The 2019–20 Phoenix Suns season was their 52nd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as well as their 27th season at the Talking Stick Resort Arena, later being considered the last season playing under that name. At the conclusion of their previous season, the Suns made James Jones the team's permanent general manager, with co-interim general manager Trevor Bukstein returning to his prior assistant general manager role. With a 19–63 season over, their entire coaching staff, including head coach Igor Kokoškov, was dismissed on April 23, 2019. After a quick head coaching search, the Suns hired former New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans head coach and Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Monty Williams as the team's new head coach on May 3, later completing their new coaching staff on June 26. After the first seven games, despite an early 25-game long suspension to star center Deandre Ayton, the Suns had their best start to a season since the 2013–14 season, and best point differential since the 2004–05 season.
The season was suspended by the league officials following the games completed on March 11 after it was reported that Rudy Gobert (and a referee by proxy) tested positive for COVID-19. During that time, the Suns put up their best record in the last five seasons at 26–39. The suspension continued all the way until July 30, with the NBA agreeing to reopen the league under a modified system behind closed doors for the best 22 teams (including the Suns) this season through a 29–1 majority vote by the NBA and a unanimous vote by the NBPA. The Suns had a shot to advance to the playoffs for the first time since the 2009-10 NBA season by reaching the Western Conference's 8th seed via this season's play-in tournament as a Seed 9 and winning the tournament there. However, their chances before that point were hurt with not only Kelly Oubre Jr. announcing he would no longer play for the rest of the season, but two other Suns players (later revealed to be Aron Baynes and Ricky Rubio, though it eventually turned into four or five different players) later confirmed to test positive for COVID-19 before the season resumed. Despite playing without key players Kelly Oubre Jr. and Aron Baynes in the resumed season, the Suns won all 8 games in the 2020 NBA Bubble, not only being the only undefeated team in the NBA bubble, but also reaching the 30-win barrier for the first time since the 2014–15 season. Still, despite them going undefeated there (having their best winning streak to end a season ever at 8 wins in a row), they would miss the playoffs for a decade straight due to the Memphis Grizzlies having the tiebreaker over Phoenix after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks there, as well as the Portland Trail Blazers barely making it as the new Seed 8 of the play-in tournament, winning 134–133 over the Brooklyn Nets.
This was the last time until 2025 that the Suns would miss the playoffs.
Off-season
Front office changes After the conclusion of the team's prior season, the Suns named James Jones their permanent general manager after serving as a coinciding interim general manager with Trevor Bukstein during the previous season. Bukstein was moved back to his original assistant general manager role by that time, while Jeff Bower became the senior vice president of basketball operations. On April 30, 2019, the Suns announced the departure of long-standing athletic trainer and senior vice president of athlete health and performance Aaron Nelson. Nelson left the Suns to be the new head athletic trainer for the New Orleans Pelicans, reuniting with David Griffin and Alvin Gentry there. Starting with this season, Nelson's position was replaced by a newly created sports medicine and performance team. The position was headlined by Brady Howe as the senior director of player health and performance, with David Crewe being the director of medical services and head athletic trainer.
During the regular season, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald also joined the front office as a partial owner, business and basketball adviser for the Suns, as well as a player adviser for both the Suns and Phoenix Mercury on January 22, 2020. On July 31, days after the Phoenix Suns announced the sale of their NBA G League affiliate Northern Arizona Suns franchise to the Detroit Pistons (with this season also inadvertently being their last season with the Northern Arizona Suns G League affiliate team), the Phoenix Suns franchise also confirmed that around 30 different employees involved with the franchise were laid off for varying reasons. Those reasons for their layoffs ranged from being redundant to being outdated to impacting the franchise's performance as a whole. The timing of their layoffs were also considered not related to any of the renovations for the Talking Stick Resort Arena, any plans for building their new practice facility nearby the arena, or even the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic caused upon the world.
Coaching changes On April 22, 2019, the Suns fired head coach Igor Kokoškov after only one season with the team, despite giving him a three-year deal, later firing the rest of the coaching staff the following day. After this period, the Suns interviewed former New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans head coach and Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Monty Williams and Portland Trail Blazers assistant coaches Nate Tibbetts and David Vanterpool. Monty Williams agreed to a five-year deal to coach the Suns on May 3, which became effective on May 12 at the conclusion of the 76ers' playoff run against the eventual 2019 NBA Finals champions, the Toronto Raptors. After a lengthy interviewing process with multiple assistant coach candidates, the Suns announced their new coaching staff on June 26, with Willie Green of the Golden State Warriors, Darko Rajaković and Mark Bryant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Brooklyn Nets scout Randy Ayers, Larry Greer of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Portland Trail Blazers on-court assistant Steve Blake being named assistant coaches; Gonzaga University's director of analysis Riccardo Fois and Philadelphia 76ers player development specialist Ben Strong were also named player development coaches.
