Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez out 'several weeks'

Just when the Suns could not afford to get smaller, they have lost starting center Robin Lopez for at least a month because of a knee sprain and are planning to add 7-footer Earl Barron Tuesday.

Lopez suffered a moderate sprain of his medial-collateral ligament and posterior-cruciate ligament in his left knee, a MRI exam showed Monday. He sustained the injury in the second quarter of Sunday's win against the Lakers in Los Angeles when Jared Dudley fell into his leg. The Suns' statement was Lopez would miss "several weeks."
"My experience is whenever you put a time frame on it, it's wrong, so we might as well be a little bit vague and hope for the best and prepare for the worst," Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said. "It's a little bit more serious than we first thought it would be. We were very cautious, took a MRI, and that revealed it was a moderate sprain as opposed to a mild sprain."

Lopez had started all nine Suns games, averaging 5.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17.8 minutes. He will join the Suns on their four-game, six-day road trip that starts Wednesday at Miami, where Barron is expected to join the team on a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary contract if he passes his physical.

Barron is a 7-foot, 250-pound center who logged 82 games with Miami over three seasons. He also had a solid seven-game stretch with New York last season, when he averaged 11.7 points and 11.0 rebounds in the Mike D'Antoni system the Suns still use.

Suns coach Alvin Gentry said he probably would continue to start Channing Frye at center.

"We could play small, but the wiser course would be to try to reinforce what we can do with the (big men) and get another player in here who can help us," Babby said. "We were considering doing this anyway."