Report: Oubre has meniscus tear, could miss rest of Suns season

If reports are correct, and there are several coming in that all say the same thing, then your favorite Valley Boy will probably miss the rest of the Phoenix Suns season.

Small forward Kelly Oubre Jr. felt some pain during the Suns game against the Utah Jazz, in which Oubre helped the Suns to their best win of the season, a 20-point drubbing of the playoff-bound team.

Quick search on meniscus tears: could be an easy fix with 3-4 week recovery, or a much more difficult fix with a 3-4 month recovery. We don’t know yet which it is, and that’s why Oubre is getting multiple opinions and doing the research.

This is devastating to Kelly, who could miss the last 25+ games of a season for the second time in a row since being acquired by the Suns last year. A year ago, it was his thumb. This year, the right knee.

Oubre was having the best season of his career, by far, with career highs in points (18.7), rebounds (6.4) and three-point shooting (35.2%) as well as minutes per game (34.5) and starts (55). Oubre had played 55 of the Suns first 57 games, all starts.

An Oubre-led starting lineup with Ricky Rubio, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton had the highest net rating — outscoring opponents by 20.1 points per 100 possessions — of any lineup in the league with at least 200 minutes played together.

Now, the Suns will have to make do with Dario Saric or Cameron Johnson moving to the starting unit for the last 25 games of the season. A lineup of Rubio-Saric-Booker-Bridge-Ayton has logged 63 minutes together so far this season with a +11 in those minutes.