Minnesota Sports Forum

I don't think this news has been celebrated enough. I get the "wake me up when he shows he can stay healthy" attitude, but this news is very positive. He is ahead of his recovery schedule, and will have a full month to get ready before camp starts.

As I've said before, a healthy Pek makes this team much better. I'm convinced that if Ricky and Pek are both healthy, Pek returns to an efficient 18 and 10 guy...if he's given the minutes. Towns has a very high ceiling, but he doesn't look quite ready yet for the physicality of being an NBA center, and I think he could be utilized better coming off the bench as a combo 4/5. I know most of us here say #1 picks need to start, and Flip himself has said his preference that Towns start, but I think those comments were before the Pek health update yesterday. I still think Karl progresses better if we don't throw him to the Wolves, but instead allow him to learn the NBA game at a more relaxed pace. Remember, this is a guy who played less than 20 minutes in his one year in college...he needs more seasoning. And we don't know yet where his eventual best position will be.

My hope is that Pek shows us right away in training camp that he is ready to contribute like he did the two seasons before last year. That would give Flip some terrific rotation options. Start Pek, KG, Wiggins, Rubio and Martin or Zach, and sub Towns in for KG midway through the first quarter, and then in for Pek at center at the end of the quarter. Yes, I know that Towns is the #1 pick, but Pek is making $12 million a year and has been a solid contributor when healthy. If his surgery was as successful as it sounds and he is ready to go November I, he needs to start the season at center.


(No, this is not a knee-jerk reaction to Towns getting pushed around his first two games, because I was saying this before SL...and I think he's going to be a star. This is more a commentary on rookies generally not being ready to contribute right away, and a positive commentary about the Wolves' depth)

Many of us had been pleading on this board for the Wolves to limit Pek's minutes in hope of keeping Pek Healthy Adrlman would play him a lot of minutes and it just seemed like a good idea to try and limit his minutes. Flip said and did exactly that although at times last year he probably played him a little longer than he wanted to because he had less options than he had hoped. Turiaf was on the roster but only played 2 games because of injury. That Left Dieng as the only guy that could play C. When Prk had surgery we found out there was an actual problem that fewer minutes or whatever wouldn't solve.

This year we have a slew of guys that can play the position of center

Pek
Towns
KG
Payne
Dieng

That's 5 guys in no particular order
Everyone else on the roster (or reasonably projected roster) that isn't a PG or Martin or Lavine could be utilized as a PF in one way or another. There are a lot more options to keep Pek from having to play a bunch of minutes. I think the plan of limiting Pek's minutes is still something that could be effective all things considered. Even with how Pek struggled last year he still was a worthwhile rotation player at least.