Pek Day!

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

And thus comes to close the great heist of Nikola Pekovic. A man who will make nearly 73 million dollars when all is said and done and have only played 271 games. Oh and we gave him 60 of that with no other offers on the table.

Not one of Flip's stellar moments as GM. Never understood people bidding against themselves. It is the agents job to have someone else pushing the price up and will Flip doing this before the Love situation was worked out was a major no-no.

The idea they were bidding against nobody isn't accurate. Pek wasn't healthy but if he was or even able to effectively play for 55 games a year his contract would be a bargain or a solid value considering what big guys are getting right now. Regardless the Wolves and Glen Are going to be just fine after basically about the worst case scenario happened so the gamble wasn't the worst I've seen.

I was always against the deal just because Love/Pek never worked as a defensive pairing protecting the rim. You could never count on that pair to get you a stop when needed. They could end possessions well with their rebounding, but they really couldn't stop anybody's first shot. The injuries were poor luck, but the fit from a winning standpoint was never there. Their best shot was fighting for an 8th seed with a top 5 player in the league. You built your team wrong if you can't make the playoffs with a top 5 player and that team couldn't get any key stops because of that frontcourt pairing.

[Monster]

And thus comes to close the great heist of Nikola Pekovic. A man who will make nearly 73 million dollars when all is said and done and have only played 271 games. Oh and we gave him 60 of that with no other offers on the table.

Not one of Flip's stellar moments as GM. Never understood people bidding against themselves. It is the agents job to have someone else pushing the price up and will Flip doing this before the Love situation was worked out was a major no-no.

The idea they were bidding against nobody isn't accurate. Pek wasn't healthy but if he was or even able to effectively play for 55 games a year his contract would be a bargain or a solid value considering what big guys are getting right now. Regardless the Wolves and Glen Are going to be just fine after basically about the worst case scenario happened so the gamble wasn't the worst I've seen.

I was always against the deal just because Love/Pek never worked as a defensive pairing protecting the rim. You could never count on that pair to get you a stop when needed. They could end possessions well with their rebounding, but they really couldn't stop anybody's first shot. The injuries were poor luck, but the fit from a winning standpoint was never there. Their best shot was fighting for an 8th seed with a top 5 player in the league. You built your team wrong if you can't make the playoffs with a top 5 player and that team couldn't get any key stops because of that frontcourt pairing.

You make a good point that I wouldn't argue with generally speaking. My question is what was the other option? The answer is there wasn't really one.

One thing we don't really do is look at what Flip had done when he came here if he hadn't felt Love and basically started a new rebuild. Let's say Love resigned and stayed...just for the hell of it.

If Pek was healthy-ish that would be even better but.

He drafted Dieng who would actually make some sense next to Love. If he would have been able to be part of a group with Love and Pek plus later Belly that gets interesting.

Bazz is at least an NBA rotation player

Lavine was a terrific pick and it was a bit gutsy.

Flip brought in some legit vets like
Martin
Brewer
Mo Williams

Flip would have had some sort of draft pick if Love was still on the roster it wouldn't have been good enough to get Towns but they would have been a lottery team again and that was a pretty good draft he could have gotten a nice player. I'd take the group we have now no question over that theoretical group but man that looks at least somewhat interesting compared to what Flip had when he started here. He didn't do everything right including that Payne trade but he did a lot of good and he helped put together the winningest roster this team had seen in 10 years and the real issue with that team going forward was injurys. Love was damn smart to get out when he did even though Flip was adding some talent it would have taken too long. It seems that situation worked out well for everyone at this point. Yay

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

To me the move to make would have been to just not give him 5 years when you know the fit isn't great. It's not so much that he got paid. It's that he got 5 years and wasn't a great fit next to the other frontcourt player you were actually building around. There probably weren't many free agent options willing to come here at the time but that doesn't mean you overspend on a bad fit. Grasping for wins just doesn't seem to work out very often. Imagine if he takes a more patient approach and gets Giannis and Gobert instead of Bazz and Dieng. Love probably still goes to Cleveland because we don't win right away and we get Wiggins anyway and we have Wiggins/Giannis/Gobert with a who at Zach also. Flip did some good things, but he also missed some big shots because he was trying to get contributors right away. Then when a Love deal is imminent he actually takes the patient approach and gets a guy like Zach that many would have passed over. If he sticks to that plan from the beginning we might already be looking at a playoff team with elite defensive potential over an inconsistent offensive juggernaut. We're in a great place, I'm just not sure we're in the best place we could have been if we stuck to the long view building the team from the outset.

