http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...Uv6mBgD9BCJQIO1

Ouch. I really liked him this year as an up-and-comer. I still do, but that's tempered a bit now.

Why is it tempered? He will be a star.

Its only a fractured hand.

bad luck to those who have drafted him.

It's tempered because, if you draft him, he's going to miss at least 4 weeks of action, possibly more if he needs surgery. Of course, that's going to affect where you would draft him.

I still don't like him much for fantasy purposes. He gives you stellar rebounding, and that's about it. His good FT% for a center is nnegated by his 46% FG shooting, horrible for a center. His steals and blocks are both mediocre, he doesn't get many assists or any threes. He's got very little upside in fantasy.

I think you're being a little unfair. Is there no possibility for growth from Mr. Love? He shot 56% in his one season at UCLA, so I would expect him to be above 48% this year. He should end up being a 50% shooter in the NBA.

I could easily see him putting up a David Lee-ish line, maybe not this year, but in the near future.

Coming out after his Freshman year, I definitely think Love has a lot of room for growth in his game. In college all he really had to do was get those long arms out there and he could block shots and bring in a ton of boards. His build limits his upside to an extent. I doubt he's ever going to be a massive shot blocker in the NBA, and he's definitely going to have to improve his solid stroke to have a 50+% FG% clip, but I don't doubt he can get there. For savvy owners who have not yet drafted this may be great news. Love could slide into massive steal range.

I think your vastly underestimating Kevin Love.. He was a nice double-double machine down the stretch last year. Now he was going to start from day 1 this season. I also expect his assists to jump up alot seeing as how he is a phenominal passer for a big man...Percentages and stats akin to those also seem to improve from year 1 to year 2.
Bottom line, i expected him to be a nice sleeper. Now i will wait till much later to snag him. at 6-8 weeks for the injury, he could actually miss the first 6 weeks..And then if there is surgery.........not good

I hope he gets well. If this team really plans on running, his outlet passing would have been fun to watch.

my big draft is sunday, and i planned on targeting him. thank you lord.

better put in that waiver claim for Ryan Gomes.

Yea that's what I was thinking. Then I saw "Oily" Pescherov have a nice game, and all of a sudden Rotoworld are touting him as the favorite to start at C for the Wolves?? I dont know why Rotoworld jump to conclusions like that based on 1 good preseason game, and whether they know something we don't. Personally I predict AJ will shift to C and Gomes goes to PF. We'll see.

I suppose having David Lee-esque upside is pretty solid, but I just wanted to make it clear that Love's only got a very limited number of ways in which he can help you. Even someone like Lee only provides significant value in two categories, rebounds and FG%, and right now Love has actually been below the league average in FG%, and way below average for centers. Lee, on the other hand, derives nearly as much of his value from his stellar 55% FG shooting as he does from his rebounding. If that number dropped to 50% and his point output dropped by a little over a point a game because of the missed shots, Lee would drop from 29th to right around 60th in last year's rankings. Obviously, nobody would complain if Love returned top-60 value this year, but overall Lee seems like he's pretty much at the best-case scenario for a player in that mold. Lee plays on a very fast-paced team, his averages of 16.0 points and 11.7 rebounds seem too high for Love to touch in the near future, and without his high volume of scoring, Lee's stellar field-goal percentage simply would not have the same effect, showing that the difference in ppg is actually douby important. Love has none of these advantages, and in general, players with high block/steal/three potential seem more alluring and high-upside than a relatively boring player like Love, who will probably never be ranked higher than about 40th in his career. I have absolutely no problem with him in real basketball, but this is a product of playing a game where blocks and steals are weighted as heavily as more significant stats like rebounds and points. Solid fundamentals and outlet passes are great, but they tend not to show up in fantasy as much as they do in real ball.

Great post.

Good post, but there are also a few things in Love's favor this year.

1. Kurt Rambis has already expressed a desire to run-run-run, so the Wolves will be an uptempo offense. Love was going to grab a TON of boards. You can see this in the preseason where he is racking up huge totals in limited minutes. I don't think it is a stretch at all to see him average 11 in the near future. He was over 9 last year in only 25 minutes. He is going to play a lot more minutes and in a more rebound friendly offense. I see double figure boards as a lock this year.

2. I fully expect his FG% to improve this year alongside Al Jefferson. He shot 46.9% in the second half of last season when he was the focal point in the post and recieving most of the attention from opposing teams. Nobody is going to double up on Love now if Jefferson is down there as well. He will find a lot more open shots than he did last year. Combine that with the fact that he is one year in the league and I think you will see an increase. The fact that he shot as well as he did in the second half as a rookie is actually pretty impressive considering he was getting plenty of attention from other teams.

3. It's a little unfair to compare Love at around pick 100 to a guy going in round 4. Love was going to vastly outproduce his ADP this year prior to this injury. He is being drafted right according to his production last year with no growth factored in. As a second year player, he was going to be better. Guys tend to improve in the first two years before hitting their stride in year three. Yes, his value is a little limited, but I have nothing against guys that will average around 14 point and 10 boards with decent enough %'s.

I agree. Kevin Love was primed to average a double double this year.

Love has a high basketball IQ and makes the most of his physical abilities by anticipating what to do next. He runs well for a big guy. In the up tempo offense Rambis is promising, the offensive challenged Wolves could easily see Love getting 15-20 points a night.

