The Phoenix Suns suffered a yet another injury-related setback when news broke Thursday that Kelly Oubre sustained a torn meniscus and is out indefinitely.
If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Phoenix Suns would have no luck at all. Just when they finally got (most of) their roster back and showed signs of gaining some momentum, the team was slapped in the face with the unfortunate news Kelly Oubre Jr. tore his meniscus. Barring his exuberant personality actually being the alter ego of the real-life Deadpool, he will likely miss the remainder of the season.
To recap, there have been an exorbanant amount of injuries to the Phoniex Suns this season. Big and small, longterm and short term, injuries have cascaded into the Phoenix Suns locker room like a tsunami.
Ooh. Too soon? Too soon.
Frank Kaminsky, who has had his ups and downs, but was trending up when he injured his knee, has missed 27 games and counting. No word on if he plans to attempt a return this season.
Aron Baynes, who started out the year on a superhero-like tear, finally tore himself down and subsequently missed 22 games.
Cameron Johnson has missed 13 games. Ricky Rubio has missed eight. Dario Saric, seven. Ayton has missed seven games on top of the 25 games in which he was suspended.
You get the idea.
In fact, the only injury in the NBA that could be considered good luck for the Phoenix Suns happened to Damian Lillard, and thankfully, that one wasn’t seroius.
The more frustrating part of all these injuries is that they occurred just when things might have been looking up for the Phoenix Suns. Baynes went out when he was playing so well in Ayton’s absence. Ayton turned his ankle immediately after coming back from suspension. And Kaminsky was averaging 14 points in the eight games before he got injured.
And now, just as the Suns were primed to make a push for the playoffs in the final stretch of the season, their emotional leader goes down with a meniscus tear. When it rains, it tsunamis.
Still too soon? Yeah. Still too soon.
In all seriousness, my love goes out to Kelly. He is the heart and soul of this team and has played far beyond even the most optimistic of predictions since he came to Phoenix last season.
Another annoying part of this is we don’t even really know how or when it happened. We have to assume practice, I guess. Or maybe it happened in the Utah game. But not knowing how one of the team’s best players got injured for the season makes me shake my fist in the general direction of James Jones and his notorious tight-lips.
This final stretch of games would have been the perfect opportunity for him to continue to gel with his teammates, especially now that most of the roster is healthy, and either strive for the 8-seed this year or build some momentum going into next season.
Instead, this.
Another tough beat of bad luck delivered to the person who has been the shining sun during a year full of bad luck.
Best wishes to Tsunami Papi. Like any good wave, here’s to him coming crashing back.