On July 16, 2020, during the team's stay in Orlando, Florida for the resumed season, the Suns released an updated coaching staff for the franchise during not just the rest of this season, but also intended for entering their next season as well. In this updated coaching staff, the Suns confirmed the official firings of both Steve Blake and Larry Greer from the team. Both coaches were laid off sometime between June 1, the time where the NBA's coaches made their stand on the murder of George Floyd, and July 7, the beginning of their official trip out to Orlando for the rest of their season. Furthermore, the Suns also announced the promotion of Riccardo Fois to being the director of player development, as well as the hiring of both Ryan Frazier as head video coordinator and former Austin Spurs and San Antonio Spurs assistant coach William Donovan III as the assistant video coordinator. Despite the sudden change before the restart, the Suns still finished their restart with a perfect run in the resumed season.
Draft
Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College / Club16Jarrett CulverShooting Guard United StatesTexas Tech232KZ OkpalaSmall Forward United StatesStanford Entering the night of the 2019 NBA draft, the Suns held just one first-round pick and one second-round pick. With the new lottery projections, the Suns were one of three teams with the best overall odds for a top-4 pick alongside the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Due to them having a tied record with the Cavaliers at the end of last season, a tiebreaker coin-flip to determine which team acquired the second-best odds for a top pick in the draft was held. The Suns lost the tiebreaker, resulting in them getting the third-best odds at #1 with a chance to fall as far back as pick #7. The tiebreaker also flipped for the second-round picks; Phoenix received the #32 pick while the Philadelphia 76ers via Cleveland received the #33 pick. At the night of the draft lottery, the Suns fell to #6, the furthest a team with the third-best odds had fallen in the NBA draft lottery as of this season, as well as the worst drop-off a team with less than 20 wins received after a season. Phoenix also held a chance to acquire the Milwaukee Bucks' first-round pick the prior season, though it would not be acquired via the Bucks having the best regular-season record that season.
On draft night, the Suns agreed to three separate trades, each involving different teams, which were all made official on July 6, 2019. The first trade involved trading small forward T. J. Warren to the Indiana Pacers and their second-round pick of the draft (which became small forward KZ Okpala of Stanford University) to the Miami Heat for cash considerations from Indiana for the purpose of opening up their salary cap in free agency. Their second trade had the Suns trade the 6th pick of the draft (which became shooting guard Jarrett Culver from Texas Tech University) to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for power forward Dario Šarić and Minnesota's own first-round pick at #11. That selection became forward Cameron Johnson from the University of North Carolina, who became an All-ACC First Team member in the 2018–19 season. Johnson later became an efficient bench player for most of the season before performing as a capable starting power forward in the 2020 NBA Bubble, later becoming a key member for their improbable 2021 NBA Finals run. With their final trade, the Suns agreed to trade away the Milwaukee Bucks' future first-round pick (which was the 30th pick of next season's draft) to the Boston Celtics in exchange for center Aron Baynes and the 24th pick of the draft (which was earlier owned by the Philadelphia 76ers), point guard Ty Jerome from the University of Virginia. Jerome was an All-ACC Third Team member in 2018 before being an All-ACC Second Team member in 2019 and winning the 2019 NCAA tournament with Virginia. They also agreed to a partially guaranteed deal with Brewster Academy postgraduate student Jalen Lecque after the draft as an undrafted player, signing his deal alongside the other rookies on July 6, 2019.
Free agency
For this season, free agency began on June 30, 2019, at 6:00 P.M. EST instead of the previously typical July 1 at midnight EST period. Players Dragan Bender (through being declined his fourth-year team option), Jamal Crawford, Troy Daniels, and Richaun Holmes all became unrestricted free agents as of the end of the 2018–19 NBA season, while Kelly Oubre Jr. became a restricted free agent. In addition, both Jimmer Fredette and Ray Spalding held non-guaranteed second seasons with the team, while Tyler Johnson held a player option for this season. Tyler Johnson exercised his player option on June 21, while Jimmer Fredette and Ray Spalding were not guaranteed a second year with the team on June 24 and 29, respectively, though Spalding still played with the Suns during the 2019 NBA Summer League, while Fredette played for the Golden State Warriors there. George King also had a two-way contract that expired this season, though he played for the Utah Jazz's Summer League team instead.