Paul Westphal

Paul Westphal could have been the next Sam Jones or John Havlicek. Instead, he turned into something wonderful in his own distinctive right.

Like Jones and Hondo, Westphal began his career as an important bench player for the Boston Celtics backing up Don Chaney and Jo Jo White. After a ho-hum rookie season (1972-73), Westphal found his footing in the two subsequent seasons averaging a combined 8.5 PPG and 2.5 APG on .507 FG% and .748 FT%. And in a snappy 16.7 minutes a night.

Helmed by coach Tom Heinsohn and also featuring Dave Cowens and Paul Silas in the frontcourt, these Celtics were a juggernaut. They won 68 games in 1973 and were only derailed in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals thanks to Havlicek suffering an injured shoulder. In 1974, the Celts won a less majestic 56 games, but this time they mildly upset the 59-win Milwaukee Bucks in seven games in the NBA Finals. In 1975, Boston reached 60 wins but fell to fellow 60-winners in the Washington Bullets in the conference finals.

Not a bad stretch for the team, but what about Westphal?

Midway through his rookie season, he already sounded pleasantly grumpy about his playing time.

Even though Westphal, a good-natured guy, isn’t getting to see as much action as he would like to, it has not affected his sense of humor.

Paul demonstrated his ability to laugh off things by noting that during the hair raising 106-105 victory over Seattle Sunday afternoon, “I had a good view of the game from where I sat.”[1]

After three years in the NBA he had an NBA title, but Westphal had no individual shine. The man certainly wasn’t the type to play selfishly, but homie was clearly starting caliber and to remain in Boston might mean an interminable apprenticeship.

Luckily for him, the Celtics made a somewhat perplexing trade on May 23, 1975.

It was perplexing because a starting spot at guard did open up for the 1975-76 season since Chaney was headed to the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis. Perfect! Just slide the understudy Westphal into this spot. But Red Auerbach wasn’t just looking for another guard, he was looking particularly for a scoring “swing man” to ease the club off its Hondo dependency (Havlicek was 35 years old).[2]

So, Auerbach traded 6’4” Westphal to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for the 6’6” Charlie Scott. In addition to being taller and just a year older than Westphal, Scott had averaged 27.3 PPG over the previous five years in the NBA and ABA. Definitely a proven scorer.

But Auerbach knew Boston had given up a gem in Westphal.

“Everybody in the league was after Westphal,” Auerbach said. “Now he will get a chance to prove himself. This deal will help both ball clubs.”

(Curiously, it seemed that the Suns had a devil of a time trying to trade Scott. General manager Jerry Colangelo confided that 15 NBA teams had no interest in acquiring Scott. Since the NBA only had 17 teams at the time, this would seem like an early red flag that Red Auerbach would regret his first man-to-man trade in a decade.)[3]

Unsurprisingly, Westphal got a helluva chance with the Suns.

His playing time rocketed up to 36.1 minutes a night as he averaged 20.5 PPG, 5.4 APG, and 2.6 SPG on 49.4% FG and 83.0% FT. Oddly, he was left off the Western Conference’s All-Star squad, but the Suns nonetheless improved from 32 wins in 1975 to 42 wins in 1976.

Westphal’s assessment of his own game was fairly accurate and the Suns benefited from his abilities.

Westphal feels his greatest strength as a basketball player is his “all around game. I am fairly versatile in that I can drive, shoot outside or pass. By the same token I feel I don’t have any real glaring weakness either and that my game is spread out evenly.”[4]

Westy also forgot to mention he was basically ambidextrous when attacking the basket. Dude could make crazy lay ups from any angle because of that trick.

Now Phoenix’s improvement wasn’t completely due to Westphal alone. The Suns had also drafted the splendid Alvan Adams and the center would garner his own spot on the All-Star Team and win Rookie of the Year honors averaging 19.0 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 5.6 APG, 1.5 BPG, and 1.5 SPG.

In a quirky twist of fate, Westphal would lead his new club against his old one in the 1976 NBA Finals.

Before getting to the NBA Finals though, Westphal wrecked the Seattle SuperSonics in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Westphal averaged 24.3 PPG, 6.3 APG, and 2.3 SPG on .574 FG% and .909 FT%.

Like I said: he wrecked them dudes.

In the Western Conference Finals, the 42-win Suns upset the 59-win Golden State Warriors in seven games. Westphal wasn’t quite as awesome in this series, but he was still pretty good: 18.6 PPG, 4.1 APG, .505 FG%.

In the Finals, after a clunker Game 1 (eight points and six assists), Westphal was a torrid menace on his erstwhile team averaging 23.4 PPG, 4.6 APG, 1.8 SPG, and .494 FG% the rest of the series. Nonetheless, the Celtics were still too stacked and held the upstart Suns at bay in six hard-fought games including the memorable triple-overtime Game 5.

(Just going to note for the record that Charlie Scott only averaged 14.5 PPG on .347 FG% in the series. Scott played fine in his Celtics years, but Red might want a redo on that trade.)

