Phoenix Suns have a gargantuan task ahead when they take on the defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder for the NBA Emirates Cup. Will they have their key rotation guys like Jalen Green and Grayson Allen? Head coach Jordan Ott shares the bad news.
Green has been diagnosed with a hamstring injury on November 11 and is expected to be out for up to six weeks.
Allen’s case is different as he got a milder quad injury. He missed six games already and looks like he will miss even more as according to Ott, his case took a wrong turn.
“Thought it was day-to-day,” Ott said a few days ago.
“It’s dragged on a little bit. It was just not your average quad contusion. He got a good one, but he’s still making progress. The goal is to continue to assess, see the progress that he makes day-to-day and get him out there this weekend.”
Allen went down a day after their win over the Indiana Pacers. Two games before that, he recorded his career high 42 points in win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
He currently averages 18.5 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.6 steals, all of them his career high.
Grayson Allen is still progressing good
While there is a delay in his return, Ott said Allen is still progressing well enough.
“The last couple of days where it’s like, OK, he’s making progress, but he’s not out there with us,” Ott said. “He had swelling. We don’t know exactly how long it was going to take. He’s still in a good place.
He added that Allen is doing some light work on the court already.
“Just now we’re not practicing, there are so many of these games you don’t see him out there to go up and down, 5-on-5, but he did his stuff post shootaround today. The goal is to get him out there as fast as possible.”
The OKC game is more important than the other for the Suns as a victory will mean advancing to the knockout phase of the NBA Cup.
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