George,
D'Antoni spurned the Bo Outlaw type guys, but some of the other coaches loved energy guys.
I'm not just talking about energy, also hard nosed guys who like mixing it up around the hoop. Not John McLeod. Cotton loved talking about dirt workers but keeping them on the roster was another matter - I remember when the Suns got Xavier McDaniel and I thought we finally had a guy with a bit of nasty in him only to watch Cotton let him rot on the bench. Paul Weshphal? Danny Ainge? You'd think Skiles would have liked that kind of player but if he did he hid it well. Frank Johnson talked about it but his idea was to make over little Jake - which failed miserably.
It always seemed to me that the Suns had a knack for finding guys that looked like they ought to be bruisers but were softies in disguise - Armon Gilliam, James Edwards, Danny Schayes, Joe Kleine, Mark Bryant, Rodney Rogers, Gheorgi Gluckov, Tim Kempton - to name a few off the top of my head. Mark West wasn't in that category but he was the master of the ticky tack foul - just think of the difference it'd have made if he'd gotten full value for most of those fouls.
When it comes to major players teams have to take whoever falls to them much of the time but when it comes to bench players they can get whatever they value most highly.