Luke Kennard day-to-day with sore left knee as Suns head to Portland for opener

Luke Kennard is listed as day-to-day with a sore left knee heading into the Phoenix Suns‘ season opener in Portland on Wednesday, and the early word from Phoenix is that the shooter they signed to fix their spacing should not be gone long.

The injury happened Wednesday, October 14, in San Antonio. Kennard came down awkwardly after a contested floater in the first half, stayed doubled over near the baseline holding his knee, and walked off for treatment midway through the second quarter, 6:43 before the break. He did not come back. He had started that night and logged 13:38, finishing with 4 points on 2-of-8 shooting and two steals in a 123-103 loss to the Spurs.

Coach Jordan Ott called it a sore left knee after the game and said Kennard would be looked at again once the team got home. Kennard then sat out Friday’s preseason finale, a 119-116 home loss to the Utah Jazz. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports reported that the Suns do not view it as an extended absence, and that Kennard can be treated as day-to-day leading into the opener. The team has not announced a diagnosis or an official status for Wednesday, although one outlet has labeled it a tendon strain.

Why the Suns need him on the floor

Phoenix brought Kennard in this summer for one skill above all. He made 117 of his 245 three-point attempts last season, a 47.8 percent clip, across 78 games split between the Atlanta Hawks and the Los Angeles Lakers, and he owns a 44.2 percent mark from deep over 538 career regular-season games. With Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale gone, he is the most reliable catch-and-shoot option the Suns have around Devin Booker and Jalen Green.

His preseason was uneven: 10.3 points a game over four appearances and 5-of-16 from three, although 20 of those points came in one night against San Antonio on October 10, when he went 4-of-10 from deep. Dillon Brooks has already called him an ideal fit as a scorer off the bench.

Without him on Friday, Ott leaned on Jordan Goodwin, who scored 10 points and hit two of his three threes, and gave Collin Gillespie just over 20 minutes. Rookie Koby Brea, another shooter, went 1-of-5 from three in 12 minutes. If Kennard cannot go in Portland, those three are the most likely to absorb his minutes, and the Suns would be thinner on spacing than they planned.

What comes next

The Suns open the regular season at the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, October 21, at 10 p.m. ET (Game Center). Phoenix’s first official injury report of the season will show whether Kennard is cleared; follow every designation on our injury report page.