As he gets more experience in the NBA, he will get more adept at blocking shots on help defense. He will also pick up more garbage baskets as he figures out where his teammates like to shoot from. Love also showed a knack for hitting some threes in college that he has not gotten comfortable with yet in the Pro's.

A lot of people are high on Brooke Lopez's future. In college, Love more than held his own against the taller Lopez twins on both ends of the court. I think Love's game in the pro's has lots of room for growth.

Why are people talking about him like he is dead? He can still average a double double, it will just be over few games.

So folks , opinions ....

If you have him in your fantasy lineup do we drop and have his role filled or keep him and wait it out? Thats what on some peoples mind right?

Doubt he has surgery, but could be wrong. If he slides a bit in your draft, scoop him up. He could still play 55-62 games if he misses 6 weeks. Just need someone to fill the hole for a month or 6 weeks.

Looks like RW is reporting he needs surgery. No timetable immediately, but assumptions coming out are 6 weeks. We'll know more tomorrow. Adjust accordingly.

I assume Gomes and Pecherov will start while Love is injured.

is anyone hanging on to love?

I am going to pick him up for Frye myself. I can wait 6-8 weeks when my league counts O-REB

Its Final he will have surgery in NY , im in a Roto League and will hang on to him ... 60-60plus games from Love is good with me ... got a couple of guys fill in

i just traded yi for him

i like that trade. Yi is garbage.
Love will come back and be more valuable than 2 Yi's.

Does anyone have a time table for his return? Rotoworld is saying that he might be ahead of schedule. Does this mean he will only be out 3-4 more weeks?

He is sitting on my Waiver wire...

they just interviewed klove. he said he expects to be back end of nov. said targeting nov 23

Rotoworld is saying to go GRAB HIM NOW.

I am wondering Why???

still pretty far from returning though i wouldn't mind picking him up in two weeks.

and where does it say from rotoworld to grab him now?

Why would you wait? If the news is starting to heat up, then unless you play in a league with less than 10 teams, there would be no reason to wait 2 1/2 weeks. He'll be conditioning and practicing before that by the way. If you wait too long, you will let someone else swoop in and pick him up. I'm thinking he'll definitely be back before Thanksgiving and he will be putting up a nightly DD with 1.5 assists.

I just traded my Barbosa and CDR for Love and Tyreke Evans in a 20 team keeper league. Im pretty stoked because my PF's are shallow and my SG spot is silly deep. I have regrets that Barbosa may still bust out later this year and CDR will keep up his scoring when Harris comes back.

Wudya think?

bc question

Sounds like Love is targeting Nov 20th to come back. If you've been waiting, might want to get on the wagon.

Best thing that ever happened in my keeper league was that Love got hurt and the owner didn't protect him. He got thrown back in the auction and I got him on the cheap. This early comeback is gravy.

Im really tempted to pick him up, but at the same time I'm wary about how he's going to perform next to AJ.

I think doing so a week before would still be realistic

I just hate having a guy on bench who is injured getting no stats.

I do want him for I am in need of rebounds and FG%...But I hate being down a guy the next three weeks.

I just dropped Blatche for him.... i think this news will cause people to snap him up quickly unless you are in a very shallow league. I'm in a 10 teamer but i'd rather suffer a week or 2 of streaming than let him land on someone else's roster. He's a walking double double, especially with Jefferson being highly injury prone.

wait he was DROPPED/on the wire in some leagues ? whoa. must be either very shallow leagues or ones with no games played limit (ie, h2h leagues)

hmm, i might have to snag him early then

Yup he was dropped in my 16 team H2H league. 6-8 weeks is a long time to hold up a guy who isn't terrible, but isn't exactly a superstar. I swooped in a picked him up today after hearing Rotoworld's news. However, this puts me with JR Smith, Jamison, and now Klove and inactive players. I'm probably going to be tanking the next two weeks until my team gets into full force...

Rotoworld says:



But...Love himself never said that he was going to return on Nov. 20; is rotoworld just speculating on his return date?

will he be a starter?

Without a doubt he will be MIN's starting C, they want to move Al Jefferson back to his natural PF position and this will also allow Ryan Gomes to move back to his natural SF position.

I wonder if he can actually improve on his numbers, what we saw was his rookie season (strange isn't it? feels like he has been in the league for a couple of years) and many players make a considerable jump in their sophomore season given the minutes. Obviously his ceiling isn't the highest, but I think he might be able to tack on a couple points/rebounds to his last season statistics.

He will probably be rusty for the first couple of weeks, but I wouldn't be surprised if he throws up 13PPG/11RPG on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, besides not turning the ball over he doesn't really help you in many other categories. I'm going to see if I can slide and wait until next week to pick him up.

How do you know he is the starting C? I have him pegged as the starting PF. If he gains C eligibility in ESPN leagues, that's a major plus!

I'm just glad he'll be back soon... I hear he's keeping in shape ... crossing my fingers he'll be ready to go mid november

Starting at center huh? I hope so. He had better splits from last year as the starting C than PF. Hopefully that will keep him closer to the basket and pad his rebounds all year long.

Well part of the reason he had better splits at C was because Al Jeff was out with his season ending injury and necessity warranted a switch to C for Love. Prior to that Jefferson had been manning the C position and Love the PF. So if a change happens, then it will be interesting to see how production works out. I worry a bit about Love's lack of height at the C position.

most of his number last year came after big al's injury. i wonder if he can do the same with both of them on the court