Remember when people were mocking the Phoenix Suns for having a glut -- a plethora, if you will -- of small forwards?
Who's laughing now, suckers!
With Josh Childress cracking and fracturing his right index (aka pointer) finger against the rim in Tuesday's preseason rumble with the Warriors, that depth is about to get an early season workout.
The injury happened at about the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter. As soon as Josh came down from the dunk attempt (he was fouled), he immediately grabbed the hand and finger and was in obvious pain. He took his two free throws (made one, missed one) and promptly left the game at the next stoppage.
It looked pretty bad, but then Josh checked himself back into the game a few minutes later and finished the final five minutes of the big game.
That's a sign of what kind of tough guy Josh is. He told reporters after the game (not this one, since I had to jet out of there early to catch a flight) that he had every intention of playing with the broken finger.
Just like Kobe.
The Suns, however, have initially responded to Josh's macho man shtick by shutting him down for a week to be followed by "re-evaluation."
People who play doctors on TV (and actual training staff gurus) are saying that it will take about six weeks of immobilization to heal the "fractured distal phalanx" and that he should be able to play with a splint of some kind once the swelling goes down.
However, should Josh be unable to play or be less effective (he's shooting a sizzling 57 percent in the preseason so far) there are many (many) options.
Most likely, we would see Jared Dudley get more minutes playing at the two and three and Goran Dragic (who had a FANTASTIC game against the Warriors) can pick up some minutes at the off-guard as well. If Gentry wants to go bigger, he can give Earl Clark (oh, Earl) a chance to pick up some meaningful floor time.
So yeah, it sucks that Josh broke his finger. It sucks for him and it sucks for the fans who will be deprived of seeing him play, even if he only misses a few games. But the Suns will be fine without him.
It's a good thing to have extra wings hanging around -- you never know when you might need an extra.