Minnesota center Nikola Pekovic was a key cog in the Timberwolves ability to remain competitive in Kevin Love’s absence last year. He posted an average of 18 points and 10 rebounds per 36 minutes during the 2012-13 season.
Going into the offseason, retaining his services was among the top priorities for GM Flip Saunders and the Wolves’ front office.
A month later, Pekovic remains unsigned.
Though both sides have yet to agree on the financial aspects of a new deal, Saunders remains hopefully optimistic, as reported by Star Tribune Minnesota Timberwolves writer Jerry Zgoda.
Flip remains confidnet Pek deal will get down. Asked for a deadline, he said, “Training camp.”
— Jerry Zgoda (@JerryZgoda) August 12, 2013
Training camp generally begins around the first week of October. That gives Wolves’ management a month and a half to get a deal done.
Pekovic is a restricted free agent, so there is always the possibility that if negotiations break down he could choose to just play out the season on the $6 million qualifying offer and test the market next summer.
Should he choose to do so, it would be very interesting to see if he’ll get an offer worth as much as Minnesota’s offers this summer.
As cliched as it might sound, only time will reveal if GM Saunders and Co. are able to work things out with their big man.
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Michael writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is an Atlanta Hawks, Southeast Division NBA Featured Columnist for BleacherReport.com.
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Pekovic is being offered 48 million over 4 years and has no other team competing for his services. He can choose to reject the offer and instead take the Qualifying offer, but that would mean leaving 42 million on the table. That’s not a smart move from someone who has been injured in each of his 3 NBA seasons.
In the end I suspect his agent, Jeff Schwartz, will be able to save face if Wolves raise offer to 50 million with additional incentives. Pek wants 14 million/year, but he’ll have to settle for no more than 12.5 million, IMO.
Timberwolves will have to be very healthy this season to compete for a playoff spot. They already lost Kirilenko when Flip wouldn’t show any interest in keeping him longer term. Lakers and possibly Nuggets are the only teams that could fall out of the playoff picture.