Phoenix Suns: Alex Len Returning Soon

One season into his NBA career, Alex Len has been about as durable as Humpty Dumpty so far. After re-fracturing his pinky finger just a few weeks ago, there’s been legitimate concern among Phoenix Suns fans that even with a royal medical training staff, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t be able to keep putting Len back together again.

Fortunately, it appears it may not come to that with Len. Not for this latest pinky setback, at least. According to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, Len should be making his return to the court sooner than anticipated:

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Obviously this is great news for the Suns, who are currently a big shorthanded in the frontcourt.

will soak up some minutes as a power forward and potential stretch-five, and

will most likely start at center for the Suns, but after that Phoenix has only

and

outside of Len.

I’ve been pretty outspoken about the fact that Len might be the most important member of the Suns frontcourt, and that his health is key not only for the upcoming 2014-15 season, but also for Phoenix reclaiming its status as a Western Conference contender in the long-term. So far in his career, the development of Len’s raw potential has taken an unfortunate backseat to a series of injuries that have kept him from putting it all together.

As a rookie, Len played in only 42 games, averaging 2.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 0.4 blocks in 8.6 minutes per game. Those numbers don’t exactly scream importance, especially since Phoenix’s three-headed hydra point guard attack captures most of the attention anyway. But an area where the Suns are severely lacking is rim protection (and defense in general), which is something Len will need to be able to provide for this team down the road.

Len was sidelined during his first NBA season because of ankle injuries that required surgery the summer before his first training camp. Then he missed six more weeks of regular season time because of a knee injury. Anticipation for Len was high heading into the NBA Summer League, especially since he had shown flashes of potential during his limited time during the second half of the 2013-14 season.

But in his first Summer League game, Len had to exit with a fractured pinky that kept him out of the entire event. Yet another opportunity to develop his raw game was wasted.

Training camp figured to be a different story…until Len re-fractured the same pinky. It was a freak accident, sure, but so was the first one, and after being disappointed the No. 5 draft pick could barely stay healthy as a rookie, frustration began to mount for fans who already thought of Len as the dreaded injury-prone seven-footer.

Len’s nowhere near as athletic as Plumlee, but he has a decent range with his jump shot and has a lot more potential as a low-post presence on both ends of the floor. Sky Miles was a great surprise last season, but he may not be the long-term solution at center that Alex Len can become in time.

So yes, to say there’s a teensy bit of pressure on Len to at least play in one preseason game would be putting it lightly, and that’s before we even start talking about the obvious expectation that he’ll actually stay healthy this year. Plumlee will most likely remain the starting center for Phoenix for the whole 2014-15 campaign, especially since this team will be fighting for a playoff spot. But if Len can put these two random freak injuries behind him and focus on having a successful sophomore year, the Suns will be in a great place.

With Len already participating in scrimmages and expected to come back much sooner than expected, so far, so good. Just stay off that damn wall, Humpty.