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If the rumors are true, that both Darko and the front office want to see him in a Timberwolves uniform, do you think that means Pekovic will be traded?

Darko would cost us some of our cap space, money that we may need for Pekovic or some other FA. Darko would also get a lot of center minutes, and with Hollins, Al Jefferson and Love all on multi-year deals, we couldn't offer many dollars or minutes to Pekovic. Trading his rights before he gets a contract also means we get to receive value without taking back matching salary.

I was looking forward to watching Pekovic, but I'm wondering if people think its likely he'll be in Minnesota?

shrink wrote:If the rumors are true, that both Darko and the front office want to see him in a Timberwolves uniform, do you think that means Pekovic will be traded?

Darko would cost us some of our cap space, money that we may need for Pekovic or some other FA. Darko would also get a lot of center minutes, and with Hollins, Al Jefferson and Love all on multi-year deals, we couldn't offer many dollars or minutes to Pekovic. Trading his rights before he gets a contract also means we get to receive value without taking back matching salary.

I was looking forward to watching Pekovic, but I'm wondering if people think its likely he'll be in Minnesota?

Probably. Although if they trade Jefferson, it might open up minutes. I expect Pekovic to be packaged with other assets though.

I don't think Hollins should factor into anyone elses future, he's easily cast aside if better options open up. I do agree that one of the 3: Love, Al, Pek will need to be traded to preserve the peace, same as one of Rubio, Flynn, Sessions

This is one of the toughest questions to answer to me. Cuz it seems that most (although not all) posters are feeling that either Love or Jefferson is gone. On the other side of the coin, if Darko has starter minutes, then we will need two or three bigs guys to play with Darko out of: Jefferson, Love, Pekovic or Hollins. Now the most obvious thing to do is say screw Hollins and play with those three, however why did we pay Hollins the dough if we're not gonna try to develop him? So I'll give Hollins an in due to that fact. The other reason is that if we trade Hollins we're not gonna get that much and I like him enough to not lose value with him. At this point I wonder could we maybe keep 2 more guys with Hollins as 4th big man? It's possible, but it depends on how much drama the NBA is destined to have, which I argue drama is inherent. The fact that we have 3 first round draft pick makes the decision even more confusing. Do we not draft a single big man? Many people argue that we go BPA all the way through. I disagree I say F John Wall, gimme Turner, Johnson or god forbid Aminu. Then we have two more picks if we have 5 big men already, there is no way we pick another big man.

So Darko is my team's starting center, Hollins is back-up center. Now Power Forwards.

I don't think Kahn and Rambis have evaluated any of Love, Jefferson and Pekovic enough to make the decision for our future. To me it's doubtful that Pek is better than either Love or Jeffy. I'ma give Jefferson the benefit of the doubt and say his injury has affected his explosion. I don't know why Love isn't playing well right now Could be that he is not happy with his minutes or his youth is reeeally showing. I think Jefferson has the better excuse, plus he can play C and PF. If anyone else has a theory on why Love isn't playing well lemme know.

So it comes down to a inferior Pek Vs. Love. Both will be cheap for the next couple years relative to their level of play. Pek is bigger, Love is better at almost all skills except maybe one-on-one scoring, where Pek is money. I just don't know.

I think our ultimate front court time split would look like

C/PF: (48x2=96 min total)

Darko (22)
Jefferson (31)
Love (28)
Pekovic (17)

Darko has said he wants 30-35min and a starting spot. Jefferson ideally needs to be playing 35+ or we shouldn't be paying him 10mil plus to be out franchise player. Even Love should be getting 30 ideally as he seems to put up better stats for the night when he hits that magic 30min mark.

Use Pekovic as a trade bait to move up in the draft and figure out if a Darko, Love and Jefferson frontcourt can work next season.

I think Pek and Darko could play effectively together. We could call them the Serbian Sentinels. That's the reason we don't have a consistent and successful front court... they lack a sweet name.

If the Wolves trade Al Jefferson, I definitely see Pekovic in a Wolves jersey next year.

If they keep Al, I would still like to see Pekovic on the team to see what he can do in the NBA and to push Al for minutes in the low post.

When Kahn is asked about Pekovic you can see that he views him as an asset and not in our long term future plans. Pek is listed at 6'11'' the same way that Al is thought to be 6'11''. In reality both are 6'9'' and along with Love would create an even bigger logjam at PF. I think Kahn is open to trading Jefferson, but not for an exp. plus lottery pick (although I would do this). Kahn wants to trade Jefferson along with other pieces for someone that has better superstar potential. I like Kahn, but I don't see that trade happening this summer.

