Suns' Landry Shamet felt concussion symptoms before season-high 16-point burst at Minnesota

Landry Shamet felt a bit off even before scoring a season-high 16 points nearly two weeks ago at Minnesota on Nov. 9.

Figured it was just a headache.

Then he went to dinner with his sister in Orlando the night before Phoenix played against Orlando on Nov. 11.

What is going on?

“It was bad,” he said.

Shamet has been in concussion protocols since.

The Phoenix Suns reserve guard missed his fifth consecutive game Sunday afternoon against the Knicks at Footprint Center.

“Weird, weird, very strange how concussions, how they kind of manifest themselves, but definitely respect the fact that you only have one brain," he said. "You can get some repair surgery after your career on your knees or ankles. We’re kind of taking steps. I’m getting back closer.”

Shamet did attend Sunday’s game.

That’s a good sign because the arena is filled with two elements that can cause discomfort for someone experiencing concussion symptoms — lights and noise.

“I’m able to tolerate an environment like this now a little bit better,” said Shamet before the game in the Suns locker room. “Typically, music, lights and all the different voices and stuff would be bothersome, but I'm trending. I'm feel a lot better.”

The Suns continue their four-game homestand Tuesday against the Lakers.

“It feels crazy at this point of the year to not be doing anything,” Shamet said. “The hard part is normally when you have injuries, you’re like literally can’t go shoot or do anything because of my knee or my ankle or whatever hurts. This is just a different feeling. It’s your brain and what you’re feeling there is different than an ankle sprain you can just stay off for a day or two.”

Shamet said he had one previous concussion back in college at Wichita State.

“During open gym, I got like a glancing elbow on a rebound and like right away, I knew something was off,” Shamet said.

The second one was different.

“I felt fine the first couple of days, but as the days went on, things started to change,” Shamet said. “My sleep changed. Couldn’t sleep at night.”

Then came the T-Wolves in the second leg of a four-game road trip.

“I kind of felt like, felt crazy, but didn’t really know,” Shamet said. “I just thought I had a headache.”

Averaging a career-low seven points this season, Shamet still cranked out his best offensive output of the season with 16 points, hitting 2-of-3 from 3, in an 129-117 victory.

"We didn't see anything," Suns coach Monty Williams said before the Orlando game when asked if he saw any signs of Shamet experiencing any concussion symptoms against Minnesota. "It just kind of jumped up on him. So it just speaks to how complicated those things are. Can go for a while and not even know something is going on."

The Suns stayed that night in Minneapolis, but flew into Tampa the next day instead of Orlando amid Hurricane Nicole and took 90-minute ride on a chartered bus from Tampa to Orlando.

There Shamet went to dinner with his sister.

Something definitely felt wrong.

“That’s when I was like, this is something real," Shamet said. "Very odd how it kind of came about, but it got my respect, especially when we landed in Florida.”

Shamet isn’t exactly sure what triggered the concussion, but he is very appreciative how the Suns training staff is handling the situation.

“Taking all the precautions,” Shamet said. “It’s not even so much a matter of when or what happened, but just the fact that I have symptoms and I had them when I had them and we want to make sure we take care of it.”

One of things Shamet had to do was put down the cell phone.

Remember. Lights. Noise.

“You don’t realize how much time you spend on your phone until you’re told avoid screens and stuff,” he said. “It’s crazy. It’s eye opening. It’s like, damn, we’re really on our phones a lot. So that’s been good. Get away from phones and screens.”

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns' Landry Shamet still out, but progressing in concussion protocols