Minnesota Sports Forum

Pek should be shut down until after the All Star break. He needs to focus on getting himself healthy once and for all. No more set backs.

This may be a blessing in disguise as it will allow Towns to start at the 5 and develop quicker (think Wiggin's rookie season - baptism by fire). It also means that Dieng will get plenty of playing time and KG can also cover the 5 if need be.

We're paying him $12 large for the season. When the doctors say he's ready, he's ready.

I am surprised he is still in a boot. Rubio has not been able to do basketball activities. Our wounded have been on the shelf for the summer too. I hope Rubio has no setbacks and has been able to work on his shooting while he is out.

Pek is s curious case. Lets say this doesn't work and he retires. Does he come off the books and insurance picks up the tab?

TheSP wrote:

Q12543 wrote:
I agree. I have pretty much ruled him out. And even if he can play in limited minutes, whose to say that he can still be effective? While he was still better than most of our other bigs last season, he really struggled to finish plays.

I think we clearly have to take Pek's performance last season with a large grain of salt given that what minutes he did play were all played in pain. He was never physically right last season due to the foot issue. I'm not saying he'll ever be right again, but if the surgery was a success then I don't think it's fair to judge him, or set expectations based off of last season.

I've been writing it for multiple years now... Pekovic is a very consistent player when he's healthy. But there's such a fine line because of his relative ground-bound game and lack of length... that when he's been injured (at all), his efficiency has plummeted. There's just no margin for error.

The problem last year is that they used Pek completely wrong. Instead of letting him roll to the hoop with someone who drives to the basket, they just dumped it to him 15 feet out and asked him to go one on one , which is not his game

I agree alex. Not sure what happened with the playcalling for Pek, but I remember Rubio and even JJ really causing damage with Pek rolling. He always had trouble finishing against length but when he got moving, he could usually get to the basket or at least draw a foul. I wonder if part of it was that his mobility was reduced last year because of the injury.

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:I agree alex. Not sure what happened with the playcalling for Pek, but I remember Rubio and even JJ really causing damage with Pek rolling. He always had trouble finishing against length but when he got moving, he could usually get to the basket or at least draw a foul. I wonder if part of it was that his mobility was reduced last year because of the injury.

Yes, Alex is right. I think one problem was Rubio's injury. He and Pek had extremely good chemistry in the PnR and that was never really developed with Mo Williams and Zach LaVine really didn't know how to run it effectively at that level.

Again, I think we should completely discount Pek's potential future contributions at this point. Even if reasonably healthy, his age and past injuries are going to take their toll on his effectiveness. If he can play, he will still be useful against the big, banging type of Centers that none of our other guys have the strength to keep out of the paint (and that includes Towns, whose lower body still needs a lot of work). But I don't see him ever scoring with the same type of efficiency and volume as in the past.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:We're paying him $12 large for the season. When the doctors say he's ready, he's ready.

And that's worked so well in the past Cool? Plus his contract doesn't look that bad after this free agency lol.

KiwiMatt wrote:
And that's worked so well in the past Cool? Plus his contract doesn't look that bad after this free agency lol.

I agree I want Pek rested and healthy for the playoffs.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

KiwiMatt wrote:
And that's worked so well in the past Cool? Plus his contract doesn't look that bad after this free agency lol.

I agree I want Pek rested and healthy for the playoffs.

Playoffs? Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe if we were in the East.