They say that all bad things come in threes. Don't tell that to Kevin and Denise Jonas. In Minnesota, though, they feel like they've suffered enough. Between the Ricky Rubio debacle, Kevin Love's fractured left hand, and now Al Jefferson's sore Achilles' tendon -- that has limited him this preseason -- haven't they suffered enough?The Jefferson injury is a bit disconcerting, considering that he missed the final 32 games of the '08-'09 season after tearing his right ACL and having to endure season-ending reconstructive surgery. Jefferson is going to cost you an early second-round draft pick, which makes him a major risk. We still don't know enough about Jefferson's sore Achilles', but what we do know is that he played 34 minutes on Friday night and couldn't make it through the second half of Saturday night's contest against the Bucks. Maybe he's not ready to play a full load.
Al Jefferson is not fully healed. That much we know. And as it stands I am feeling less and less comfortable about using an early second-round selection on Big Al. At least if you're in a snake-style draft, you'll have an early third-round selection, which is often equivalent to a late-second. Softens the blow if Jefferson misses another 20-30 games this season. Do not draft him in the first round and make sure to asses your draft strategy if you're going to take him early in the second -- meaning, one injury-prone player is enough. That's the best advice I can give you until we learn more about the soreness in his ACL.
Kevin Love, as we know, is scheduled to miss up to six weeks with a fractured bone in his left hand. This is a huge blow as I had Love slotted to finish in the Top 5 in the league in rebounding this season. The question now remains: who gets the burn at power forward in Love's absence? In Saturday night's game against the Bucks, Brian Cardinal got the start. Unfortunately, from a fantasy perspective, Cardinal is nothing more than a body on the court. He isn't worth drafting, unless you are in league that runs 16 or more teams deep.
Oleksiy Pecherov is an interesting guy to keep an eye on. He has limited potential, but his upside is much greater than Cardinal's. He can shoot the ball fairly well and has great range for a 7-footer. He posted 15.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.8 threes, and 0.8 steals per 36 minutes last season. If Rambis commits to playing him 22-25 minutes he might be worth an add since he rebounds fairly well and can stroke the ball from downtown. He's still not worth drafting in standard leagues, but follow his progress early on. The other player in the mix is Ryan Hollins, the fourth-year big man out of UCLA. Hollins has the size -- 7-feet, 230 pounds -- to be able to push Jefferson over to the power forward position, but he's yet to develop into anything other than a bench player in his first three years in the league. If Jefferson were to miss time as well, Hollins becomes more valuable. As a presence in the paint he can swat shots, grab rebounds and put back a few buckets. With a healthy Jefferson his minutes may not touch 15-16, which obviously makes him less valuable. I wouldn't use a draft pick on Hollins either, but should Jefferson miss some time he'll make a nice add for purposes of picking up blocked shots and rebounds.
I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that even with Love going down, the focus will remain on the T-Wolves backcourt and the status of Jefferson. Big Al's injury may change things up front, but for now it doesn't seem like any of the players mentioned above will provide enough consistency to warrant the use of a draft pick.
