Day 25: The injury woes of Derrick Rose and Marc Gasol

(This looks bad. Not the art -- the injury. Illustration courtesy of Art Mobb)

So, you know how Derrick Rose was already having a horrible season? You know how he hadn't made half of his shots in a single game this year? You know how rusty he's looked, and how his numbers are way down from his career averages, and how the Bulls got their brains beat out in the first game of the year against the Heat? You know the last thing Derrick Rose needed was yet another serious knee injury that could potentially derail his entire season?

Well... courtesy of USA Today: "Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose injured his right knee during the third quarter of the team's 98-95 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night and did not return. The severity of the injury is not yet known -- the Bulls classified it simply as a 'right knee injury' -- but there was no contact on the injury. Following the injury, the 2010-11 NBA MVP could not put weight on the knee and had to be helped to the locker room by two trainers."

If you own D-Rose in fantasy basketball and that paragraph doesn't scare the crap out of you, you're not human. I'm no medical genius. (Although some have called me the "Love Doctor." Okay, that's not true at all, and I apologize for lying to you.) But in my years of watching basketball, I can tell you that when a basketball player badly injures himself on a non-contact play, the injury sustained is usually INCREDIBLY serious. Most of the time this sort of thing happens, something's been torn, whether it's a patella tendon or an ACL or a hamstring or a ligament.

So here's the thing. If Rose has torn anything major in his leg, then he is certainly out for the season, given that he was already rehabbing from a previous knee injury. The best case scenario, obviously, would be that this isn't a tear at all. However, NBA players don't fall apart on the spot like this without something really, really bad having happened to them, and while I don't want to be cynical, it's not rational to expect this injury to be something that'll quickly go away. The more reasonable, not-quite best case scenario would be that Rose didn't damage anything major. But even if that's the case, he'd still probably be looking at a few weeks to a few months away from the court, and that's as optimistic as I can get.

If I had to guess, I don't think we're going to see much of Derrick Rose again this year. But that's just a guess. We'll find out for certain this weekend.

Either way, this is an example of the worst aspect of fantasy sports: injuries. We all go into fantasy drafts thinking that we have all the answers. We think we can isolate which players are injury risks and which players are a lock to play 82 games, and Derrick Rose -- who hadn't been near a basketball court in 18 months -- had no reason to be viewed as someone who wasn't totally healthy. Those in fantasy land who drafted him up are essentially going to be punished for having really, really, really terrible misfortune. And it's a shame. In a perfect world, no fantasy league should ever be decided by anything other than skill and foresight, but devastating injuries like these happen all the time, and they happen at random. If there's any saving grace for Rose owners, it's that this injury occurred in the early part of the year -- so they'll at least have a decent deal of time to recover from it.

If you own Rose, obviously just hold onto him and wait for the results of his MRI. Meanwhile, Kirk Hinrich is poised to be the Bulls' starting point guard in Rose's absence and is a must-own player for the foreseeable future. With Jimmy Butler also out and with Nate Robinson no longer on the team, Hinrich is suddenly in a tremendous fantasy situation.

Oh, and if one potentially-team-crippling injury wasn't enough for one night...

• Marc Gasol may have suffered a torn MCL against the San Antonio Spurs. A rumor is flying around that that's the case, and if it's true, Gasol could be out for up to 10 weeks, which would be just another awful blow to fantasy teams. Kosta Koufos appears to be the Grizzlies' next-best option at center, which makes him a strong speculative pick-up. Ed Davis -- who Memphis got in the Rudy Gay trade -- is another candidate to put up good numbers, and to be honest, I like him a lot more than Koufos. But if Koufos is the one who winds up starting at center, then sobeit, he'll be the guy to own.
• In his second career NBA game, Trey Burke came off the bench and went 2-8 from the floor and produced 5 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Barring another malady, Burke is destined to ascend to the starting point guard spot in Utah, where he'll be given all the chances in the world to show whether he can play or not. He's worth hanging on to until then.
• Samuel Dalembert was terrific for Dallas, hitting all 8 of his shots and finishing with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Dalembert has played really well of late, though with Brandon Wright due to return soon and with DeJuan Blair lurking about, Dalmbert is looking like someone who you should own now and probably ditch later.
• Spencer Hawes hit a fading, game-tying three that sent the game to overtime, where he got to pad his stats a little. In the end, Hawes finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 3 three's; he's in the midst of a spectacular fantasy season, having hit at least one three in every single game this year while also averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.6 blocks. Just amazing production from someone who probably wasn't selected until the last rounds of the draft.
• Just when you thought it was safe to play against Caron Butler, "Tough Juice" had a remarkably good game against the Sixers: 38 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 4 three's. Butler, like O.J. Mayo, has free reign of the Bucks' offense right now, as Brandon Knight, Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders are all hurting. Those shot attempts may dry up as the season progresses, but for now, there's no reason for Butler to be left on the waiver wire.
• With Stephen Curry sitting out a second straight game due to a concussion, Harrison Barnes got another start for the Warriors at small forward and played fantastic: 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block in 45 minutes. Barnes is a special talent and needs only opportunities like this to be a regular fantasy contributor and a legitimate threat to Klay Thompson's production.
• Andre Iguodala had to leave the game for the Warriors in the middle of the third quarter, and later said he heard a "pop." Which is troublesome news to put it mildly. Iggy is having a terrific season, but he's now a lock to miss a few games at least. Hopefully the extent of his injury is nothing serious. Still, Harrison Barnes needs to be owned in all leagues right now.
• Jeff Green had a second straight good game for the Celtics: 20 points, 2 rebounds, 2 three's. It'd be nice if he'd rebound a little bit more, but his owners can't complain after it looked like he was wilting on the spot a few days ago.
• Jarrett Jack had 19 points and 4 assists for the Cavs off the bench. Jack is only owned in a third of all Yahoo! leagues, but he's not a bad low-end source of assists and steals, as he's getting regular playing time for Cleveland. Of course, the primary reason to snag him is that if Kyrie Irving were to miss games for some reason (perish the thought), Jack would become a fantasy beast. Even still, there are much worse options floating around the waiver wire these days.
• Mo Cheeks decided to bring Josh Smith off the bench on Friday, and Smith responded by having his worst game of the year, going 0-7 from the field with 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. The blocks are nice, but still -- an awful night, made possible from him playing only 19 minutes. The Pistons paid J-Smooth so much money in the offseason that I can't imagine the starting-Kyle-Singler-ahead-of-him experiment will go anywhere, especially not after last night.
• Channing Frye had a good game for Phoenix, collecting 20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 three's, 2 steals and a block against the Bobcats. Frye is having a ragingly-inconsistent season, and still can't be trusted as Markieff Morris -- who's a much better all-around player -- had 11 points and 9 rebounds off the bench for the Suns and played 36 minutes. Frye is capable of having the stray great game now and then, but with Morris breathing heavily down his neck, there's no reason to invest in him. Morris, meanwhile, should be picked up immediately if he was dropped for some reason in your league.
• I'm not going to ask for your sympathy in a week where D-Rose and Marc Gasol just lost a giant percentage of their fantasy value. Still, I own Steph Curry and Iguodala this week, and this has been a really, REALLY bad week to own those two. So my fantasy team might not have the most glorious record after my current matchup with "Shooters."