Poll: Will Love Or Dirk Injury Have Bigger Impact?
Earlier today, the Dallas Mavericks announced that Dirk Nowitzki had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery and was expected to miss up to six weeks of the season. This comes just days after the Minnesota Timberwolves were also hit with the loss of their All-Star power forward. Kevin Love suffered a broken hand earlier this week and is likewise expected to be sidelined for around six weeks.
The Mavs and Wolves were both expected to be in the race for a playoff spot in the loaded Western Conference. However, losing their respective best players for the start of the season would seem to put a damper on those plans. Whose injury do you believe will have a larger impact on their team?
Whose Loss Will Be Felt More By Their Team?
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Kevin Love 65% (341)
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Dirk Nowitzki 35% (181)
Total votes: 522
Northwest Rumors: Aldridge, Lillard, Wolves
LaMarcus Aldridge didn't hold back in his comments on 1080 AM The Fan in Portland, declaring himself the best power forward in the game, as Ben Golliver documents on Blazer's Edge. He's indicated a willingness to be patient through the Blazers' rebuilding process before, but he doesn't think he'll have much of a wait, a belief he apparently shares with the front office. "I have really good talks with the management, with [GM] Neil [Olshey]," Aldridge said today. "We don't feel like this process is going to be that long. We feel like one year for guys to get better, for myself to also get better. We feel like we should have enough next year to be one of those top teams again. We can always add some good guys through free agency next year." While we wait to see if the Blazers can bounce back so quickly, here's more from Portland and elsewhere in the Northwest.
- Blazers rookie point guard Damian Lillard is trying to find the right balance between passing and looking for his own shot, as The Oregonian's Joe Freeman documents.
- Though Kevin Love could be back in five weeks, sooner than originally expected, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports, his broken hand will shine a spotlight on coach Rick Adelman's influence on building the Wolves roster, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- Adelman said the specter of injuries helped shape the team's offseason plans, as Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune notes. "That's one reason we made a lot of changes," Adelman said. "Because we didn't do that last year, that last month [of the season], we got hammered."
Kevin Love Breaks Hand, Out Up To Eight Weeks
Kevin Love has suffered a broken right hand and will miss the next four to six weeks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). The team confirmed the injury (Twitter link), indicating the timetable for Love's recovery could be six to eight weeks.
The Timberwolves have 14 players on fully guaranteed contracts, meaning there's still a chance for camp invitees to earn that 15th spot. One of those players, Chris Johnson, is a big, though it's unclear if Love's injury would improve his chances of making the team or whether the T-Wolves are happy with their current frontcourt players besides Love.
Love is entering the first year of the four-year extension he signed earlier in 2012 with Minnesota, and is set to earn $13.67MM this season. With Ricky Rubio still recovering from an ACL injury, the T-Wolves' two most recognizable stars will be out of action when the season gets underway.
Odds & Ends: T-Wolves, Yi, Arroyo, Rockets
Let's round up a few of today's odds and ends from around the Association….
- The Timberwolves ultimately signed Louis Amundson to a minimum-salary deal to bolster their frontcourt, but were also seriously considering Sean Williams and were close to signing Yi Jianlian, tweets Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500. Yi ended up signing in China, where he presumably received a larger guarantee.
- Two and a half months after urging management to make roster upgrades, Kevin Love says he's happy about the changes and is optimistic about the Timberwolves' playoff chances, according to an AP report (via NBA.com).
- According to a Primera Hora report (Spanish link), longtime NBA point guard Carlos Arroyo is still debating whether to join an NBA team's training camp or play in Turkey.
- The Rockets announced a series of coaching and basketball operations hirings and promotions today, including a pair of assistant coaches.
- There has been so much turnover in New Orleans in recent years that Jason Smith, who joined the team almost exactly two years ago, is now the longest-tenured Hornet. Smith spoke to Jim Eichenhofer of Hornets.com about the club's offseason acquisitions and his expectations for the coming year.
Olympics Notes: Kevin Love, Coach K, FIBA
Team USA will attempt to make it two gold medals in a row on Sunday when it takes on Spain in the Olympic men's basketball final. The team has looked strong throughout the Olympics but will face a challenge from Spain, who features arguably the strongest frontcourt thanks to Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol. Before Team USA and Spain do battle, let's catch up with the latest news and headlines from around the Olympics.
- Chris Palmer of ESPN The Magazine has the story of how Kevin Love met Tyson Chandler when he was a pudgy middle schooler and Chandler was months away from being taken second overall in the 2001 NBA Draft. "I’m gonna be in the NBA one day," Love told Chandler. "You’ll want my autograph someday. You’ll see."
