Paul Coro

PNI

SACRAMENTO – At the end of the 68th NBA season, Suns reserve point guard Ish Smith was on the cusp of doing something no player ever has.

If the Suns had qualified for the playoffs, Smith would have become the first player in NBA history to reach the postseason in the first four years of his career with four different teams.

As it stands, Smith still is one of eight who did in the first three years, and he has a bigger personal accomplishment in mind — setting roots.

Smith played a full season with one team for the first time in his career after having played for two teams in each of his first three seasons. The Suns have a team option to bring him back next season at an NBA-affordable $985,000, which is what the 25-year-old made this season.

"I'd love to stay," Smith said. "It's nice here. I like the coaches. I like the style. They allow me to play the way I like to play. It was a good start to hopefully being somewhere that I can stay for a little bit.

"When you're with a high school team, you're with that same coach for four years and you develop. The same with college. That's why you see consistency with San Antonio and those teams. Coach (Jeff Hornacek) knows what he's getting out of me. He knows what I need to work on and get better at and the guys upstairs know the same. When you come back after building confidence with your team the first year, it continues to get better and you still take steps forward."

Smith made a career-best 70 appearances and averaged career highs for minutes (14.2), points (3.7) and assists (2.5) while shooting a career-best 42 percent. He did not know how close to history he was to starting his career with four different playoff teams.

"I for darn sure was playing hard to get there," Smith said. "What would've been even sweeter was I was more a part of this team. Other teams, I was the best cheerleader I could be, but this year I played more and with some consistency. That's why it would be for me to come back and build on what I started."

All 82

Channing Frye, Marcus Morris and Gerald Green were the only Suns to play every game this season.

It is the first time the Suns have had three players not miss a game in the same season since 2000-2001, when Cliff Robinson, Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers did it.

After playing little as a rookie and losing his rotation role late last season, it was meaningful for Marcus Morris to be in that group. Markieff missed only the season opener for a suspension for a preseason elbow, but the twins were healthy otherwise.

"In the off-season, we worked really hard and took care of our bodies," Marcus said. "But every year, we get better. We're going to get better next summer, and it's going to be proven. When you see us, you're going to know we got better. We're going to change our diet again and put some better weight on and be in better shape. I want to establish a bigger role. I think I could've helped this team a lot more than what I did."

Rookie staff

The Suns were not just the team with 10 new players this season. They were the team with five new coaches, too.

"Everything comes fast," said Hornacek, the rookie head coach. "You have to make a lot of quick decisions — plays, defensive assignments. Just like a player, we're going to learn from year to year and get better. We see things throughout the year that we can get better at and more prepared for."

Hornacek was supported this season by assistants who had overarching responsibilities. Mike Longabardi ran the defense and worked with wing players. Jerry Sichting helped Hornacek review the offense and worked with point guards. Kenny Gattison and Mark West worked with big men. Corey Gaines and Irv Roland handled player development, particularly with the younger players.

"What I wanted all the guys to do is add everything," Hornacek said. "As an assistant coach, you're doing a ton of work, and our guys were fantastic."

Exit day

Hornacek, General Manager Ryan McDonough and President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby will meet with each Suns player today to review the season, get input and offer off-season individual plans.

And then they want to say goodbye for a while.

"We're going to tell them not to come in for at least three weeks or so just to get away from basketball," Hornacek said. "It's a long season of coming almost every day and doing something. Even when we had days off, a lot of our young guys were in there working on their games.

"I always believed it's good to get away from the game and go do some other things, even if you fall out of shape five months from the beginning of next season. They need to clear their heads, let their bodies rest and then they can come back and start working out."

Free throws

Suns guard Goran Dragic finished in the NBA's top 20 for scoring at 20.2 points per game.

• Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver rewarded 60 employees with a trip to Sacramento to see Wednesday night's game.

• Hornacek on his team's season effort: "Out of 82 games, there were maybe three or four nights where as coaches we felt they didn't give us that full effort. If you can get it for 78, 79 games in a season, that's pretty good."