Player’s health is the most important thing to any franchise and the Phoenix Suns should remember that when dealing with Tyson Chandler‘s injury.
February hasn’t been good for Phoenix Suns‘ center Tyson Chandler. He’s only played in four out of nine games for the month. All the games he’s missed has had to do with a lingering neck injury. Chandler has even gone to a specialist to have his neck evaluated and got an MRI, however it appears that there’s no timetable set for his return. While it may hurt the team on the court, the Suns’ shouldn’t rush Chandler back into action.
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Suns’ general manager Ryan McDonough has no plans of purposefully tanking this last part of the season, reported by Scott Bordow of azcentral. While that may not be the plan, it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a wise thing to do. Let it be known that I’m not in anyway advocating blatant effort of a franchise trying to lose. However, the Suns are in-line for a top pick in this upcoming draft regardless of whether or not Chandler plays. Still, fans should know that the Suns are 3-16 when Chandler doesn’t play. From a draft strategy perspective, having Chandler taking his time getting healthy is a positive.
Another perspective to remember is that Chandler is way past his prime and the last thing the Suns want is for this to be a career ending injury. However long Chandler needs to recover, he should get that amount of time without the pressure from the team to return. If McDonough is serious about trying to be competitive next season, then a healthy Chandler would help in that.
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There are positives to letting Chandler take his time returning from this injury, however if he is healthy the Phoenix Suns should play him. He still brings plenty of positives while playing that will help grow young players on the team and not majorly infringe on the team’s draft hopes.