Suns shooting guard Devin Booker underwent surgery on Monday to repair his broken right hand and will require approximately six weeks to recover, the team announced in a press release.
With Phoenix’s regular-season opener scheduled for October 17 against the Mavericks, Booker is unlikely to be available at the start of the campaign. The second or third week of the schedule is a more reasonable target.
Technically, Booker had fifth metacarpophalangeal joint in his right hand fixed by Dr. Steven Shin in Los Angeles.
Booker initially injured the hand last March, causing him to miss the final 12 games of the 2017/18 season. It’s uncertain why Booker waited until the brink of training camp to get the hand repaired.
Booker, who inked a five-year contract extension this summer for an estimated $158MM, averaged a team-high 24.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG and 4.7 APG in his third season, though he only played 54 games due to injuries.
Unless they swing a deal before opening night, the Suns will have an unimposing assortment of options at the guard spots until Booker returns. Phoenix has been hunting for a point guard since it dealt Brandon Knight to the Rockets.
The Suns have Elie Okobo, Shaquille Harrison and Isaiah Canaan competing for the point guard job until further notice. Rookie Mikal Bridges, Troy Daniels, Davon Reed and two-way George King are potential fill-ins for Booker at shooting guard.
I guess better late than never…
It’s inexcusable for Booker to wait so long to fix the hand. I can’t believe the Suns were ok w waiting, either. You can’t force someone to have surgery, so I assume all the Suns could do was continually nudge him to get his hand taken care of. This is just ridiculous.
Given his “handless bike ride” on Snapchat yesterday, and now this surgery, there’s more to the story…time for Book to talk….
I don’t think is anyone to blame, usually athletes & medical staff, will do anything possible to avoid the knife, maybe saying let’s give it the summer to see if it heals right by itself. Then it is very frustrating for the fans when after months off, they end up doing the surgery, but it is because they left it as a last resort. But at least he should only miss the first week, & realistically Phoenix ain’t gonna go to the playoffs, so it shouldn’t be so bad. Though I think it is badly portrayed in all this articles, saying is unknown why Booker waited until now. As I said they probably tried to avoid surgery & it was a medical decision not his. Anyway that is what I think has happened, I like to give the benefit of the doubt to players instead of battering them.
Not ideal if they were gonna let Booker play more PG. Or to build rhythm with whoever becomes the point in Phoenix
Has Phoenix even signed Melton yet? What are they even doing at point guard especially for the 1st week or 2 without D-Book? I guess the Frenchman will have to hold down the fort.