Minnesota Sports Forum

LOL. Actually, Sanders when healthy like last year was a monster and I'd take him over Pek any day. He's also almost three years younger and makes a million dollars less a year.

TeamRicky wrote:LOL. Actually, Sanders when healthy like last year was a monster and I'd take him over Pek any day. He's also almost three years younger and makes a million dollars less a year.

You don't watch basketball, obviously. Either that or you're clueless.

Nah, I'm a huge basketball fan and smarter than you,
Camden. Sanders is hurt this year and you can't judge his value based on this year any more than you can value Kevin Love on last year's terrible year.

Pek is good but can't be the defensive disrupter that Sanders is, plus Sanders is younger and cheaper. Wolves need a disruptive defender if they ever are going to go anywhere. Bogut is another guy that is disruptive. Love and Pek stop no one.

TeamRicky wrote:Nah, I'm a huge basketball fan and smarter than you,
Camden. Sanders is hurt this year and you can't judge his value based on this year any more than you can value Kevin Love on last year's terrible year.

Pek is good but can't be the defensive disrupter that Sanders is, plus Sanders is younger and cheaper. Wolves need a disruptive defender if they ever are going to go anywhere. Bogut is another guy that is disruptive. Love and Pek stop no one.

Larry Sanders has had ONE, count it, one good NBA season and that was last year averaging just under 10 pts, 10 reb and 3 blocks in 27 minutes per game. Shot 50% from the field and 62% from the line. Not All-Star worthy. Yet, he just signed a four-year, $44M extension and look what he's done this year. Back to his below average production that he's shown his whole NBA career. Pek, on the other hand, continues to get better and better averaging 18/9 this season. Each year he's improved his career highs. I'll take the player with rising trends over the player who's only had one productive season. Pekovic has also been our most consistent scoring option this season. If you've paid attention since Pek went down, our offense hasn't been the same to say the least. Take away our potent scoring option in the middle, replace him with a rim protector in Turiaf and our offense has suffered. I get that Sanders is better than Turiaf, but the fit is still the same.

You say Sanders is cheaper, but I doubt you even knew about Sanders extension before I just brought it up. Is $1M a year really going to be a factor in your hypothetical decision-making? I certainly hope not.

I agree the Wolves need a defensive disrupter, but before that we need a better bench. Even without Pek being a rim protector, this team would have many more wins this season had the bench play not been horrendous. If brought along properly, I still think Dieng can be our rotational defensive big. Hopefully that comes in good time.

I highly doubt Milwaukee has any interest in trading its best player for Pek. The last year when Sanders was healthy he was the league's best shot blocker and a strong interior defender. Once healthy, his game should continue to improve.

Milwaukee has a good shot at landing a franchise player in the draft and with a healthy Sanders should be one of the most improved teams in the NBA next year. And yes, the almost three year age difference is huge, especially while the Buck's are rebuilding around their 2014 rookie.. I am a fan of defense as anyone who knows basketball knows that defense wins championships. Sure, its possible to make a case for Pek's value, but the OP said Pek was better than Sanders and it wasn't close. I just found that statement completely absurd and an insult to educated basketball fans.

I also don't see Atlanta offering up Horford for Pek. Horford is a plain stud and IMO a better all around player than Pek. The only negative with Horford is his injuries, but the same is true about Pek.

TeamRicky wrote:I highly doubt Milwaukee has any interest in trading its best player for Pek. The last year when Sanders was healthy he was the league's best shot blocker and a strong interior defender. Once healthy, his game should continue to improve.

Milwaukee has a good shot at landing a franchise player in the draft and with a healthy Sanders should be one of the most improved teams in the NBA next year. And yes, the almost three year age difference is huge, especially while the Buck's are rebuilding around their 2014 rookie.. I am a fan of defense as anyone who knows basketball knows that defense wins championships. Sure, its possible to make a case for Pek's value, but the OP said Pek was better than Sanders and it wasn't close. I just found that statement completely absurd and an insult to educated basketball fans.