[Monster]

To me the move to make would have been to just not give him 5 years when you know the fit isn't great. It's not so much that he got paid. It's that he got 5 years and wasn't a great fit next to the other frontcourt player you were actually building around. There probably weren't many free agent options willing to come here at the time but that doesn't mean you overspend on a bad fit. Grasping for wins just doesn't seem to work out very often. Imagine if he takes a more patient approach and gets Giannis and Gobert instead of Bazz and Dieng. Love probably still goes to Cleveland because we don't win right away and we get Wiggins anyway and we have Wiggins/Giannis/Gobert with a who at Zach also. Flip did some good things, but he also missed some big shots because he was trying to get contributors right away. Then when a Love deal is imminent he actually takes the patient approach and gets a guy like Zach that many would have passed over. If he sticks to that plan from the beginning we might already be looking at a playoff team with elite defensive potential over an inconsistent offensive juggernaut. We're in a great place, I'm just not sure we're in the best place we could have been if we stuck to the long view building the team from the outset.

Well...when he took over the team they weren't exactly taking a long view were they? They had a HOF vet coach and were trying to win games and not suck for the first time in a bunch of years. Tough to just let Pek walk. If you knew back when he signed the deal that the last 2 years of Pek's contract would cost the Wolves 2-3 million per and he would retire it doesn't sound so bad does it? Maybe Flip and Glen planned for that possibility. I don't want to give them that much credit but again if Pek is healthy for that 50ish games into his 5th year it would have been a bargain 5th year. Just another way of looking at it although it's admittedly optimistic.

Yeah it sucks they could have swung for the fences more but that's what happens sometimes. The idea someone in Flip's position would take 2 guys in Giannis and Gobert who were thought to be loooong term projects seems unlikely for a team in that position. Pick 1 of those guys? Sure. BOTH? No. If we are going hindsight let's at least be a little more realistic. :)

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

To me the move to make would have been to just not give him 5 years when you know the fit isn't great. It's not so much that he got paid. It's that he got 5 years and wasn't a great fit next to the other frontcourt player you were actually building around. There probably weren't many free agent options willing to come here at the time but that doesn't mean you overspend on a bad fit. Grasping for wins just doesn't seem to work out very often. Imagine if he takes a more patient approach and gets Giannis and Gobert instead of Bazz and Dieng. Love probably still goes to Cleveland because we don't win right away and we get Wiggins anyway and we have Wiggins/Giannis/Gobert with a who at Zach also. Flip did some good things, but he also missed some big shots because he was trying to get contributors right away. Then when a Love deal is imminent he actually takes the patient approach and gets a guy like Zach that many would have passed over. If he sticks to that plan from the beginning we might already be looking at a playoff team with elite defensive potential over an inconsistent offensive juggernaut. We're in a great place, I'm just not sure we're in the best place we could have been if we stuck to the long view building the team from the outset.

Well...when he took over the team they weren't exactly taking a long view were they? They had a HOF vet coach and were trying to win games and not suck for the first time in a bunch of years. Tough to just let Pek walk. If you knew back when he signed the deal that the last 2 years of Pek's contract would cost the Wolves 2-3 million per and he would retire it doesn't sound so bad does it? Maybe Flip and Glen planned for that possibility. I don't want to give them that much credit but again if Pek is healthy for that 50ish games into his 5th year it would have been a bargain 5th year. Just another way of looking at it although it's admittedly optimistic.

Yeah it sucks they could have swung for the fences more but that's what happens sometimes. The idea someone in Flip's position would take 2 guys in Giannis and Gobert who were thought to be loooong term projects seems unlikely for a team in that position. Pick 1 of those guys? Sure. BOTH? No. If we are going hindsight let's at least be a little more realistic. :)

Given Adelman's stance on playing rookies (he never played them much). Then it actually should have signaled the front office to look longer term. Also when you factor in Giannis and Gobert both being available in the spots we drafted and going relatively quickly after it's not like either would have been big reaches. Not to mention easily justifiable saying you wanted to add length around Ricky/Love/Pek we didn't have. You just see the same habits from good teams always taking the long view it seems like. SA trading for Kawhi and taking guys like Anderson and Joseph to develop. GS taking a guy like Looney who was going to miss a whole year when they were playing for titles. Granted they have the luxury of winning and taking a long view, but you'd think teams would try to emulate success rather than try to cut corners. There just rarely seem to be guys taken to contribute early who actually contribute early. Patience just pays off more than desperation in this league.