Brandon Knight is on the sidelines again, this time for the rest of the season.
The Phoenix Suns have elected to shut down their point guard for the remainder of 2015-16 as he rehabilitates a sports hernia that may require surgery, according to Paul Coro of AZCentral Sports:
uns guard Brandon Knight’s season is ending early due to a health issue for a second consecutive season with Phoenix.
Knight and the team made a collaborative decision to have him sit out the remainder of the season and get a second opinion this week on his sports hernia. Missing the past two games and the remaining five games puts Knight on an earlier timetable if it is determined that surgery is needed.
Brandon Knight, 24, missed seven weeks for the sports hernia, a type of groin strain, from Jan. 21 to March 9. He initially suffered the injury Dec. 31 at Oklahoma City and tried to play through it until he aggravated it on a Jan. 19 dunk attempt.
Short term, this isn’t a big deal. The Suns are locked into one of the NBA’s three worst records, and the absence of Knight can only do good things for their draft lottery odds. Crass? Perhaps. But true all the same.
Long term, this is far from ideal.
This is the second time in two seasons Brandon Knight has been unable to finish out the schedule due to injury. Let’s also not forget that Eric Bledsoe is on the shelf for the rest of this year. So the Suns have roughly $26.5 million this season, and more than $26.5 million next season, wrapped up in an injured backcourt.
If the Suns land a top prospect, keep Devin Booker on his current path and know that Bledsoe and Knight will heal up with no potential repercussions or setbacks moving forward, their rebuild will be in pretty good shape.
If the latter two continue to battle injuries, killing their trade stocks in the process, well, it’s going to be a long few years in Phoenix.
