1984–85 Phoenix Suns season

1984–85 Phoenix Suns season
Head coach	John MacLeod
General manager	Jerry Colangelo
Owner(s)	Richard Bloch
Arena	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record	36–46 (.439)
Place	Division: 3rd (Pacific) Conference: 8th (Western)
Playoff finish	Lost in first round to L.A. Lakers (0–3)
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Radio	KTAR

The 1984–85 Phoenix Suns season was the 17th season for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. The Suns were without All-Star Walter Davis for much of the season due to injury. They would be without him in the playoffs, extending a then-franchise record to eight consecutive seasons even though the Suns finished the regular season with the team's first losing record since the 1976–77 season. The Suns' playoff run would not last long, being swept in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs by the eventual league champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. The team was led by head coach John MacLeod, in his 12th year with the Suns, and played all home games in Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Larry Nance would earn his first career All-Star selection, and led the Suns in scoring for the first time, averaging 20 points per game. He also tied with Maurice Lucas for team leader in rebounds, each averaging 8.8 on the season. Walter Davis was hampered by an injury, starting just nine games on the season and averaging only 15.0 points, while 7-footer James Edwards brought in 14.9 points per game.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	13	Jay Humphries	Guard	United States	Colorado
2	36	Charles Jones	Forward	United States	Louisville
3	59	Murray Jarman	Forward	United States	Clemson
4	82	Jeff Collins	Guard	United States	UNLV
5	105	Bill Flye	Center	United States	Richmond
6	128	Herman Veal	Forward	United States	Maryland
7	151	Raymond Crenshaw	Forward	United States	Oklahoma State
8	174	Mark Fothergill	Forward	United States	Maryland
9	196	Buddy Cox	Forward	United States	Bellarmine
10	218	Ezra Hill	Guard	United States	Liberty Baptist

Roster

Phoenix Suns roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB (Y-M-D) From F/C 33 Adams, Alvan 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1954-07-19 Oklahoma G 6 Davis, Walter  6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 193 lb (88 kg) 1954-09-09 North Carolina C 53 Edwards, James  7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1955-11-22 Washington G 10 Foster, Rod 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 160 lb (73 kg) 1960-10-10 UCLA G 15 Holton, Michael 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1961-08-04 UCLA G 24 Humphries, Jay 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1962-10-17 Colorado F 34 Jones, Charles 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1962-01-12 Louisville F/C 20 Lucas, Maurice 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1952-02-18 Marquette G 4 Macy, Kyle 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 175 lb (79 kg) 1957-04-09 Kentucky F 22 Nance, Larry  6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1959-02-12 Clemson F 32 Pittman, Charles 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1958-03-23 Maryland C 8 Robey, Rick  6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1956-01-30 Kentucky F 11 Sanders, Mike 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1960-05-07 UCLA F 14 Scott, Alvin 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1955-09-14 Oral Roberts	Head coach John MacLeod (Bellarmine) Assistant coach(es) Al Bianchi (Bowling Green) John Wetzel (Virginia Tech) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Reserve	Inactive
C	Alvan Adams	Maurice Lucas		James Edwards Rick Robey
PF	Charles Pittman	Charles Jones		Larry Nance
SF	Mike Sanders	Alvin Scott
SG	Jay Humphries	Michael Holton		Walter Davis
PG	Kyle Macy	Rod Foster

Regular season

Standings

Pacific Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Div
y-Los Angeles Lakers	62	20	.756	–	28–13	26–15	18–12
x-Portland Trail Blazers	42	40	.512	20	33–8	15–26	17–13
x-Phoenix Suns	36	46	.439	26	32–9	10–31	14–16
Seattle SuperSonics	31	51	.378	31	31–10	10–31	16–14
Los Angeles Clippers	31	51	.378	31	27–14	10–31	13–17
Golden State Warriors	22	60	.268	40	25–16	5–36	12–18

#	Western Conference
	Team	W	L	PCT	GB
1	c-Los Angeles Lakers	62	20	.756	–
2	y-Denver Nuggets	52	30	.634	10
3	x-Houston Rockets	48	34	.585	14
4	x-Dallas Mavericks	44	38	.537	18
5	x-Portland Trail Blazers	42	40	.512	20
6	x-Utah Jazz	41	41	.500	21
7	x-San Antonio Spurs	41	41	.500	21
8	x-Phoenix Suns	36	46	.439	26
9	Seattle SuperSonics	31	51	.378	31
10	Los Angeles Clippers	31	51	.378	31
11	Kansas City Kings	31	51	.378	31
12	Golden State Warriors	22	60	.268	40

