After a Season of Improvement, the Suns Are Set in Their West : NBA playoffs: Center now stays close to the basket--and leads the league in shooting.

The surname is appropriate, because Mark West knows how important direction and location have been to his career.

The Phoenix Suns are the fourth team he has played for in the seven years since he left Old Dominion University. In his first 4 1/2 seasons, he was with Dallas (34 games), then Milwaukee (11 days) and then Cleveland (until Feb. 25, 1988).

A 6-foot-10 center, he went to Phoenix from Cleveland in a trade that also brought Kevin Johnson to the Suns.

The trade, along with the signing of free agent Tom Chambers, helped put the Suns among the NBA elite. Except that West was not the centerpiece.

Johnson has developed, but West has improved beyond expectation. No one mentions his name among the best big men of the game, but certainly he makes a difference inside. The Suns’ first-round series victory over Utah bears that out.

Game 1: Seven rebounds, four points.

Game 2: 14 points, 21 rebounds to tie a club record for a playoff game.

Game 3: 18 points, 10 rebounds.

Game 4: Six points, 11 rebounds, five blocked shots.

Game 5: Six points, 11 rebounds, five blocked shots.

“Obviously he made a difference in this series,” said Utah’s Karl Malone, who spent much of the time battling West. “He’s one of those guys who just keeps working and working. You can say what you want to, but he was probably the key to their series.”

The Suns, who open a best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series against the Lakers at the Forum tonight, have more prominent players, such as Chambers, Johnson and Jeff Hornacek. Why doesn’t West receive more acclaim?

“I get a pay check,” West said. “That’s credit enough.”

Phoenix Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons won’t leave it at that.

“Everyone talks about Hornacek being our most improved player, but he is the most underrated. The most improved player is Mark West, because he had so far to come. Mark West wasn’t a basketball player before. Now he is.

“He has made strides every year. A year ago, we never would have thought about getting him to the basket this much. Now, we go to him as much as possible.”

The key is location--never more than five feet away from the basket. The simple strategy of knowing his range is unspectacular--but successful beyond what anyone could have imagined.

Check out the league leaders in field goal percentage: Charles Barkley, Robert Parish, Malone--all behind Mark West. His mark of 62.5% is the best since Steve Johnson shot 63.2% for San Antonio in 1985-86.

“I don’t think that’s something I’m concerned with a lot, how far I’ve come,” said West, who began the season as a 56.5% career shooter. “I always just try to be better than the year before and better than the day before. The biggest thing is that I’m helping the team now on offense, not hurting them.”

The only Sun to play all 82 games, West also finished eighth in the league in blocked shots, averaging 2.24, and 17th in rebounding at 8.9. But the numbers he would rather talk about are his worst.

His 69.1% free-throw accuracy, atrocious by some standards, was his career high.

“When you improve to 69%, you know you had to be bad,” West said, shaking his head and smiling. “If that’s improvement, you know the depths where I’ve come from.”

In his 34 games as a rookie with the Bucks, he shot 31.8%. The next season, in 66 games with Milwaukee and Cleveland, 49.4%. For the next five seasons, he remained in the 50% range.

West credits Johnson, a close friend, for helping him with free throws. The two shot for hours a day during the most recent off-season in Phoenix, but Johnson would only count as good the shots that had enough arc. Johnson was the judge on that, too.

As a result, West’s free-throw shooting has improved. As has his entire game.