Brandon Roy will not play tonight, is currently day-to-day with a sore right knee, and Chase Budinger will start in his place tonight against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
Not a huge surprise, really, given that Roy did not return to Friday's game against Indiana after halftime. Of course the big question is whether this is something Wolves fans should worry about long-term. Wolves coach Rick Adelman said no.
"It's just soreness," Adelman said prior to the game. "We felt it was best we not try it tonight. We'll just take it day by day."
You tend to fear the worst when a fellow like Roy – who was forced out of the game for a year by knee problems – has to miss a game with a sore knee. But Adelman said he expected games like this when Roy ended his retirement and joined the Wolves for this season.
"The guy has had the knee problems he's had – anybody who has had knee problems – you're going to have things where you step back a little bit," Adelman said. "So I'm not going to be overly concerned right now. I think we just have to take it day to day and go from there. He played in the first half (Friday) and felt pretty good. But it got sore, so we'll have to wait and see."
That means Chase Budinger, who has scored in double figures three straight games, will take over the starting off-guard spot. And that makes an already thinned-out rotation even thinner.
What does that mean? It means more juggling by Adelman, who could bring Alexey Shved off the bench earlier for Budinger, then rotate Budinger back into the game to give Andrei Kirilenko a rest.
"We should be able to rotate that around all right," Adelman said. "But it definitely makes (the rotation) shorter."
