldn't coexist in the same 94-foot space.
Final Takeaways for Fans
If you want to dive deeper into why this era ended the way it did, look into the specific quotes from Goran Dragic's exit interview. He famously said he didn't "trust" the people in charge anymore. It's a masterclass in how a lack of transparency can ruin a winning culture.
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To see the lingering effects, track the career arcs of the 2014 draft picks. T.J. Warren and Bogdan Bogdanovic (who was stashed in Europe at the time) both became high-level NBA starters, proving the scouting was actually great—it was the roster management that failed.