1970–71 Phoenix Suns season

1970–71 Phoenix Suns season
Head coach	Cotton Fitzsimmons
General manager	Jerry Colangelo
Owner(s)	Richard Bloch
Arena	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record	48–34 (.585)
Place	Division: 3rd (Midwest) Conference: 5th (Western)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Radio	KTAR

The 1970–71 Phoenix Suns season was the third season for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. Head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons lead the Suns, in the NBA's first season which separated the teams into both conferences and divisions as the league continued to gain more teams. It was the first season the Suns would be without the services of All-Star guard Gail Goodrich. With a 48–34 record (fourth best in the league), the Suns set the NBA record for the team with the best winning percentage not to make the playoffs. The team would break their own record the next year with a 49–33 finish. All home games were played at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Suns were led in scoring by Dick Van Arsdale with 21.9 points per game. Connie Hawkins finished the season averaging 20.9 points and 9.1 rebounds per contest. Paul Silas led the Suns with 12.5 rebounds per game, the highest-ever average in Suns history, while Neal Walk garnered 8.2 rebounds to go with his 12.9 points a game.

Goodrich, a native of Los Angeles and who played college ball at UCLA, was traded before the season back to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he had played before being acquired in the expansion draft of 1968. In exchange, the Suns obtained the 29-year-old 7-footer Mel Counts, who was coming off a career-high 12.6 average in points. Goodrich would go on to play nine more seasons in the NBA, six of those with the Lakers. During those six years, he would average 22.3 points per game, appear in four All-Star Games and be named to an All-NBA First Team. Meanwhile, Counts averaged 11 points and 6.3 rebounds in his first of two seasons with the Suns.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Main article: 1970 NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	10	Greg Howard	Forward	United States	New Mexico
2	27	Fred Taylor	Guard	United States	Texas-Pan Am
3	29	Joe DePre	Guard	United States	St. John's
3	44	Greg McDivitt	Forward	United States	Ohio
3	48	Vann Williford	Forward	United States	North Carolina State
4	61	Bob Lienhard	Center	United States	Georgia
5	78	John Canine	Guard	United States	Ohio
6	95	Joe Thomas	Forward	United States	Marquette
7	112	Heyward Dotson	Guard	United States	Columbia
8	129	Steve Patterson	Center	United States	UCLA
9	146	Carl Ashley	Forward	United States	Wyoming
10	163	Gerhardus Schreur	Forward	United States	Arizona State
11	178	Jim Walls	Guard	United States	Clark
12	190	Ric Cobb	Center	United States	Marquette
13	200	Fred Carpenter	Forward	United States	Hawaii
14	210	Chad Calabria	Guard	United States	Iowa
15	219	Walt Williams	Forward	United States	Miami (Ohio)

Roster

Phoenix Suns roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB (Y-M-D) From C 31 Counts, Mel 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1941-10-16 Oregon State F 16 Green, Lamar 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1947-03-22 Morehead State G 23 Harris, Art 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1947-01-13 Stanford G 11 Haskins, Clem 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1943-07-11 Western Kentucky F/C 42 Hawkins, Connie 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1942-07-17 Iowa F 44 Howard, Greg 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1948-01-08 New Mexico F 29 Silas, Paul 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1943-07-12 Creighton G 10 Taylor, Fred 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 180 lb (82 kg) 1948-02-05 Texas-Pan Am F 40 Thomas, Joe 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1948-03-09 Marquette G/F 5 Van Arsdale, Dick 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1943-02-22 Indiana C 41 Walk, Neal 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1948-07-29 Florida G/F 25 Wetzel, John 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1944-10-22 Virginia Tech	Head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons (Midwestern St.) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Regular season

Standings

Midwest Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
y-Milwaukee Bucks	66	16	.805	–	34–2	28–13	4–1	14–4
x-Chicago Bulls	51	31	.622	15	30–11	17–19	4–1	7–11
Phoenix Suns	48	34	.585	18	27–14	19–20	2–0	9–9
Detroit Pistons	45	37	.549	21	24–17	20–19	1–1	6–12

#	Western Conference
	Team	W	L	PCT
1	z-Milwaukee Bucks	66	16	.805
2	y-Los Angeles Lakers	48	34	.585
3	x-Chicago Bulls	51	31	.622
4	x-San Francisco Warriors	41	41	.500
5	Phoenix Suns	48	34	.585
6	Detroit Pistons	45	37	.549
7	San Diego Rockets	40	42	.488
8	Seattle SuperSonics	38	44	.463
9	Portland Trail Blazers	29	53	.354

