Another day, another crushing blow to fantasy owners, as the Cleveland Cavaliers announced Tuesday morning that Kevin Love had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and will miss six weeks.
Love, who has averaged 20 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 2.6 3-pointers in 46 games this season, joins the likes of Rudy Gay, Jabari Parker and Zach LaVine, who have gone down in recent weeks, and his absence further depletes a power forward position that already isn't very deep.
Unlike the others, though, Love should be able to return during the regular season -- sometime around March 28. Does that mean he's worth holding on to?
Not unless your league offers an IR spot where you can stash him.
Otherwise, you'd basically be asking Love to take up a valuable roster spot -- potentially costing a spot in the fantasy playoffs -- all so you can have him for 1-2 weeks of the fantasy playoffs in hopes that he can play well right away after missing a month and a half.
In the meantime, the replacement player to target in Cleveland is Channing Frye, who will start for Love on Tuesday in Minnesota and could very well keep the job until Love returns. Frye is available in 95.9 percent of ESPN leagues as of Tuesday morning and has a chance to average right around 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2.5 3-pointers per game if he plays the expected 20 minutes or so per game.
Aside from Frye, you also have to consider the additional rebounds that will be there for Tristan Thompson and LeBron James while Love is sidelined. According to nbawowy.com, Thompson has averaged 17.8 rebounds per 100 possessions and James 12.1 rebounds per 100 possessions with Love off the court this season. Compare that to the numbers with Love on the court -- Thompson (15.6) and James (9.2) - and you can see the significant impact Love's absence has on the glass.
The scoring of James and Kyrie Irving also becomes more important now as the Cavs look to make up for Love's 20 PPG, and you can expect the usage to rise for both James and Irving as it has all season whenever Love is off the court. Per nbawowy, James goes from 30.4 to 31.3 without Love while Irving's usage skyrockets from 28.3 to 33.5.
Just be aware that you can also expect their efficiency to suffer a bit, since Love provides the spacing and passing that Frye and the rest of the power forward options can't match, resulting in fewer open shots for James and Irving.