Update below
ESPN is reporting
A day after deciding to let the trade deadline pass without making a major money-saving move, the inactivity seemingly has turned incredibly costly for the Phoenix Suns.
The beleaguered Suns announced Friday that Amare Stoudemire was forced to undergo eye surgery to repair a partially detached retina suffered in a Wednesday night rout of the Los Angeles Clippers. It is Stoudemire’s second eye injury since October and the All-Star forward could miss the rest of the regular season.
Stoudemire’s return to physical activity has been estimated at eight weeks by the Suns. He underwent surgery Friday morning, although the club said in a statement that “recovery varies on a case-by-case basis.”
Suns GM Steve Kerr added
“We are very glad to hear that Amare should have a 100 percent recovery relative to his vision and his long-term prognosis is excellent,” Suns president Steve Kerr said in a statement after Stoudemire had surgery.
“Obviously, it is very disappointing to lose him at this time. We are all very excited about the progress the team is making, but Amare’s health and the health of all our players is our No. 1 concern.”
This is a massive blow for the Phoenix Suns and it could see them miss out on the playoffs altogether.
Playoff Picture Out West
There are nine teams in the running for the eight playoff spots. Here’s their currant rankings in the standings:
(1) Los Angeles Lakers – 44 wins and 10 losses — .815 winning percentage
(2) Denver Nuggets – 37 wins and 17 losses — .685 winning percentage
(3) San Antonio Spurs – 36 wins and 17 losses — .679 winning percentage
(4) Portland Trailblazers – 33 wins and 20 losses — .623 winning percentage
(5) New Orleans Hornets – 32 wins and 20 losses — .615 winning percentage
(6) Houston Rockets – 33 wins and 21 losses — .611 winning percentage
(7) Dallas Mavericks – 32 wins and 21 losses — .604 winning percentage
(8) Utah Jazz – 32 wins and 23 losses — .582 winning percentage
(9) Phoenix Suns – 30 wins and 23 losses — .566 winning percentage
The Suns are already off pace and in ninth place, so they have to up their level of play and overtake someone and do this all with Amare? That’s a tough ask.
- The Spurs, Nuggets, Blazers and obviously the Lakers, all look safe.
- The Utah Jazz should get stronger as they get healthier, as should the New Orleans Hornets, these two teams should also be safe.
- That leaves the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks
Are the Phoenix Suns, without Amare, better than either the Houston Rockets (likely with T-Mac) or the Dallas Mavericks? I don’t think so.
Phoenix’s Backup Big Men
The Suns only have three backup big men — Robin Lopez, Louis Admunson, and Courtney Sims. Amundson is the only player amongst the three who has shown himself to be a capable player.
Phoenix have one of the worst collections of backup big men in the NBA, particularly for a playoff squad and one with eyes on an NBA Title. The loss of Amare Stoudemire will be doubly painful for the Suns because of the poor quality of his replacements.
Small Ball?
We might see more small ball from the Suns with Matt Barnes playing power forward like he did in Golden State. That could be an interesting lineup offensively, with all those shooters around Shaq, but it’s been a disaster defensively.
We might also see Jared Dudley get more game time now, also in a small ball lineup.
Conclusions
The Suns are in a lot of trouble. They’re now my frontrunner to be the team who falls out of the Western Conference playoff picture, which will place them in the lottery and give them the 14th pick in the 2009 Draft.
Those luxury tax payments and all those old legs on the floor will be hard to stomach for the Suns brass, especially when this injury happens right after the trade deadline.
If the Suns can keep it together, and manage to sneak into the playoffs, and get Amare back healthy for the first round …. they could be a sleeper team out West against the Lakers. But that will be very difficult for them to achieve.
Update: Amare is now being ruled out for the remainder of the season.
“Not this season, not at all,” said Dr. Pravin Dugel. “The Suns have the same goal – to make sure he can resume his career.
“It’s very difficult to explain to anyone how serious this is. It’s more serious than any knee or ankle surgery. The healing is excruciatingly slow and delicate.”
Posted on February 20, 2009 by Dave