Again, another uneducated statement from you Team Ricky. If Minnesota offered Pekovic for Sanders straight up, Milwaukee would jump all over that offer without thinking twice about it. It would give the Bucks a MUCH-needed low post scorer, which they don't have at all. They also wouldn't be void of rim protection since they'd have Henson. We'd be the fools of that trade, in my opinion. Pek's value far exceeds Sanders' right now.

I think you're overrating Sanders defense as a whole too. While he showed last year that he can be a productive shot-blocker, he gets overpowered by bigger players in the post and isn't the smartest on defense either, often giving up silly fouls and falling asleep on rotations.

I would agree with the OP. Pek is better than Sanders and it isn't even close. Skill-wise, production and consistency; Pek is superior.

Here's a consistent fact. Pek is going to miss 1/4 of the season every season. He's never played more than 80% of the games in a season and he averages missing 1/4 of the season every year. He has yet to experience a major injury skewing those numbers which makes the consistency of the missed time more troubling. I'm not going to get into the Pek versus Player A type arguments, but anybody who is starting caliber and can consistently play more than 80% of the games in a season is going to help us make the playoffs more than Pek and that is the ultimate goal. What good is a big 3 of Ricky/Love/Pek if one of those 3 is guaranteed to miss 25% of the season every year? That doesn't seem like a smart investment or strategy. If we can't make the playoffs because one of our big three misses that much time every year, then what good does it do us to have a big 3 of that caliber. It's wasted money and low lottery picks.

khans2k5 wrote:Here's a consistent fact. Pek is going to miss 1/4 of the season every season. He's never played more than 80% of the games in a season and he averages missing 1/4 of the season every year. He has yet to experience a major injury skewing those numbers which makes the consistency of the missed time more troubling. I'm not going to get into the Pek versus Player A type arguments, but anybody who is starting caliber and can consistently play more than 80% of the games in a season is going to help us make the playoffs more than Pek and that is the ultimate goal. What good is a big 3 of Ricky/Love/Pek if one of those 3 is guaranteed to miss 25% of the season every year? That doesn't seem like a smart investment or strategy. If we can't make the playoffs because one of our big three misses that much time every year, then what good does it do us to have a big 3 of that caliber. It's wasted money and low lottery picks.

Like I've said countless times on here, if we trade Pekovic, we're not going to get equal value. So would you rather have Pek for 65 games a year at All-Star caliber and very reasonable money or trade him, lose the trade in terms of value and have a hole at center?

Yes Pek gets banged up here and there, but that's what you get with his style of play. It's physical and then some. If Player A (trade package A) isn't as good as Pek is, then I'm not trading him away because of minor injury concerns. I'll take Nikola for whatever games he can play and his consistent production in those games.

I also don't think Pek is remotely close to why we'll miss the playoffs this year, should we in fact finish outside the top-eight. I'll likely still throw my blame towards the bench and advocate for us to fix the second unit before blowing up one of the most productive starting fives in basketball. A few tweaks here and there to the bench and this team would be much better than they currently are. I've been on the "blow it up" train, but I'd like to see competent bench play before making my final conclusion.

A new coach wouldn't hurt either. How many times do we have to watch Pek catch the ball at the elbow? How many times do we have to watch Rubio play-off ball, basically making him a wasted body? Why does are current coach insist on going with the backup PG in the closing minutes instead of our best playmaker? I have a ton of questions about Adelman after watching the first half of this season. I've lost my faith in him.

Point being, trading Pek isn't the right move for us to make, especially at this time.

If you've paid attention since Pek went down, our offense hasn't been the same to say the least. Take away our potent scoring option in the middle, replace him with a rim protector in Turiaf and our offense has suffered. I get that Sanders is better than Turiaf, but the fit is still the same.


Have to remember they have been without Kmart as well,So it's not just PRK...Just Saying.