1996–97 Phoenix Suns season

The 1996–97 NBA season was the 29th season for the Phoenix Suns in the National Basketball Association. This season is notable for the Suns drafting point guard Steve Nash out of Santa Clara University with the fifteenth overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft. During the off-season, the team acquired Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown from the Houston Rockets, and signed free agent Rex Chapman.

However, the Suns struggled losing their first 13 games of the regular season, as Kevin Johnson missed the first eleven games due to a hernia injury. After an 0–8 start, head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons resigned and was replaced by former Suns guard Danny Ainge. Along the way, there were many in-season moves such as trading Cassell, second-year star Michael Finley and A.C. Green, to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for All-Star guard Jason Kidd, second-year center Loren Meyer and Tony Dumas, sending Horry along with Joe Kleine to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for former Suns forward Cedric Ceballos and Rumeal Robinson, who was released to free agency after a short stint with the team, and trading Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Darrin Hancock, who never played for the Suns and was released to free agency. It was a season that would not be matched in terms of moves until both the 2014–15 and the 2015–16 seasons came and went.

The Suns held a 17–31 record at the All-Star break, but played above .500 basketball for the remainder of the season, as the team posted an 11-game winning streak between March and April. The Suns finished in fourth place in the Pacific Division with a 40–42 record, and earned the #7 seed in the Western Conference. This team would also be the first, and only NBA team to start out the regular season with a 10+ losing streak, yet make it to the playoffs by the end of the season; not only that, but they would also be the first team to record a 10+ game winning streak, after recording a 10+ game losing streak earlier in the season. The Suns qualified for the NBA playoffs for the ninth consecutive year.

Johnson led the Suns with 20.1 points, 9.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game, while Chapman averaged 13.8 points per game and contributed 110 three-point field goals, and sixth man Danny Manning provided the team with 13.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game off the bench. In addition, Wesley Person contributed 13.5 points per game, and led the team with 171 three-point field goals, while Bryant provided with 9.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, but only played just 41 games due to an abdominal strain injury, and Hot Rod Williams averaged 8.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. Johnson finished tied in seventeenth place in Most Valuable Player voting, while Manning finished tied in seventh place in Sixth Man of the Year voting, and Ainge finished in fourth place in Coach of the Year voting.

In the Western Conference First Round of the 1997 NBA playoffs, the Suns faced off against the 2nd-seeded Seattle SuperSonics; the Suns took a 2–1 series lead, but lost three games to two in a closely contested series. Following the season, Person was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team trade, and Wayman Tisdale retired.