Jefferson Out for the Season--Now What!?

Ok people. Al Jefferson tore his ACL.

Wow.

So first of all, let's process the magnitude of what just happened. Al Jefferson is by far the Wolves' best player. He's averaging gaudy All-Star caliber numbers, and honestly should be in the All-Star game even though he's on a 17-33 team. He's putting up 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.66 blocks per game, and shooting right around 50% from the field...all this, and he's technically playing out of position at the five rather than his natural 4.

Having watched nearly every Wolves home game this year, I can tell you that at least 50% of the Wolves' offensive sets run through Jefferson in some way...whether he's the guy who gets the ball in the post, a decoy to free up shooters, or a screener so a guard can get to the hoop, he's involved in so much of the Wolves strategy. On defense, even though he has the reputation of being a poor defender, he's always behind the guards for help defense to discourage penetration. I don't care how bad you might think he is on D, but I can tell you than guys like Tony Parker stop when they run into Jefferson and either try to float it over him or back up to take a jumper.

So, where do the Wolves go from here? They had a spectacular 10-4 January run after starting a miserable start, but now they've lost six of their last seven in the face of a tough schedule (those six loses have come against Detroit, LA Lakers, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, and New Orleans). The franchise is licking their wounds from the double-snub of Jefferson not getting into the All-Star game and Kevin Love, who is leading all rookies in rebounding and leading the league in offensive rebounds per 48 minutes (4th in rebounds/48 overall behind only Biedrins, Camby, and Howard), not being selected to the rookie team. Other than Jefferson, our main options are the hot-and-cold Randy Foye, the inconsistant Ryan Gomes, the suddenly gunshy Mike Miller, the selfish Rashad McCants, a point guard who can't shoot jumpers in Sebastian Telfair, and a rookie power forward in Love.

So, without Jefferson, who will the Wolves start? Obviously they're going to get more minutes and production out of Love, who will hopefully continue to improve during the season and avoid the rookie wall. He's been starting in the absense of Craig Smith, who just went down with a cracked rib by the way, and will continue to do so. I think they'll have no choice but to start Jason Collins. Love cannot play center consistantly as evidenced by the way the Wolves got destroyed by Yao Ming the other night...Love just isn't big or tall enough. Foye and Bassy will continue to start, but they're both going to have step up big time...but that's going to harder, since the defense of EVERY team facing the Wolves will now be geared to stopping them first and foremost rather than Jefferson. I can tell you that EVERY game this season, EVERY team...the defensive scheme is designed with Al Jefferson in mind, and that's where guys like Foye, Miller, and Love get a lot of their open looks. It's going to be harder for them now.

If Mike Miller was waiting for some unseen green light to start fucking shooting the ball more than five times a game, I think the signal just turned. I think it's really up to him more than anyone else to step up. Foye of course is another guy who will need to step up. In terms of dark horse guys who might step up and start filling in that scoring hole...McCants, who is back in the rotation after being out of it for most of January, and Rodney Carney, who is having a career scoring year and is a dead-eye from that corner 3, are guys to watch.

Ultimately though, I think that Kevin McHale is going to ask Love to carry a lot of the burden left by Jefferson. It's going to be interesting to see how Love, just 20 years old, handles this increased responsibility halfway through his rookie season.

One thing I know for certain: the Wolves are going to be in better draft position than I thought.