Wolves' Muhammad to undergo finger surgery, miss rest of season

The (entirely figurative) warmth emanating out of Minnesota thanks to the return of Kevin Garnett has been chilled by some unfortunate news. 

The Timberwolves will be without breakout sophomore wing Shabazz Muhammad for the remainder of the season due to surgery on the middle finger of his shooting hand, the team announced Saturday. 

That comes on the heels of news that another sophomore, forward Anthony Bennett, would miss at least the next two weeks with an ankle sprain.

It's tough to qualify this as a "bad break," seeing as the Wolves are 12-42, playing for little besides ping-pong balls, and, in the grand scheme, probably better served losing games right now.

But this is still precious development time for Muhammad and the rest of the Timberwolves' youngsters, and the team had gathered a nice bit of momentum after finally getting Ricky Rubio back. They picked up impressive wins this month over the Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat, and suffered a mere three-point loss to the NBA-best Golden State Warriors. 

Muhammad, who Minnesota drafted 14th overall in 2013, improved by leaps and bounds in his second NBA season. He averaged 21.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per 36 minutes, shot 48.9 percent from the field and 39.2 percent from deep, and posted a team-best 19.8 PER.

It's been a rough season for the rebuilding Wolves, and with the encouraging recent signs, their last 28 games would've been a great chance for Muhammad to continue to build his confidence, an invaluable asset for a young player mired in a difficult situation. 

At the same time, having nothing to play for makes it easier for the Wolves to shut Muhammad down, rather than risk making the injury worse, and get him back in action as soon as possible.

The injury, which he suffered in practice earlier this week, comes with an expected recovery time of eight weeks.