What Kelly Oubre Jr.’s torn meniscus means for the Suns

Just when the Phoenix Suns were finally looking good and healthy, Kelly Oubre Jr. reportedly tore his meniscus. Here’s what it means for him and the Suns.

One game into the season, the Phoenix Suns lost Deandre Ayton for 25 games due to a suspension. Not long after that, they dealt with nagging injuries to Ricky Rubio and backup Aron Baynes, who had replaced Ayton with surprising success. Over the last few months, they’ve had to navigate through a merry-go-round of maladies to key bench contributors, including Baynes, Frank Kaminsky, Cameron Johnson and Dario Saric.

Now, Kelly Oubre Jr., one of their few constants this season, can be added to the list of reasons why the Suns can’t catch a break.

According to Yahoo! Sports‘ Chris Haynes, Oubre has suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee. While the severity of the tear is unknown and the wing will seek a second opinion, in all likelihood, this will end his season with only six weeks remaining. Oubre’s season was ended prematurely last year as well, that time by a thumb injury.

There’s really no way around it: This is yet another depressing blow to Phoenix’s ongoing youth movement, which was finally starting to get its legs under it (literally). Averaging career highs in points (18.7), rebounds (6.4) and 3-point attempts per game (5.5), Tsunami Papi had never been more efficient, boasting career bests in true shooting percentage (56.0), field goal percentage (45.2) and 3-point percentage (35.2).

Depending on the severity of the tear and how he chooses to address it, Oubre could miss 3-4 weeks or 3-4 months. The good news is, he should almost certainly be back healthy for next season, and guys like Eric Bledsoe and even Dwyane Wade (minus the late deterioration of his athleticism by going a different route) offer hopeful examples of players who tore their meniscus but were still able to play out the rest of their careers and stay healthy.

Before the knee injury sidelined him for Wednesday’s game against the LA Clippers, Oubre had only missed two games this season due to a concussion. Back in January, head coach Monty Williams praised him as one of the most consistent contributors on the roster.

“Kelly’s a guy I can play 40 minutes and you look at him and he doesn’t look tired at all,” he said. “He’s got his legs and his shot. He brings an edge every night and that’s who we are — we have to play with that edge. I don’t run a ton of plays for him and yet he ends up with 25 points because he just plays hard.”

The beauty of Oubre’s game is the Suns don’t have to draw up sets for him, yet he’s still able to contribute as a slasher, off-ball cutter and spot-up 3-point shooter. Williams complimented to his offense as being a “residual” of what the rest of the team is doing, and the numbers back it up.

According to NBA.com, the 24-year-old wing is third on the Suns in drives (behind only Rubio and Devin Booker) with 6.1 per game, and he has a 75.9 points percentage on those drives. Even in limited usage, he’s become a nice pick-and-roll ball-handler (69th percentile), and though NBA.com’s tracking numbers don’t paint him as an effective cutter, even when he’s not scoring or posterizing people on those slashes, he’s drawing in defenders to open up looks on the perimeter.

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“Not having Kelly, it takes away that renegade that can attack and make wild plays,” Williams said. “Kelly’s had big-time rebounding games for us this year, just boxing his guy out and going to the paint and getting the rebound out of his area, so Mikal and Cam are gonna have to do some of that at that position.”

The Suns are 5.4 points per 100 possessions better with Oubre on the court, and though he’s not a perfect defender, his length and active hands make him useful in wreaking havoc. In fact, he’s the team leader in deflections (3.1 per game) and ranks eighth in the entire league in total deflections.

Even worse, Oubre’s injury comes at a time when the Suns were threatening to hit their stride. Their new starting lineup of Rubio, Booker, Oubre, Mikal Bridges and Ayton had been playing stellar basketball, with a plus-20.2 Net Rating that ranked first in the league among all five-man lineups that have logged at least 200 minutes together.

Phoenix had just put together perhaps its finest win of the season with a 20-point smackdown of the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, and though 4.5 games from the 8-seed is still a sizable gap, just building some chemistry down the stretch with a fully healthy roster would’ve been monumental for this young group — postseason berth or not. With Baynes and Saric heading for free agency, observing the viability of that five-man unit would’ve been extremely helpful.

Oubre’s injury means Saric will likely continue to get the starting nod as Bridges moves back to his nominal position at small forward. That Rubio-Booker-Bridges-Saric-Ayton lineup has enjoyed some success, posting a plus-9.8 Net Rating in 63 minutes together, but without Oubre’s scoring, rebounding and penchant for making big plays that fire up the fans and teammates alike, the onus will be on Bridges to continue being the glue and the bench to step up .

“I think our guys have dealt with having different players out of the lineup all year long, so they know they have to be ready,” Williams said. “Mikal’s been the guy all year that’s played 3, 2, 4, guarded 5s, guarding [Luka] Doncic full-court. Like he’s done that, so he’s been a bit of a glue for us as it relates to lineups and changes and adjustments. I’m hopeful that this group can play fast. We’ve gotta move the ball.”

Unfortunately, the effects of Oubre’s absence were immediately felt Wednesday night, when a physical Clippers team was able to hound Booker all night with blitzes and double-teams. Booker shot 5-for-19 in game where even open looks wouldn’t fall, but without Oubre to capitalize on all those traps, none of the Suns’ other wings or perimeter players were able to fill the void and Phoenix shot just 9-for-34 from distance.

Even if this lineup remains viable and the Suns close the season on the strong note, it’s unfortunate Kelly Oubre won’t be a part of it, especially in the middle of a career year that cemented his value to the franchise, the fanbase and the “Valley Boyz” movement in general. Entering a contract year next season, hopefully the recovery process and quick and smooth for one of Phoenix’s smoothest players.