Michael Redd-y to make Suns debut

Two years and two days after tearing the ACL and MCL in
his left knee for a second time, Michael Redd will make
his Phoenix Suns debut Thursday against the Cleveland
Cavaliers at US Airways Center.

“He’ll go tonight,” said head coach Alvin Gentry,
following shoot-around Thursday. “We’ll stick him in and
see what’s going to happen.”

Gentry wants to get the veteran shooting guard — whom the
Suns signed as a free agent at the end of December — into
the game “as early as we can. I think it’s important for
the veteran guys. They work so hard and they get loose
and they warm up.”

Asked whether that may mean starting Redd in the future,
Gentry responded, “That’s something that we’re going to
kind of look at and see.”

Redd has been a starter for most of his 11-year career,
averaging 20 points, 4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 578
games with Milwaukee, the team that drafted him in the
second round of the 2000 NBA Draft.

“He can make shots,” Gentry said, “and there’s always a
place for a guy on a team that can make shots.”

Gentry added he doesn’t see a problem fitting Redd into
the rotation “because Grant Hill is playing too many
minutes.

“He’s working so hard guarding a guy like Kobe [Bryant]
that we’ve got to try to find some relief for him some
way. I think it does take away from his offensive games
when he has to work so hard defensively.”

Hill, who averages 27 minutes, played 33 minutes against
the Lakers Tuesday night, shooting a season-low 1-for-12.

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