Suns Continue to be Plagued by Injuries

The Phoenix Suns' injury problem continue as the team slides down in the standings

Author:
Remy Mastey
Dec 14, 2022 3:48 PM EST

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Over the past two seasons, the Phoenix Suns have proven to be an elite regular season team, finishing as a top-two seed in Western Conference both years.

The only thing that could derail this extremely talented Suns team is injuries. Unfortunately for the Suns, that is exactly what has been transpiring to start the 2022-23 campaign.

It all started on Nov. 4 when in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Cam Johnson suffered a torn meniscus requiring surgery which has left him on the sideline ever since.

Just three days later against the Philadelphia 76ers, Chris Paul went down with a heel injury leaving the 37-year-old point guard out of the lineup for 14 games.

While Paul was injured, the Suns were able to succeed without him going 9-5 in that stretch. However, the real trouble came this past Friday when Devin Booker left a game against the New Orleans Pelicans due to hamstring tightness, leading the Suns to lose 128-117.

Without Booker the Suns have dropped their past two games against the Pelicans and the below average Houston Rockets. The Suns are currently on a five-game losing streak going from first to fourth place in the Western Conference in the course of a week.

To make matters worse, the Suns lost Deandre Ayton and Cameron Payne due to injury against the Rockets last night.

With the injury timelines of Booker, Ayton and Payne unclear, the Suns will have to rely heavily on Paul who at his current age cannot be the primary option as it could lead to another nagging injury.

The Suns need to ensure their players are healthy and ready to go come playoff time; does that mean they should rest their starters sporadically throughout the season? While this strategy may be frowned upon by the NBA, it has proven to work for some teams in the past.

The Suns already have a ton of regular season success over the past couple of years but the key ingredient they are missing is a championship. It is clear that the Suns should make the playoffs but if the team is not healthy come April, they could be in trouble.

Before the Feb. 9 trade deadline, the Suns need to make it a priority to go out and add depth to their lineup so if injuries continue to occur, they have players who are prepared to take on the challenge of a heavy workload.

The injury bug has been spreading like wildfire in the locker room but it is only December and the Suns still have four months to get healthy and build a team that can combat these injuries the right way.