This article is part of our Hoops Lab series.

Injury Updates

One of the most difficult things to do in fantasy sports is to account for injuries. Season-ending injuries from the season before don't always fully heal in the offseason, and even when they do, sometimes the player has to take on a new role to account for changes in athletic ability. Sometimes a player heals from an injury but is now more susceptible to re-injury. Sometimes, while a player iss injured, a teammate steps into the rotation and takes away some of his role. Sometimes the team goes out and gets a new player in the offseason, not knowing for sure what the injured player will be able to produce moving forward.

Then, there are the new injuries. Players workout in the offseason and end up hurting themselves in fluke situations that will cause them to unexpectedly miss time in the upcoming season.

Finally, there are the unknown future injuries. It's inevitable that players will get injured during the upcoming season, and we have no idea who they are. On the other hand, there are some players that tend to get injured more than others, which makes injuries a part of their conversation even when they're perfectly healthy.

All of these situations are on display in the NBA this offseason. A lot of frontline fantasy prospects fall into one of these categories, if not more. Let's take a quick look at the injury situation for some of the major players around the league.

Around the NBA

Carmelo Anthony: Anthony is six months removed from left knee surgery and is expected to be cleared for full contact by the end of August. The knee injury was bad enough to shut down Anthony's season last year, though he did play through it for months to make it through All-Star Weekend before calling it quits. Presumably, he was in consultation with doctors before deciding to continue playing, which would suggest that he was expected at the time to be fully recovered for the start of this season. I'd be surprised if he weren't ready to be full-on Melo once the season begins.

John Wall: Wall fractured his left wrist during the playoffs last season, costing him three games in the Eastern Conference finals. But both he and coach Randy Wittman publicly confirmed back in July that Wall is fully healed, and he should be ready to go full speed well before the start of the season.

Paul George: George missed most of last season with a shattered leg that he suffered last summer, but he was able to come back and play at least a few minutes in the last six games of the season. He strained his calf in the last game and had to deal with that early in the summer, but presumably, that is the lesser of the two injuries that he is dealing with. He played a few pick-up games in July with college and high school students but didn't risk participating in the USA Basketball mini-camp in August despite his desire to play for the Olympic team next summer. George was a first round fantasy talent before the injury, but questions about his health will likely cause him to slide this year. Pay attention to his preseason, though, because if he does regain full health, he could be good value, especially considering he is expected to get some time at power forward this season, which improves his position versatility and may give him a chance to exploit physical mismatches.

Kyrie Irving: Irving fractured his knee cap during the Eastern Conference finals of last year's playoffs and underwent surgery in early June. No official timetable has been released for Irving's recovery, but a report on Cleveland.com in late August quoted an unnamed source suggesting that the Cavaliers may hold Irving out until after Christmas. Irving has had injury issues throughout most of his career, and last season actually marked a high water mark for him with 75 games played. If it is confirmed that he will be out until January that would obviously push him far down draft boards, but even if it is suggested that he will be back sooner, the questions surrounding his injury will likely be enough for me to move him down/off my draft board (barring him falling enough to be considered a value) this season.

Kevin Love: Love's first season in Cleveland ended early with a dislocated shoulder suffered in the first round of the playoffs. He had surgery in April but was confident enough in his recovery that he opted out of his contract in June before re-signing with the Cavs. Love expects to be ready for the start of training camp, and barring a setback, he will likely be drafted at a normal spot. While health may be a bit of a question for him, the bigger question may be his role in Cleveland and whether he will be more than just a spot-up shooter in year two.

Derrick Rose: After averaging 80 games played in his first three NBA seasons, Rose has played only 100 total games in the last four seasons. He played in 51 games last season, the most during that four-year stretch, but he still missed 31 games, including most of the end of the season when he required another knee surgery. Rose was able to get healthy enough to play in the playoffs last season, but he is still a major injury risk in my book.

Kobe Bryant: Bryant is entering his 20th season and has only played 41 total games over the last two years; he's recovering from a torn rotator cuff that ended his 2015 season; and he posted on social media in late August that he was back shooting for the first time since the surgery. In his absence, the Lakers have found/added several perimeter scoring threats in Jordan Clarkson, Lou Williams, and number two overall pick D'Angelo Russell. Kobe projects as the starting small forward and may even play some power forward this season, but his health, role, and age suggest that his days as a big fantasy contributor are behind him.

Brook Lopez: Lopez is the type of player that is productive and plays plenty of games, as long as his feet don't go out on him. He has played in at least 72 games in five of his seven NBA seasons, but in two of those seasons (2011-12 and 2013-14), he was held to only five games and 17 games due to broken feet. He played most of last season and was very strong in the second half of the year, which helped him secure a three-year,$60M contract this offseason. However, after two major season-ending foot injuries and consistent foot maintenance even when healthy, I tend to think twice before pulling the trigger on drafting Lopez.