Team-by-team results

Opponent	Home	Road	Total	All-time record	Suns leading scorer	Opp. leading scorer
Atlanta Hawks	2–0	2–1	4–1	8–9 (.471%)	Dick Van Arsdale (21.8)	Lou Hudson (26.0)
Baltimore Bullets	1–1	1–2	2–3	5–12 (.294%)	Dick Van Arsdale (21.8)	Earl Monroe (26.0)
Boston Celtics	2–0	1–2	3–2	7–10 (.412%)	Dick Van Arsdale (24.4)	John Havlicek (32.0)
Buffalo Braves	2–0	1–1	3–1	3–1 (.750%)	Dick Van Arsdale (22.5)	Don May (20.0)
Chicago Bulls	2–1	1–2	3–3	7–12 (.368%)	Connie Hawkins (21.8)	Bob Love (25.2)
Cincinnati Royals	2–1	2–0	4–1	9–8 (.529%)	Clem Haskins (27.2)	Tom Van Arsdale (20.0)
Cleveland Cavaliers	2–0	2–0	4–0	4–0 (1.000%)	Dick Van Arsdale (23.0)	John Johnson (15.3)
Detroit Pistons	2–1	2–1	4–2	9–9 (.500%)	Dick Van Arsdale (25.3)	Dave Bing (28.3)
Los Angeles Lakers	2–1	2–1	4–2	8–11 (.421%)	Dick Van Arsdale (19.7)	Jerry West (28.8)
Milwaukee Bucks	1–2	1–2	2–4	4–16 (.200%)	Connie Hawkins (24.0)	Lew Alcindor (37.2)
New York Knicks	1–2	0–2	1–4	2–15 (.118%)	Dick Van Arsdale (22.8)	Dick Barnett (19.8)
Philadelphia 76ers	0–2	2–1	2–3	5–12 (.294%)	Connie Hawkins (26.8)	Billy Cunningham (29.6)
Portland Trail Blazers	2–0	2–0	4–0	4–0 (1.000%)	Dick Van Arsdale (28.5)	Geoff Petrie (27.5)
San Diego Rockets	2–1	0–3	2–4	10–11 (.476%)	Connie Hawkins (20.8)	Elvin Hayes (31.3)
San Francisco Warriors	1–2	2–0	3–2	8–9 (.471%)	Connie Hawkins (24.7)	Jerry Lucas (24.6)
Seattle SuperSonics	3–0	0–2	3–2	10–8 (.556%)	Dick Van Arsdale (23.8)	Dick Snyder (17.8)

Awards and honors

All-Star

• Connie Hawkins was voted as a starter for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. It was his second consecutive All-Star selection.
• Dick Van Arsdale was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. It was his third consecutive All-Star selection.

Season

• Paul Silas was named to the All-Defensive Second Team.

Player statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game
PPG	Points per game

Season

Player	GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	PPG
Mel Counts	80	20.9	.457	.753	6.3	1.7	11.0
Lamar Green	68	19.5	.453	.604	6.9	0.8	5.9
Art Harris	56	17.0	.411	.611	1.8	2.4	8.3
Clem Haskins	82	33.7	.440	.784	4.0	4.7	17.8
Connie Hawkins	71	37.5	.434	.816^	9.1	4.5	20.9
Greg Howard	44	9.7	.393	.638	2.7	0.6	3.9
Paul Silas	81	36.3	.428	.685	12.5	3.0	11.9
Fred Taylor	54	10.2	.387	.624	1.6	0.9	5.5
Joe Thomas	39	5.2	.267	.450	1.1	0.4	1.4
Dick Van Arsdale	81	39.0	.452	.811	3.9	4.1	21.9
Neal Walk	82	24.8	.451	.765	8.2	1.4	12.9
John Wetzel	70	15.6	.431	.822^	2.2	1.6	4.7

^ – Minimum 350 free throw attempts.

Transactions

Trades

April 23, 1970	To Chicago Bulls---- Jim Fox 1971 second-round draft pick	To Phoenix Suns---- Clem Haskins
May 20, 1970	To Los Angeles Lakers---- Gail Goodrich	To Phoenix Suns---- Mel Counts
July 8, 1970	To New York Knicks---- Heywood Dotson	To Phoenix Suns---- 1971 fifth-round draft pick

Free agents

Subtractions

Date	Player	Reason Left	New Team
May 11, 1970	Jerry Chambers	Expansion Draft	Portland Trail Blazers
May 11, 1970	Stan McKenzie	Expansion Draft	Portland Trail Blazers
July 27, 1970	Neil Johnson	Waived	Virginia Squires (ABA)

References

• Standings on Basketball Reference