Playoffs

Game log

1985 playoff game log
First Round: 0–3 (Home: 0–1; Road: 0–2) Game Date Time Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Series 1 April 18 @ L.A. Lakers L 114–142 Charles Pittman (22) Maurice Lucas (11) Jay Humphries (8) The Forum 15,547 0–1 2 April 20 @ L.A. Lakers L 130–147 Alvan Adams (23) Maurice Lucas (9) Maurice Lucas (6) The Forum 15,261 0–2 3 April 23 L.A. Lakers L 103–119 Maurice Lucas (26) Maurice Lucas (13) Alvan Adams, Mike Holton (5) Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum 8,741 0–3
1985 playoff schedule

Awards and honors

Week/Month

• Larry Nance was named Player of the Week for games played October 26 through November 4.

All-Star

• Larry Nance was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. Nance finished fifth in voting among Western Conference forwards with 287,665 votes.
• Larry Nance competed in the Slam Dunk Contest. Nance, the 1984 Dunk champion, was eliminated in the semifinals.

Season

• Kyle Macy led the league in free throw percentage with 90.7%.

Player statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Alvan Adams	82	69	26.0	.520	.	.883	6.1	3.8	1.4	.6	14.7
Walter Davis	23	9	24.8	.450	.300	.877	1.5	4.3	.8	.0	15.0
James Edwards	70	58	25.5	.501	.000	.746	5.5	2.2	.4	.7	14.9
Rod Foster	79	1	16.7	.450	.325†	.755	1.0	2.4	.8	.0	8.8
Mike Holton	74	59	23.8	.446	.311	.814	1.8	2.7	.8	.1	8.4
Jay Humphries	80	39	25.8	.446	.200	.829	2.1	4.4	1.3	.1	8.8
Charles Jones	78	14	20.1	.520	.000	.648	5.1	1.6	.6	.8	8.4
Maurice Lucas	63	22	26.5	.476	.000	.750	8.8	2.3	.6	.3	13.4
Kyle Macy	65	52	31.0	.485	.271	.907	2.8	5.8	1.3	.0	11.0
Larry Nance	61	55	36.1	.587	.500†	.709	8.8	2.6	1.4	1.7	19.9
Charles Pittman	68	3	14.7	.471	.000	.747	3.3	1.0	.3	.3	4.8
Rick Robey	4	0	12.0	.222	.	.500	2.0	1.3	.5	.0	1.3
Mike Sanders	21	11	19.9	.486	.	.763	4.2	1.4	1.1	.2	10.2
Alvin Scott	77	18	16.1	.429	.200	.716	2.1	1.6	.5	.3	3.6
Michael Young	2	0	5.5	.333	.000	.	1.0	0.0	.0	.0	2.0

† - Minimum 25 three-pointers made.

Playoffs

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Alvan Adams	3	3	26.3	.500	.	.833	5.7	3.7	2.3	.3	17.0
Rod Foster	3	0	18.7	.280	.000	.750	1.0	2.3	1.7	.0	6.7
Mike Holton	3	0	18.3	.474	.000	1.000	0.7	3.0	.0	.0	7.3
Jay Humphries	3	3	30.0	.645	.	.750	1.7	5.3	.7	.0	16.3
Charles Jones	2	0	17.0	.600	.	1.000	1.5	1.5	.0	1.5	6.0
Maurice Lucas	3	0	28.0	.468	.	.789	11.0	3.3	.7	.7	19.7
Kyle Macy	3	3	28.3	.500	.250	.800	2.7	3.0	2.0	.0	10.3
Charles Pittman	3	3	27.3	.609	.	.706	6.3	3.0	.0	1.0	13.3
Mike Sanders	3	3	30.3	.595	.	.800	5.0	3.3	1.7	.0	17.3
Alvin Scott	3	0	21.3	.250	.000	.833	2.7	3.3	.3	1.3	3.7

Transactions

Free agents

Additions

Date	Player	Contract	Old Team
September 24, 1984	Michael Holton	Undisclosed	Puerto Rico Coquis (CBA)
November 27, 1984	Michael Young	Undisclosed

Subtractions

Date	Player	Reason Left	New Team
October 12, 1984	Paul Westphal	Waived
December 10, 1984	Michael Young	Waived	Detroit Spirits (CBA)

References

• Standings on Basketball Reference