- Mike Krzyzewski has had quite the run as the head coach of the USA Basketball team as he's set to call it an Olympic career after Sunday's game, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. With a victory over Spain, Coach K will run his record to 62-1.
- FIBA chief Patrick Baumann says that the three-point line for international play will be moved to the NBA distance at some point in the future, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. "We think probably we should have gone sooner to the NBA distance from Day One," said Baumann.
Souhan On Wolves, Olympics
Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune has written a new column tracking several members of the Timberwolves' performances in the London Summer Olympics:
- New signees Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved, teammates on the Russian national team, both turned in strong performances in an opening victory over Great Britain and have already developed chemistry.
- Kevin Love, playing with Team USA, was impressed with the team's two new Russian players, and has already spoken to Kirilenko about the upcoming season.
- Kirilenko and Shved were likewise impressed with Love, both today and during the 2011/12 season, and are excited about playing in Minnesota.
Northwest Notes: Timberwolves, Leuer, Nuggets
Here's a look at the latest out of the Northwest division..
- It appears that the Timberwolves may have missed out on shooting guard Courtney Lee and are now in pursuit of Jon Leuer, writes Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press. The Minnesota native was waived yesterday by the Rockets.
- Timberwolves forward Kevin Love says he is glad that he negotiated the option to leave in three years rather than securing a five-year max deal, writes Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press. Love wants to see the club become a contender before he commits to Minnesota long term.
- Nuggets coach George Karl says that he is happy with all of the club's latest roster moves, writes Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post. The club is now left with a logjam in the frontcourt with JaVale McGee, Kenneth Faried, Al Harrington, Kosta Koufos, Timofey Mozgov, and Anthony Randolph in the mix, but Karl notes that it is preferable to being thin at the four and five.
Kevin Love Urges Wolves To Upgrade Roster
Kevin Love tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that if the Timberwolves don't starting winning more often this season, he isn't sure how long he'll want to remain in Minnesota.
"My patience is not high," said Love, in Las Vegas this week to practice with the U.S. Olympic team. "Would yours be, especially when I'm a big proponent of greatness surrounding itself with greatness? All these [Team USA] guys seem to have great players around them. It's tough seeing all these guys that are young and older who have all played in the playoffs. When they start talking about that, I have nothing to talk about. If I don’t make the playoffs next year I don’t know what will happen."
Nine Assured Of Team USA Spot; Odom Withdraws
TUESDAY, 11:41am: Blake Griffin is expected to take Chris Bosh's spot on the U.S. roster, tweets Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com. As Goodman adds in a second tweet, that would leave five players competing for the final two spots.
Anthony Davis To Be Added To Team USA Pool
12:43pm: Monroe won't be the second addition to the U.S. Olympic pool, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
12:18pm: Anthony Davis will be one of the two finalists added to the Team USA pool, according to SI.com's Sam Amick. Along with Monroe, Al Jefferson is a candidate to be the second finalist, says Amick.
11:08am: Lamar Odom hasn't been ruled out for the 2012 Olympic roster yet, Colangelo tells Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Colangelo also said that Cousins won't be added to the player pool this year, according to Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.
WEDNESDAY, 8:09am: DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, and Anthony Davis are among the big men being considered for the Team USA pool, reports ESPN.com's Marc Stein. Hibbert, unfortunately, is ineligible to play for the U.S. team because he played for Jamaica's senior national squad during the 2010 Centrobasket tournament. FIBA rules prevent players from representing two different countries at the senior level.
TUESDAY, 8:29pm: Jerry Colangelo told reporters (Associated Press link via ESPN.com) that he is leaning towards adding a couple of players to the pool from which the final Olympic team will be drawn. He gave no indication as to who those players might be, however.
7:30pm: With the U.S. Olympic team's projected roster increasingly depleted due to injuries, Jerry Colangelo is reportedly reconsidering his stance against adding new players. According to Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star, Pacers center Roy Hibbert has expressed interest in joining the team should they look to add new talent.
“It would be nice to be able to do something like that,” Hibbert said. “I always said I wanted to play in the Olympics for the US. I played with Team Jamaica last year. Hopefully I can get a quick release. It would mean the world to me to be able to participate for Team USA.”
With Dwight Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge out for the summer, the frontcourt rotation for Team USA is looking thin outside of Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, and Tyson Chandler. If Colangelo does decide to bring on new players, Hibbert, who made his first All-Star appearance in 2011/12, would appear to be a logical candidate.