The Phoenix Suns are looking to make a push towards relevancy once again. This time, they’re doing it with a pretty young roster. When Brandon Knight, Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris saw their season with the Suns come to an end prematurely, for one reason or another, it made room for some new blood.
Guys like Devin Booker, T.J. Warren and Mirza Teletovic stepped up and filled in some holes. While they might not have made progress in the wins department, they did begin to develop some younger talent. An instrumental part of their development is their veterans like Tyson Chandler, newly signed Leandro Barbosa and Jared Dudley but quite possibly the most important is P.J. Tucker.
Tucker has been highly regarded by many around the league. He was in trade talks in the past and many teams have been interested in his abilities. He’s a nice stretch four option, can shoot the three ball and even plays solid defense. Unfortunately for the 31-year-old veteran, he will be sidelined going into the 2016-17 campaign.
Following from Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
Suns forward P.J. Tucker will miss training camp, preseason and likely the early parts of the regular season after undergoing a low back microsectomy on Thursday.
Valley-based Suns spine specialist Dr. Dennis Crandall performed the surgery, which typically addresses a herniated lumbar disk and relieves nerve pressure. Tucker will be out six to eight weeks but could resume running in four weeks. That puts a potential return to game action either immediately after the Suns’ Oct. 26 regular-season opener or closer to Nov. 10 after eight Suns games.
With Tucker sidelined, it allows Phoenix to continue to work guys like Dudley, Warren and rookies Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender to play that stretch four role. When Tucker returns, he will go back to his bench role but his role on the bench is the most important role at this point in his career.
