The Phoenix Suns need Kelly Oubre to play again this season for two reasons

Major Reason Number Two

Whether you want the Phoenix Suns to trade him or not, I dare you to name a more available and better player than Kelly Oubre who could potentially guarantee a solid return on a trade that would improve the roster from top to bottom.

He is not doubt their biggest trade chip.

And teams are going to be far more wary of trading for  him if they feel that his knee isn’t 100% healthy.

Playing at least one game before the end of the year should  give the rest of the league the kind of piece of mind necessary to make such a deal.

Let us be fair too about the situation: the Phoenix Suns are 22-34 with him playing this year. While that record alone is obviously better than last season, it is still nowhere near as good as this franchise wants to be.

Oubre is young (24-years-old), he is still only improving (his per-36 minute points, rebounds, and assists averages are either career-highs or tied for career-highs set just last season), and he has the kind of energy and two-way mindedness that every  team in the league wants on their roster.

He looks great in a Phoenix Suns uniform, but so does a number of other better  players who might be acquired so long as Oubre is a part of the package in return.

This latest injury to Kelly Oubre sucks buttermilk because it’s just another in a long line of unfortunate injuries that have befallen this roster this season, but it also hurts the team’s ability to make the playoffs, feel quite as good as we’d like heading into the offseason, and makes trading him easier in the event that the perfect deal does become available.

If Kelly Oubre is able to make a quick comeback for at least the final game(s) of the year, his presence will resolve all of those issues, and do so in a major way.