Zach LaVine will miss the remainder of the season with torn ACL

The Minnesota guard suffered a torn ACL against Detroit on Friday

The Minnesota Timberwolves announced today that guard Zach LaVine will miss the remainder of the season after an MRI revealed a torn ACL. He’ll have season-ending surgery.

The injury occurred during the Timberwolves’ Friday night loss to the Detroit Pistons.

This is a disappointing moment for LaVine who had experienced a bit of a mini-breakout in his third season with Minnesota. The former UCLA guard was averaging 18.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 45.9 percent from the field. By all available metrics, he appeared to be turning into a highly valuable piece of the Timberwolves trio of exciting youngsters alongside Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins with some going as far as to argue that he has more long-term potential than Wiggins.

Now, Minnesota faces important questions about how to handle the remainder of the season. The Timberwolves had grandiose, if unlikely, dreams of making the playoffs in Tom Thibodeau’s first season, but they entered Saturday with just a 3.6 percent chance of doing so, per ESPN. That number will no doubt fall without LaVine in the rotation.

In a year with one of the best draft classes in recent memory, perhaps the best option for Thibodeau and Minnesota is to put themselves in the best position to draft another piece to go alongside LaVine, Towns and Wiggins as they build for the future.

Although accepting losses like the Philadelphia 76ers have in recent seasons doesn’t seem to be in the nature of Thibodeau, it may be the best option for the Timberwolves going forward.