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http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/Li ... -1193.html

n a recent interview with Timberwolves.com, assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg mentioned that Nikola Pekoviæ, the Wolves' second-round pick from last year's draft, will make his way across the Atlantic and play a big role at center next season. Pekoviæ is a big, physical player who is currently playing for one of the best clubs in Europe, Panathinaikos, and recently put up 26 points against his former team Belgrade Partizan.

I'd like to know if this is locked-in or just speculation by our Assistant GM. It would narrow our draft options considerably if a strong center was about to join the team.

That would be good news. I think it would make it more likely we focus on the back court with our pick this year. We would probably still gamble on a big man with one of our later picks though.

What would be the most we could offer him this offseason? Paging shrink.....

As a second round pick, I'm pretty sure we could offer him the MLE, if we wanted to. Probably not worth it, but it's there.

That's very interesting. I would think Freddy wouldn't just say that unless there was a very good possibility of it happening.

I would guess that he wouldn't say anything unless it was real. I sure hope it is true! He would be a big (ugly) body down low. If it is true that would be great news.

From what I previously read he wasn't planning on coming?

Marc Gasol (who was a mid 2nd round pick, two years ago) is currently getting paid $3M/$3.2/$3.5 over the next 3 years. Im assuming it will be something along those lines. Unless shrink knows something i dont, which is very realistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV6YLap_dlc

The guys has some great post moves. His style is a bit like Al in that he doesn't play as much of a vertical game. I'm suddenly very excited. It is like having an extra first round pick if he makes the trip!

We are getting contributions from a lot of guys and moving forward, we got this thing positioned pretty well. We have a lot of draft picks, with the possibility of four for next year. We also have a lot of salary cap room and will get our center Nikola Peković, who we drafted last year. I think we are building this the right way. It’s going to be an important year to try to make the right decisions and see which one of these guys we want to keep around to be in our core group.

However, in the same article, he says:

Fred: With some of the players that we have right now, Kevin Love will be a very effective player alongside Al because of his passing ability, rebounding ability and he will get better defensively. I think it’s important Peković; our 6-foot-10 bullheaded player will come over in 2010 and be a big part of this team as well. We are going to have to draft well in the next few years. Then in 2010, we are going to have a ton of cap space to bring over some players. The draft picks coming up in the next couple of years will be very important

I am confused.

Fred didn't say Pek was coming next season. He said 2010. The report misquoted him. Click on the link to the actual interview and search for Pekovic.

Jonah: Looking ahead with Al Jefferson, how do you build around him? With a guy that is the cornerstone of the franchise, how do you make sure during his prime years, you get the most out of him and make a run to the playoffs and a championship?

Fred: With some of the players that we have right now, Kevin Love will be a very effective player alongside Al because of his passing ability, rebounding ability and he will get better defensively. I think it's important Peković; our 6-foot-10 bullheaded player will come over in 2010 and be a big part of this team as well. We are going to have to draft well in the next few years. Then in 2010, we are going to have a ton of cap space to bring over some players. The draft picks coming up in the next couple of years will be very important.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/Mi ... -1193.html

That was a little confusing, but I can see what he meant. He does definitely mean 2010, not next year.

john2jer wrote:As a second round pick, I'm pretty sure we could offer him the MLE, if we wanted to. Probably not worth it, but it's there.

True. From what I remember reading though was he was making something like $7 million euros per year or more, so the thought was that it would have to be significantly more than the MLE to get him over. Or it very well could've been that the rookie pay scale wouldn't have been sufficient so that's why he was top choice of round 2.

Does look like a misquote about him coming over in 2009 though.

Greece has a 40% tax rate, just remember that as you are looking at pay.

Tax law isn't really my forte, but even if Greece has a 40% tax rate, the US at that level has a 35% rate, plus a 7.85% Minnesota rate. Plus the fact that the exchange rate doesn't exactly favor the dollar right now, if you know what I mean...

By my (admittedly unreliable) math, we'd have to pay Pekovic $7,761,148.90 to equal his take home in Greece, and that's before he has to pay a buyout (if that's applicable).

Here's hoping he doesn't read this...

By 2010 the tax rates are going to be even higher since the bush tax cuts will expire and obama campaigned on raising taxes on the "rich" to fund his social agenda. I wouldn't be surprised to see the top rate pass 50% by 2010. Add onto that the currency devaluation from printing trillions of dollars in treasury bills and we are going to have to seriously, seriously overpay this guy to bring him over. he will make more than top pick in the draft for certain. 7 million plus would not surprise me at all.

I read that article 2 days ago and I got the impression fred was saying he would be coming over in 2010.
It just struck me as him trying to give some good PR to get the fans excited, glowing about our players and picks. Who knows what the mayor really thinks about these guys. I like that he stressed we have to draft really well the next couple years, it shows he isn't satisfied with the current product and isn't as naive as mchale in thinking we can win 40 games with the mighty midgets we've run out there this year.

I think the biggest question about the wolves is whether a three-headed monster of 6'9 guys who don't block shots is a viable PF-C rotation. These are three REALLY GOOD guys who don't block shots, but it's definitely an experiment that hasn't been attempted recently.

"who don't block shots"... Really don't play good defense is more like it. I know some of you think Al is improving his defense every year but I've yet to see it, Love struggles against bigger and quicker players, and Pekovic's reviews seems to all mention his weakness is defense. None of them look to be capable of anchoring a defense - not a pleasant thought. It will be good to have multiple talented offensive bigs, but it is disappointing that they all have the same weaknesses. Oh well, bring on the experiment I guess.

Well, I agree Jefferson isn't a good defender, but I think Love is rapidly improving there (though the 7+ footers will always be a problem). For a rookie, a young rookie, I think he's shown promise as a solid defender. Especially since he's routinely getting rookie calls on defense.

Anyway, even if it turns out that Pekovic and Love are solid position defenders, there will still be the issue of zero shotblocking...

BTW, former Timberwolf Igor Rakocevic reportedly has a 3 year, 12 million dollar offer from an NBA team. According to draftexpress, Rakocevic has been the best player in Europe this year.

mandurugo wrote:"who don't block shots"... Really don't play good defense is more like it. I know some of you think Al is improving his defense every year but I've yet to see it, Love struggles against bigger and quicker players, and Pekovic's reviews seems to all mention his weakness is defense. None of them look to be capable of anchoring a defense - not a pleasant thought. It will be good to have multiple talented offensive bigs, but it is disappointing that they all have the same weaknesses. Oh well, bring on the experiment I guess.

83 sixers beat the hell out of the taller and better shooting Lakers (Kareem/Magic/Wilkes/Cooper) by surrounding Moses Malone w/ perimeter athletes and owning the glass inside. Granted it's not everyday that a team has Dr J, but then it's not everyday that guys like Jefferson/Love come along either. Wolves can clean the glass, but they need the perimeter athletes. No offense to Miller and Gomes, but they're not the perimeter athletes this team needs, they'd fit better on a team like San Antonio.

Wolves need to get another 2 or 3 guys on the perimeter - at least a couple of them need to be of the Olympian type. Luckily there's some guys that fit the bill in the draft - plenty in fact (D James, Young, Aminu, T Smith, T Williams, etc)

I think that even without considering the Euro, Wolves need to stay clear of big men this draft. If the org is serious about him being in their future plans, they've got to forget about drafting anything but perimeter players.