Paul Coro

The Republic | azcentral.com

Suns guard Brandon Knight’s season is ending early due to a health issue for a second consecutive season with Phoenix.

Knight and the team made a collaborative decision to have him sit out the remainder of the season and get a second opinion this week on his sports hernia. Missing the past two games and the remaining five games puts Knight on an earlier timetable if it is determined that surgery is needed.

Knight, 24, missed seven weeks for the sports hernia, a type of groin strain, from Jan. 21 to March 9. He initially suffered the injury Dec. 31 at Oklahoma City and tried to play through it until he aggravated it on a Jan. 19 dunk attempt.

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Knight returned for 10 games in March before another dunk try aggravated the injury in his first return to Milwaukee, where he attempted to slam on Giannis Antetokounmpo and was fouled Wednesday.

Knight averaged a career-high 19.6 points, 5.1 assists and a career-high 3.4 turnovers per game this season with 41.5 percent shooting from the field and 34.2 percent 3-point shooting. After this season, he will have missed 46 of the Suns’ 109 games since he was traded to the Suns in February 2015. He signed a five-year, $70 million contract in July.

“I’ve had that injury and that’s a tough injury because I can make the same move 10 times and I can maybe only feel it three,” Suns interim head coach Earl Watson said. “Or I can make it 10 times and feel it seven out of the 10. That injury is just like a floating injury.

“It’s vague. They really don’t know what’s wrong until they open you up and that’s the dynamic end.”

Suns power forward Jon Leuer sat out a second consecutive game Sunday after he re-sprained his right ankle Thursday during two-on-two play.

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‘Book’ club

Suns rookie guard Devin Booker might have left the University of Kentucky early but school remains in session.

Professor Watson is assigning summer reading to Booker. It sounds like Phil Jackson, who Watson admires, but he draws more from John Wooden, his sage “body-will-follow-the-mind” mentor while he played at UCLA.

Watson’s suggested reading is “Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender,” a book by psychiatrist and spiritual author Dr. David Hawkins that focus on way to releasing negativity.

Booker told Watson he did not read books often.

“He also said he was a great defender earlier in the year,” Watson said. “We know that wasn’t true.”

RELATED: Suns defense makes strides but detail to come

Bogdanovic update

Suns 2014 first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic had his best scoring game in the Euroleague Top 16 round on Friday, posting 21 points with four 3-pointers and five assists in a win. His Fenerbahce Ulker team has cinched the best Top 16 record at 11-2 with one game remaining before the playoffs.

Bogdanovic has averaged 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 27.5 minutes per game this season.

The Suns will travel to meet with Bogdanovic after the Suns season to discuss the possibility of the guard joining Phoenix for next season. He has a NBA-out clause in his contract for this summer.

Free throws

* The first 300 fans donating 15 cans of vegetables to the St. Mary’s Food Bank will receive two tickets to Monday’s Suns-Kings game. Donations can be made at St. Mary’s, 2831 N. 31st Ave. between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays or on the day of the game, if supplies last.

* The Suns had a trio of points-rebound double-doubles in consecutive games Wednesday and Friday for the first time since Tom Chambers, Dan Majerle and Mark West did it in 1989.

* Watson on an April goal: “The character is there. The belief is there. I’m glad that’s there. There is one more step we have to take. We have to learn how to play without dribbling all the time. I love dribbling drills but don’t bring them to the game.”

* Watson on Booker: “If we wants to continue to start, he has to earn that through the summer and come in to prove it.”

Reach Paul Coro atpaul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him at www.twitter.com/paulcoro.