Kevin Love is reportedly out 6-8 weeks with a broken hand
Kevin Love reportedly broke his hand today at practice. A quick take on what it means:
- Derrick Williams will get a chance to prove himself. We’ll see if he can live up to the hype that was coming out of training camp. No excuses now.
- Nikola Pekovic will pick up the frontcourt scoring load. Grab him in your fantasy basketball leagues if you hadn’t already.
- Pray that Brandon Roy stays healthy. If he doesn’t, you’re looking at a mediocre at best team.
- Pek won’t be the only one picking up the scoring burden. Brandon Roy will, and Alexey Shved should too. It’s weird, but we’ll be relying on our backcourt more than ever, and without Rubio as a part of it.
- SILVER LINING: Conditional on Love being in relatively decent shape when he returns and Rubio being relatively healthy when he returns, we should see a big swing in the Wolves’ play quality come late December/early January. It could be an epic turnaround.
- EDIT, 7:40 PM ET: Chase Budinger. Does Adelman slide AK47 to the 4, up Bud’s minutes at the 3, and keep the shackles on D-Thrill? Or does he slide Williams into Love’s spot? I suspect he’s more comfortable with Bud–possibly for good reason–but this is a development to keep an eye on.
More later.
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
Wolves have added quality players but Love and Rubio are still needed. It’s a fourth quarter game. Andy, pick your five to finish games who will get us into the playoffs. Andy’s anticipated reply: PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS? ARE YOU KIDDING? PLAYOFFS?
Dave, I think you have me confused with someone else.
I’m sure the closing lineup will include Roy, Kirilenko and Pekovic. After that it’s harder to say–I’d guess Ridnour at the point, and then either Budinger (if they go small with AK47 at the 4) or Cunningham. Maybe Derrick Williams if he’s having a good game.
Agree with RIDNOUR there. That last spot is the interesting one. I think Bud will have the edge going into the season.