Kevin Love to miss six weeks after knee surgery

The Cavaliers have announced that All-Star forward Kevin Love is expected to miss six weeks after receiving arthroscopic knee surgery on his left knee to “remove a loose body from the knee.”

If the Cavaliers had to pick a time to lose Love, I suppose “just before the All-Star Break” is preferable. A week with no games to knock out 1/6th of his total rehab is preferable, though, the Cavaliers just have had a particularly time getting warm bodies on the court.

Iman Shumpert has missed the last three games, J.R. Smith has been out several months, the team just finally moved on from Chris Andersen who had been out for several months with a torn ACL, and James Jones, bless his heart, really shouldn’t be getting minutes. The trade for Kyle Korver and the addition of Derrick Williams will help, but being down Shump, Smith and Love leaves the Cavs without three of their top seven guys in the rotation for what is already a top-heavy team.

LeBron James’ minutes will continue to be a concern as he is near the top of the league and the Cavaliers only have two “bigs” on the roster in Tristan Thompson and Derrick Williams.

With regards to Love, there’s no way to spin this in a super fun way. The old adage is that “there’s no such thing a minor knee surgery,” and it holds true here. The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor made the point that this isn’t the first time Love has had knee troubles.

Basically, even if Love is fine, knee troubles are always scary with big men. Luckily, June is a long way away, and Love will have time to work himself back into game shape before the Cavs desperately need him to be a contributor.

It’s a disheartening loss for a team that likely felt like the cavalry was coming with J.R. Smith reportedly just three weeks away from a return, especially with the Raptors bolstering their roster today by dealing for Serge Ibaka.

Alas, the Cavaliers remain the favorite in the Eastern Conference, and as long s they can find their way to the Finals at full health by the end of this year, they will have a shot at the title, and there’s quite a bit of solace to be taken in that.