Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen is having one of his best years statistically, but injuries have tempered his enthusiasm. Allen said his main focus is on being available as much as possible.
Career Year Hampered by Missed Games
Allen’s shooting has been impressive; he shot 45% from 3-point range in the first 13 games, with a field goal percentage slightly higher at 45.5%. While his shooting percentages have dipped slightly as the season progressed due to injuries, he is still on pace for career highs. These include points (17.3), assists (4.1) and steals (1.4) per game.
Suns coach Jordan Ott noted Allen’s impact. Ott said on Friday that Allen has impressed everyone this season. He highlighted Allen’s driving ability, which the team needs, particularly with Jalen Green missing a significant portion of the year. Ott also noted Allen’s ability to get into the paint.
In addition to his scoring, Allen has the highest usage rate (24.9) of his eight years in the NBA. He also has the most assists per 40 minutes (5.5) of his career.
Quad and Knee Issues Sideline Allen
Allen has averaged around 70 games per season over the last four years. However, this year he’s played in 45 games with nine remaining. Allen stated the most frustrating thing for him is his availability.
Allen said he felt the healthiest he’d been to begin a year since 2022 coming into this season. He started the season strongly, but then injuries struck. He missed seven games before returning for five games during a six-game stretch, and then missed another nine straight games.
Allen detailed the injuries, explaining the first was a quad contusion, followed by a knee injury. He felt both injuries were unavoidable. He said he didn’t think he could have controlled having a quad contusion and that he didn’t know it could get that bad. Then, he described two weird landings that resulted in weird twisting knee injuries.
Hoping to Finish the Season Strong
The second knee injury caused Allen to miss 11 games across February and March. He is hopeful he is past those injuries now. Allen said he thinks he is mostly past them, but they won’t completely go away. He added that some of the stuff that happened isn’t going to fully heal until he has four to six weeks in the offseason.
Allen is thankful his injuries haven’t sidelined him for longer periods. He said that while it’s probably his best season in the league from a performance perspective, he’s missed too many games to be happy about it.
Allen noted that he is dealing with similar issues to what others are experiencing this late in the season.