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Vince Carter Knee Surgery Might Delay His Suns Debut For A Month

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It's really cool when you trade away your team's top scorer, Jason Richardson, and with the intent of paying his replacement, Vince Carter, over $17 million, only to learn that said Mr. Vince Carter came to town with a bum knee that could need arthroscopic surgery (aka scope). If the scope takes place on the bum left knee, it could be a month before Carter is ready to suit up for the Suns. So reports the Arizona Repubic's Paul Coro.

The good news is the Suns might not be in a big rush to see how Vince Carter is able to score and take pressure off Steve Nash by taking over some of the ball-handling responsibilities, as Carter suggested in his press conference earlier today.

By the way, there was no mention of any potential knee scope issue despite the event being held after Carter had completed his team physical. Why spoil a perfectly good press conference with a knee scope discussion? That would be a serious downer to an otherwise cheerful and fun-filled event.

Should Carter spend the next month getting well-acquainted with the Phoenix Suns training staff and their rehab process, Coach Gentry will get to give Jared Dudley, Josh Childress and newly acquired Mickael Pietrus more minutes. Oh, and Goran Dragic can play the shooting guard, as well. All four are better defenders than Carter and won't walk in the door determined to upset Steve Nash's apple cart by turning Nash into an off-the-ball player.

Now, it should be noted that none of those guys are Vince Carter. They've not taken a sub-.500 New Jersey Nets team to the playoffs through a combination of believing and yummy scoring. 

"My first year in New Jersey, we were below .500 when I got there, but we made the playoffs. We weren't good enough to win a championship, but it was about us believing it can happen," Carter explained when talking to reporters about how he can help his new teammates achieve the level of championship success he's had in his career.