Things went from bad to worse for the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, when Al Jefferson joined Kevin Love on the sidelines due to an injury. Jefferson sat out practice with a sore Achilles' tendon, which limited him to just six minutes during the second half of the team's preseason game against the Bucks on Saturday.While Love's broken hand is expected to have him back in six to eight weeks, there's no timetable yet for Jefferson, and you can bet the team is going to be extremely cautious when it comes to green-lighting his return to the court.
Fantasy Spin: Injured Love and Big Al | Play Fantasy Basketball
Jefferson suffered a torn ACL last season, which caused him to miss his team's final 32 games. While the sore tendon has nothing to do with the recovery from the knee injury, the fact is it could be a sign of something worse if not taken seriously. This likely means that Big Al will be on the sidelines until everyone is absolutely certain that he's in no danger of once again suffering an injury that could take him down for the season.
As for how the injury bug is affecting new head coach Kurt Rambis, he's decided to focus on the players he has available, and not the ones who are on the sidelines. Still, he has to account for absences as large as the ones of Jefferson and Love, and when asked who was going to step up to fill those voids, well, let's just say Rambis is expecting a collective effort.
"Everybody. Whoever's left," Rambis said.
Now optimistically speaking, Jefferson did travel with the team to Denver for their next preseason game, so "indefinitely" could obviously just be a few days, if the soreness should go away relatively quickly. But the fact that the team is reportedly going to acquire Nathan Jawai from Dallas might mean they expect this to be something that lasts at least a little bit longer.