Jabari Parker: Parker is now eight months removed from surgery to repair a torn left ACL, and he's starting to get back to basketball activity. A video surfaced recently of him dunking on some kids at a pick-up game, indicating that he's working himself into shape. Bucks GM John Hammond has said that the team will bring Parker along slowly this season, so don't expect big minutes from him to start the season, and generally, it takes a couple of years to fully recover. With that said, Parker was the early favorite for Rookie of the Year last season, so the talent is there for him to produce even in an initially limited fashion.

Julius Randle: Randle broke his leg in the first game of last season but recovered enough to play for the Lakers at the Las Vegas Summer League. He started and played in four games and didn't show any physical signs that he was still favoring the leg. Randle will essentially enter the season as a rookie, as he didn't get any experience before his injury. He is still only 20 years old with a lot of room to grow, but from his performance in Vegas, it looked like he was still trying to find himself. He was drafted as a power forward, but he played a lot of face-up game in Vegas with scoring more of an emphasis than defense/rebounding, which is an interesting fit with all of the score-first perimeter players in LA.

Brandon Jennings: Jennings tore his Achilles tendon in January, an injury that normally takes a full year to recover from. He had hoped to be ready to go for the start of the season, but the last update in July was that he may not be ready. Jennings lost his job while he was out, as Reggie Jackson came to Detroit and performed well enough last season to earn an $80 million deal this offseason. So, Jennings will not be as fantasy relevant this season even when healthy, but he should still have some value in deep leagues as a sixth man with starter upside if Jackson gets hurt.

Isaiah Thomas: Thomas had a minor procedure on his left wrist in July to remove a cyst, but he expected to be fully healthy in 2-4 weeks. A bit more than two weeks after the surgery, he scored 50 points in a Pro-Am game. While the points were nice, the fact that he was confident enough to play in this type of game was more of an indication of his confidence in his wrist than anything else. He should be fine to start the season.

Chandler Parsons: Parsons had knee surgery in May to repair a cartilage injury, but the Mavericks never released exactly what procedure he had. There is speculation that it was microfracture surgery, which would be a huge difference from the arthroscopic procedure that was initially reported. Some believe that the Mavericks, with both Parsons (knee) and the newly-signed Wesley Matthews (Achilles) recovering from major injuries, may be quietly tanking this season. Parsons posted a video on Instagram in late August showing him taking three-pointers, but there just isn't enough info out there to determine his current health or potential to play full speed this season. Pay attention to news from camp and the preseason, but for now, he projects to have major health question marks to start the year.

Wesley Matthews: Matthews tore his Achilles tendon in March but still believes that he will be ready for the start of the season in October. This seems unlikely for an injury that generally requires a year to recover from, but he has been adamant about his recovery timetable. Nevertheless, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has already publicly stated his intent to be cautious with Matthews, and there is a general feeling that the Mavs may not be fully pushing for success this season after missing out on DeAndre Jordan in free agency. As such, it would be extremely surprising to see Matthews playing the type of iron-man minutes and games that he used to in Portland, and his draft status should reflect these lower expectations.

Jrue Holiday: Holiday underwent surgery in May to remove a screw from the rod in his right shin, but the Pelicans have been pretty closed mouth about the procedure. He is expected to be ready for the start of the season, though he is also expected to have a minutes restriction. This type of uncertainty, on top of his already questionable history of injuries, makes Holiday a very risky pick this season. He has talent, but health will no doubt drop him down, if not completely off of, my draft board.

Ricky Rubio: Rubio had arthroscopic surgery on a severely sprained left ankle on April 13th, trying to repair damage that had limited him to 22 games last season. He's been steadily ramping up his workouts over the summer and is expected to be 100 percent healthy for training camp. Rubio has only played over 57 games one time in his four NBA seasons, so even if he enters camp fully healthy, he would have to be considered a health risk when it comes time to draft.

Joel Embiid: Embiid is out for the second season in a row with a fracture to the navicular bone on right foot. His NBA career still has yet to start, and with repeated foot injuries to such a big man, there is some uncertainty as to when/if that career will ever get underway.

Dante Exum: Exum tore his ACL in early August while playing with the Australian national team. He is almost certainly out for the season, aborting what many thought might be a breakout campaign for the second-year lottery guard.

Keeping up with the Professor
If you're interested in my takes throughout the week, you can follow me on Twitter @ProfessorDrz. Also, don't forget that you can catch me on the radio on RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today with Chris Liss and Jeff Erickson on XM 87, Sirius 210. I also co-host the RotoWire fantasy basketball podcast with Kyle McKeown once a week and co-host the Celtics Beat podcast on www.clnsradio.com about once a month.