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Minnesota figured to struggle this season. The roster is young, the coach (Kurt Rambis) is new, and there are plenty of holes through the roster. But there's always an extra challenge in 'Sota, and this year that extra challenge comes in the form of a fracture of the fourth metacarpal bone in the left hand of Kevin Love that will reportedly sideline the power forward for 6-8 weeks.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Love's hand smacked against the elbow of teammate Stewie Griffin Oleksiy Pecherov as Love collected a rebound. Fitting, that the injury would happen on a rebound, considering Love is one of the league's brightest young board hoarders. His absence will force cohort Al Jefferson to be even more of a vacuum on the glass.

On Monday, Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson mentioned at a press event that incumbent starting center Erick Dampier could come off the bench this season. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News followed up to report that it's not a set-in-stone matter, and that Nelson was just generally speaking about the team's flexibility.

That got Matt Moore and I thinking -- err, talking -- about the Maverick rotation. Our discussion (with a somewhat relevant Magic-Cavs vignette) is after the jump.

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?

Here are five moves that might not have gotten a lot of attention but were very solid nonetheless:

--Raptors get Marco Belinelli from Warriors for Devean George, cash: Belinelli may not be a starter in the NBA, but he can be a rotation guy. And it just so happens the Raptors are pretty much bereft of two guards. That alone should get Belinelli on the court, and from there he'll certainly help at various junctures. As for George, who knows if he'll be healthy and who knows if he'll be able to crack the Warriors' rotation if he is.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Marc and Pau Gasol didn't play in the same time zone Friday night -- in fact, Pau's night of work ended before Marc's even began. The suspicious might wonder, then, if the brothers pulled some trickery to get Pau to Sacramento in a fat suit. While Pau slayed the Nets with an incredible 36/11/7/2/2 line, Marc was the real shocker.

Marc raked the Kings for 27 points and five rebounds. Neither Spencer Hawes nor Jason Thompson could handle Marc's girth in the paint -- the younger Gasol even shook the Immortal Calvin Booth a few times! Ugly work, but beautiful work from Marc.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

-- [Zach] Randolph laughed when I asked him if he felt the Knicks made a mistake in trading him away. "Yeah," he said with a big smile beaming. "It was definitely a mistake." [...] If they wind up with LeBron, Zach says he can understand moving him. But Chris Bosh? "I'm better than Chris Bosh," he said. -- Alan Hahn on Newday

-- "I retired," Arenas said in the home locker room before Washington's game against Charlotte. "No more blogging for me." [...] "It's just like the double-(edged) sword thing: Eventually your words is going to kill you," Arenas said with a smile. -- Gilbert Arenas

The Mavericks finally completed a long-rumored deal with Charlotte, but the eventual transaction looks more like an admission of a mistake than a potentially vital move.

Previous rumors placed Dallas in talks to grab Raymond Felton from the Bobcats in a multi-team deal that sent out DeSagana Diop, a player Dallas spent a full five-year mid-level on this past summer.

But the transaction is Diop for Charlotte's Matt Carroll and minor prospect Ryan Hollins. That changes how you have to view the deal.

Season-ending surgery for Sean May has, obviously, widespread ramifications. ESPN's John Hollinger docked Charlotte six wins because of the loss, and the news threatens to completely confuse Bobcats coach Sam Vincent (as well as anyone trying to follow his talking points). So confusing is the power forward situation that Ryan Hollins is being discussed as a starting center, which would shift Emeka Okafor to power forward, according to the Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell.

Shoals took up the cause of cult favorite Walter Herrmann while putting Vincent's promise to run in proper perspective over at Free Darko. Hollins, if you'll remember from UCLA's 2006 title attempt, is a Dalembertesque rebounder and shotblocker with little strength and less touch. Okafor, while short, is immeasurably tough under the rim while holding enough athleticism to finish sixth in block rate among centers last season. In fact, he's the perfect running center -- he can defend, he can run, he can score. Hollins can give you 1.5 of those qualities.

With Jason Richardson's new firepower in the starting lineup, perhaps it makes sense to keep versatile Herrmann strapped to the bench as the third frontcourt player. But Herrmann is a player well worth 30+ minutes a night, and he plays well alongside Gerald Wallace. (The two blossomed together the second half of last season.) I suppose any solution which keeps Primoz Brezec and Othella Harrington out of the equation and Marc Jackson off the roster is a net positive for casual Cats fans. But Vincent needs to be very careful he doesn't overrate the offensive abilities of Raymond Felton and Okafor -- Herrmann, as a scorer, wouldn't be redundant in an up-tempo offense with Wallace and Richardson. They need another potent shooter, an extra go-to scorer considered Okafor's work-in-progress post game and Felton's failing jumpers. Charlotte's running game may be destined to fail anyways, but withholding Herrmann may cause early termination.