The ’76 Finals appearance seemed to announce that Westphal’s Suns were going to be a perennial contender and they were… but only after hiccup season in 1977. Winning just 34 games, the Suns core of Westphal and Adams needed some help and boy did they get it.

Since they kinda sucked, the Suns got the fifth pick in the 1977 draft and snagged Walter Davis. Meanwhile, they also traded Rickey Sobers to the Indiana Pacers for defensive pest Don Buse. With forward Gar Heard still onboard, Phoenix had themselves a team!

The Suns would win 49, 50, and 55 games in 1978, 1979, and 1980, respectively. After a disappointing upset loss to the Bucks in the 1978 first round, the Suns went all the way to the Western Conference Finals in 1979.

Ultimately, they were defeated by the eventual champion Sonics in seven games. After going up 3-2 in the series, the Suns lost the last two games by just five combined points. The loss sucked even more considering the Suns missed starting center Alvan Adams for three of those seven games. Considering the Sonics pasted the Bullets in five games in the Finals, it was a missed golden opportunity for Westphal to get a title as a leading man.

And when I say missed opportunity, I mean it.

For the 1979-80 season, the Los Angeles Lakers arose as the West’s dominant force as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was joined by Magic Johnson. Despite winning a franchise-best 55 games that season, the Suns were dismissed in five fairly easy games by the Lakers in the WCSF. Once again the Suns were snake-bit as their burly inside man Truck Robinson missed all but nine minutes of the series.

By this point Westphal was a perennial All-Star having made that team four years in a row. He also had been named to the All-NBA 1st Team three consecutive seasons before settling for an All-NBA 2nd Team appearance in 1980. These accolades and his averages of 22.5 PPG, 5.6 APG, 1.8 SPG, .518 FG%, and .833 FT% gave him a good claim to being the best shooting guard in the league.

But he was fed up with being in Phoenix.

Once again, the bench played a role in Westphal’s departure. He criticized coach John MacLeod for using the reserve players too often when the starters would have sufficed. “I think every player would like to play a little more. I felt under the Phoenix system the starters could have played more and been more effective,” he chimed after he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics.

The problems went beyond mere playing time, though. Westphal further opined, “I feel Phoenix is so organized a lot of time they lose their spontaneity.” Oh, and Westphal and Colangelo were at odds on a contract extension. That might have played a role in the trade, too.

“When we sat down to discuss the contract we never got to money,” said Westphal. “Jerry wanted to extend my contract. I felt there were some problems I wanted to iron out.”[5]

Thus the Sonics happily traded their own grumpy guard, Dennis Johnson, for Westphal, but neither team truly profited from the trade.

Westphal’s Sonics’ tenure was a mess all around. Their other star guard, Gus Williams, engaged in year-long holdout to get a better contract of his own, so the Sonics were likely not going too far anyways. But in his ninth game as a Sonic, Westphal fractured his right foot… against the Suns, no less.

The injury was caught relatively early and doctors believed that only a two-week absence would be necessary, if coupled with an appropriate training and treatment program. Well, two weeks turned into two months. Westphal returned on December 22, 1980, also against the Suns. This return spell lasted a couple months before Westphal’s right foot developed another fracture and put him out the rest of the year.

The NBA wouldn’t see Westphal again until February 1982 when he signed as a free agent with the New York Knicks. Appearing in 18 games, Westphal averaged 11.7 PPG and 5.6 APG. Encouraged, the Knicks had him back for the entire 1982-83 season where he essentially replicated the effort with 10.0 PPG and 5.5 APG in 80 games. His return from injury earned him the NBA’s now-defunct Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Once again a free agent, Westphal signed back with the Phoenix Suns for his final NBA season. The 33-year-old guard enjoyed a modest season of 7.0 PPG and 2.5 APG as a reserve. Familiar territory and role for Westy as he then embarked on a lengthy, if disjointed, coaching career where he always found some measure of success.

Well, except for with the Sacramento Kings. Only Rick Adelman succeeds there as a coach.

His playing career kind of fit with the coaching: a weird yet successful journey. He truly shined for only five seasons as a player. For three years he itched for a genuine chance on Boston’s bench, while his finals years in the league were marred by that bum foot injury robbing him of an extended prime-time shine.

But NBA careers are all unique.

And like I said at the top…

Paul Westphal could have been the next Sam Jones or John Havlicek. Instead, he turned into something wonderful in his own distinctive right.

---

[1] Neil Singelais, “Westphal sits and learns,” Boston Globe, February 20, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/435923301/.

[2] “Celtics, Suns Deal Guards,” The Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 24, 1975. https://www.newspapers.com/image/521016940/?terms=paul%20westphal%20red%20auerbach&match=1.

[3] Dave Hicks, “Suns Deal Scott to Celtis,” Arizona Republic, May 24, 1975. https://www.newspapers.com/image/118479568.

[4] Marty Mouat, “Paul Westphal surprised at trade—but he wants to play all the time,” Helena Independent-Record, June 20, 1975. https://www.newspapers.com/image/35798613/.

[5] “SuperSonics’ Dennis Johnson to Phoenix for Paul Westphal,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, June 4, 1980. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UXdjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_3kNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5281,605498&dq=paul+westphal&hl=en.