Suns hope Kelly Oubre can return after knee surgery; Oubre sporting cane

Phoenix Suns general manager James Jones remains optimistic that forward Kelly Oubre Jr. can return this season from right meniscus surgery.

Jones on Friday told Doug & Wolf of Arizona Sports that Oubre is doing well three-and-a-half weeks away from an re-evaluation of his knee injury. From there, he could potentially return for the final two-plus weeks of the regular season.

“That’s our hope,” Jones said of whether Oubre will be back in 2019-20. “Luckily for us, everything looked great. He’s moving well. They want him in crutches post-op, but this kid’s walking with a cane. He just has that cool factor.”

Phoenix’s last game is April 15 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Oubre injured himself on Feb. 24 in a 131-111 win over the Utah Jazz. He played 38 minutes in the game, but the injury appears to have come well before he left.

Jones recalled a two-play sequence, and it appears Oubre was hurt with 10:41 left in the third quarter.

Oubre caught the ball in transition on the right side of the court and missed a dunk trying to attack Utah center Rudy Gobert. Phoenix was pushing the ball again soon after and on the left side of the court, Oubre dunked over Gobert but came down awkwardly, Jones said.

“You can see it. If you go back and watch, the play was I believe he attacked the rim from the right side over Rudy and he missed a dunk,” Jones said. “And then maybe a possession or two later, he’s in transition, he goes up down the left side for a dunk and as he’s up, Rudy taps his hip and it propels him a little bit forward, and so rather than hanging on the rim and coming down on his toes, he kind of comes down on his heel and that’s the point you can see he took a shot to his meniscus and it resulted in an injury.

“You can see him wince a little bit. He continued to play on it because he plays through everything. Eventually we realized it was a … tear and he had to get it fixed.”

Here is what appears to be the last play of that sequence.

The forward would play after the fact and added another dunk on Gobert in the fourth quarter followed by head-bob that led to a technical foul.

Oubre underwent surgery to repair the meniscus on Tuesday.

Phoenix will host the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night without Oubre and wing Cam Johnson, the latter of whom was ruled out Thursday with an illness. Center Deandre Ayton is also doubtful with an ankle sprain.

That will put even more workload on second-year forward Mikal Bridges, who Jones said has the most to gain for the Suns in the wake of Oubre’s knee injury.

“I think if you’ve watched how Mikal’s progressed over the last month or so, you can see his shooting — confidence in his form is coming back,” Jones said. “More than that, defensively, he’s allowed the ability to show his versatility. He’s guarding point guards, shooting guards, small forwards. He’s going one through four. That’s when he’s at his best.

“The kid just has so much to offer the game.”

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