The Phoenix Suns new half-man, half-amazing shooting guard, Vince Carter, won't need surgery on his knee after all. Having seen the physicians and consulted with the Suns training staff, the diagnosis was inflammation in his quad tendon. He's officially listed as day-to-day, but could miss up to a week.
"We did a lot of due diligence on it before. We did a very careful examination of him during the physical and he's not going to need surgery and I think he will only be out a short period of time," Phoenix Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby told KTAR radio this morning during an interview.
Carter injured the left knee on a play while still with the Orlando Magic in November.
Babby and the Suns are confident that Aaron Nelson and his highly-regarded training staff can fix Carter up and get him back on the floor.
"Once we put these guys in the hands of our first-rate training staff, they recover miraculously. I'm starting to think that we should change our name to the 'Phoenix Benjamin Buttons' because instead of getting older, we seem to get younger with these guys. Grant Hill and Steve Nash and now Vince Carter," Babby said.
Hedo didn't fit
In the interview with the Doug and Wolf Show, Babby also spoke about the rather sudden move of Babby's former client, Hedo Turkoglu. The agent turned President of Basketball Operations said that it was just a fit issue. Turkoglu didn't work out as a starting power forward and neither the team or Hedo was happy with his role coming off the bench.
"In order for Hedo to play at his maximum talent level, he needs to have the ball in his hands and that's not going to happen when Steve Nash is on the floor and it can't happen all the time when Goran's (Dragic) on the floor," Babby said, echoing concerns that were raised at the time he was brought in to the team this summer via trade.
Hedo Turkuglo is going to take some more convincing. He's a unique player but...will likely struggle defensively at the power forward and create even more problems on the defensive glass.
[...]We don't know how the Suns will adjust to him and we don't know if being asked to facilitate the ball so Nash can take advantage of his shooting prowess will really pan out.
Nash is known for being an unselfish player and Hedo certainly sees himself the same way. But both of these guys ideas about being unselfish involve having the ball and creating shots for teammates. In the world of the NBA, passing is seen as unselfish, but for two guys who grew up soccer fans and players, the key isn't who scores the ball, it's who has the ball.
We'll see how much sharing of the load Nash really is willing to do, especially in crunch time.
Loading comments...