Given all of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ ailments this season, losing Kevin Love at this stage of events to arthroscopic knee surgery seems an appropriate, if not hoped for, bookend. This, after Love was expected to return to play any day now, as he was on the brink of recovering from a twice-broken right hand. Wolves management are now hoping they’re dealt a better one next year.
The 2012-2013 campaign was supposed to bring the Timberwolves back to 2004 form―the last time they made a trip to the playoffs. With an intermixed cast of exciting guards, wing players, and paint enforcers in Love and Peković, who just landed a Western Conference Player of the Week award, the Wolves were supposed to be playoff-pushers this year. But an Oregon Trail’s worth of ailments and injuries have hindered their output. Instead of a 29-47 team, they could have been touching the graces of the fourth or fifth seed out West.
No one understands that better than Love, except for maybe, Timberwolves president of operations David Kahn who said, “it’s been one heck of a season.” Heck, in this case, not being anything an ode to positive vibes. Kahn continued by speaking about Kevin’s frustration in not being able to contribute this year: “I think he feels very poorly about this year…It’s been, frankly, a lost season for him. He’s already said that, at least in part, to me. He’s very hopeful he has a huge offseason. He very much feels he wants to make amends for what happened this year.”
The Wolves could certainly have done with Love’s 18.3 PPG and 14.0 RPG this campaign. Even if those season averages were tallied off of bad shooting nights. He has the excuse that he never fully recovered from an initial break in his right hand, seeing as 18 games into his return he broke it again.
Now, just as he was about to make amends for the lack of play, he received arthroscopic surgery to remove his knee of built-up scar tissue. His timetable for recovery is four to six weeks, after which Wolves fans can only hope Love can make up next year, what he was supposed to deliver in this one.
