skorff26 wrote:Pekovic isn't as good as Love. Talkbasket has the opinion that there is more talent in the Euroleague than in the NBA (which is untrue).
If Pekovic was as good as Love then someone would have picked him a lot higher in the draft (if he was a lottery player than there is a chance that he would have come over anyway). Also Love has made big strides this year while Pekovic hasn't improved nearly as much.
So Love has improved more than Pekovic in the last year; so Pekovic would have to have been a lot better than Love at the draft; and he would have then been a top 5 pick.
Pekovic was considered a top-10 talent that year. I have read a couple things that say he would be easily top-5 this year. As a 2nd rd pick we can negotiate his contract. As a 1st he is stuck in a rookie slot.
Talkbasket does not think there is more talent in the euro. He thinks there is better basketball. Better defense, better coaching and better intensity. It is an honest argument. Pekovic is a very different player than Love, but Pekovic is incredible at what he does. His strength, intensity, left hand, Pek/Role are all upper-NBA tools. He is a below avg defender by euro standards, but is average by NBA standards. If anything his defense (*due to coaching) is better than Al/love. Pek gets good position as a rebounder and would be one of the best on most teams--but here we have dominate rebounders. Pek would have been a great player next to KG. He will be a great player with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqke9iE19O0When/If he comes over he is an equal in rotation/Minutes with Love. Hopefully we add some decent guards because this kid is real. He is a bigger part of our future then Foye or Gomes.
If you use Hollinger's system..
Scoring rate decreases 25 percent
• Rebound rate increases by 18 percent (there are more missed shots in NBA play)
• Assist rate increases by 31 percent (Euro scorers are tightwads with assists)
• Shooting percentage drops by 12 percent
• Overall, PER drops by 30 percent.
Look at these numbers
Pekovic, a rugged 6-11 F/C, was considered to be a mid-first round talent, but fell to Minnesota at #31 (the first pick of the second round) due to contract issues - he is not expected to make his way to the NBA until 2010-11. Considering the relative strengths of the 2008 and 2009 drafts, it's not a stretch to say that Pekovic could be a top 5 pick in this year's draft, though his upside is reduced now that he is 23 years old.
We've caught Pekovic a couple times on the Euroleague Game of the Week on NBA TV and have been impressed. It's a little jarring at first because he sort of resembles a guy like Peja Drobnjak physically, but he is really quite mobile and skilled, with good hands, touch and length, even if he is not the most athletic guy, per se.
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Pekovic has averaged 13 points and 3.9 rebounds on .636 FG% in just 18.2 minutes per game in Euroleague play, impressive per-36 minute numbers of about 26 and 8.
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Using [Hollinger's formula], Pekovic's per-40 minute numbers for the NBA look like this: 21.5 pts, 10.1 reb, .560 FG%
His 2007-08 stats translated to this: 18.3 pts, 12.0 reb, .514 FG%. Not bad.
All in all, Pekovic looks like a guy who's a pretty skilled and efficient scorer and rebounder, but not terribly strong on the defensive end. Potentially good news and bad news for Wolves fans, as you can never have enough skilled bigs, but those strengths and weaknesses sound an awful lot like those of Mssrs. Jefferson and Love - Minny could potentially be looking at a lot of 120-115 games in its 2010s.
http://www.canishoopus.com/2009/5/1/860 ... la-pekovic