Suns’ Mickael Pietrus Will Have Surgery On Knee

The forward’s agent, Bill McCandless, confirmed to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic that the trade has been canceled for the time being.

Pietrus will now return to the Suns and continue to rehabilitate his knee. It’s unclear whether he’s in future plans for Phoenix.

The Raptors are expected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA this season, and before the trade sat right at the NBA’s payroll floor, giving the team about $11 million in cap space.

Nearly half of that will be sucked up by Pietrus, which makes it plainly obvious that Toronto has no interest bidding on any of the top-tier or even mid-rung free agents. The Raptors could have plenty of space in 2012, though, and delaying the team’s entrance into free agency is likely to be smarter than blowing it in vain this year.

Pietrus has planned on playing for the French national team this summer as they try to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics. That’s off the table now as Pietrus will need that time to recover. This comes on the heels of the announcement by the French national team that Pietrus essentially did not pass his physical.

Pietrus recently picked up the $5.3 million option on his contract for next season, whenever that might be. And so, the Suns are probably pretty happy to hear he’s going to invest in his knee instead of grinding on it all summer with the French team.