I agree with Foye, that we will use Pekovic along with our other picks in order to move up in the draft. Milwaukee might be a good partner (can swap picks with Chicago).

Any guesses on how much will it take to resign Darko? 6 million per season over 3 years? It looks like he is making 7.5 million right now.

http://www.downtownjournal.com/index.php?&section=94&blog=800

Either positively or negatively, has the team made decisions on any players currently on the roster?

“No. I hope people can understand why we had to evaluate since neither Kurt (Rambis) nor I were here until this year. I think it would have been a terrible mistake if we sort of haphazardly started making trades willy-nilly last summer. I made a lot of trades, but frankly, the only two that really impacted players that were on the roster that I felt were significant were Foye and Miller. We traded Telfair and Smith, but they were more bench players. Foye and Miller were players in the starting lineup.”

“I don’t think we’ll start thinking hard about what to do until after the lottery order is set, which isn’t until late May and we spend some time in Europe this spring, spending time with both Rubio and Pekovic. All these things will have to be factored into whatever decisions we make and I just don’t believe you should do things or form an opinion until you have all the facts in hand.”

With Rubio, we have a pretty good sense that he won’t be here next season. At this point, do you have any idea on Pekovic?

“I know that he’d like to come over next year. My sense is that he does. I’ve visited with him in person and he knows the next step now is for me to come over with Kurt in May and we’re going to spend some time watching him together and then we’ll figure out how to proceed.”

post0115 wrote:When Kahn is asked about Pekovic you can see that he views him as an asset and not in our long term future plans. Pek is listed at 6'11'' the same way that Al is thought to be 6'11''. In reality both are 6'9'' and along with Love would create an even bigger logjam at PF. I think Kahn is open to trading Jefferson, but not for an exp. plus lottery pick (although I would do this). Kahn wants to trade Jefferson along with other pieces for someone that has better superstar potential. I like Kahn, but I don't see that trade happening this summer.

I agree with Foye, that we will use Pekovic along with our other picks in order to move up in the draft. Milwaukee might be a good partner (can swap picks with Chicago).

Pekovic measure at 6'10.5". So I think in reality he's not 6'9".

jgustav1 wrote:Any guesses on how much will it take to resign Darko? 6 million per season over 3 years? It looks like he is making 7.5 million right now.

Darko has stated it's not about the money, that he's more concerned with feeling like he's an important part of the team, getting chances to play, and to be more than just a "defensive" player. The kid wants to be loved. I think the wide spread belief is that he'll get some sort of multi-year deal paying around $3-4mil per, with some team/player options involved.

My preference would be 3 year deal, $4mil per, 1st year guaranteed, 2nd year is a team option, 3rd year is a player option.

I still think 4 million is too much for what he's proven. I think 1 year is a better idea to more firmly establish his value. If he plays well, he gets paid what he's worth. If things don't work out he gets to go home and we don't have a pouty center on our bench.
I also think that Darko more than anybody understands the value of fit, so I'm not really worried about him leaving if he plays well.

What's the difference between a 1 year deal, and a 3 year deal with options? If he doesn't workout, then we don't pick up his option.

The option provides us with some security in that if he breaks out next year, after a dedicated off-season of working out, learning the system, and getting comfortable, we won't lose him due to a higher salary demand, or someone swooping in. Give the guy 30 minutes next year, after the afore mentioned work put in, and it's not impossible that he averages 15/8. He's already showing flashes. So add his improvement in with possible Evan Turner, and some other moves, the Wolves could make a solid jump into the 30's for wins? That would entice other teams. Then you just have to hope he's loyal.

I'm not worried about anyone swooping in, we should have a huge advantage if he plays well. Darko's already been crapped on by 4 NBA teams, he'll want to stay. And we have his bird rights, we'll be able to match any offer or even exceed any offer.
I guess I feel like the only reason for a team option would be an attempt to get a player below market value. It would be fine for us, but if you're trying to convince Darko not to go back to Europe, you want to be as fair as possible.

If Darko signs, I expect two of Al/Love/Peko/1st round draft pick if it's #3 or 4 to be traded and the other 2 to stay. If we get the #2 pick and sign Darko, I think they will only trade one big.

That outcome wouldn't surprise me.

Nothing is known until at least the lotto. (Besides the fact that we are absolutley terrible this year.)

Narf wrote:If Darko signs, I expect two of Al/Love/Peko/1st round draft pick if it's #3 or 4 to be traded and the other 2 to stay. If we get the #2 pick and sign Darko, I think they will only trade one big.

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