Peters not letting injury slow him
Second-round pick active in practice
Alec Peters isn’t about to allow an injury to slow him down.
The 6-9 forward out of Valparaiso was selected by the Suns with the 54th overall pick in the second round last month, despite having suffered a right leg stress fracture that kept him out of the final four games of his college career and most of the pre-draft workout process.
On Thursday, he was doing individual drills and was quite active during the team’s summer league practice.
Peters is on the Suns’ summer league roster, but won’t play.
“It’s tough, I haven’t missed many games in my life,” Peters said. “This is the first serious injury I’ve ever had and first time I’ve got to sit on the sideline and be a cheerleader other than the end of my college season. So it’s going to be tough, but I’m not going to let it get to my head. I’ll be a good cheerleader and will be there for those guys this week in Vegas.”
He said he expects to be full speed in about two weeks, and, that if summer league play started then, he’d be able to play, but for now must listen to team doctors.
“I’m glad I’m in Phoenix with the best medical staff in the country,” Peters said. “It’s going to be a good rehab process, these last two weeks, we’re going to really amp up the conditioning and make sure that I’m ready to play five-on-five and jump back into practice. I’m not going to miss a beat at all.”
A four-year player at Valparaiso, Peters averaged 23 points and 10.1 rebounds per game his senior season. He was named the Horizon League Player of the Year, led the conference in points and rebounds and was the only Division 1 player to rank in the top 20 for both scoring and rebounding. He also picked up 16 double-doubles.
With his draft status in question due to the injury, all he wanted was a team to take a chance on him so he could prove them right. He got that in Phoenix. “They believe in me,” Peters said. “That’s all I wanted was just someone to believe in me and give me the opportunity, and I couldn’t be happier with the situation that I have here.”
The 22-year-old is cleared for all individual drills. The only thing left is fiveon-five, which will come in the next couple of weeks. Peters, who’s in the best shape he feels he can be right now, is focused on soaking up everything around him.
“You try to learn as much as possible,” Peters said. “You’re trying to pick up every word that coaches are saying, and trying to look and see how the team is executing out there to see if you can add anything to each player and the coach.”
When he is able to see live game action, he is expected to fill a stretch forward position for the Suns. He has tremendous shooting ability for a big man and good footwork. He shot 41.6 percent from 3-point land during his college career. For now, he is spending much of his time watching film and watching practice. He understands that the speed of the game is an adjustment from college and he doesn’t want to fall behind.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that everyone harps on is how it’s just different level of physicality and the speed,” Peters said. “It’s the little things, not necessarily the basketball and whether you can make shots. It’s: Can you keep up, can you learn fast and have a good learning curve?”
Summer Suns fall to Mavericks
The Suns on Sunday fell behind big early and never recovered, losing 88-77 to the Dallas Mavericks in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Point guard Mike James had 19 points, making 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Rookie forward Josh Jackson added 15 points and nine rebounds.
Phoenix got little from its secondyear players. Marquese Chriss had 12 points and 10 rebounds but also committed seven turnovers. Dragan Bender scored 10 points but shot 3 of 11 from the field. The Suns committed 25 turnovers and trailed by as many as 22 points.
The Suns (1-1) play Houston at 3:30 p.m. on Monday.
– Doug Haller