Minnesota Sports Forum

I'll take the 20-year old athlete who was a five star prospect coming out of high school over the 25-year old second year player that everyone seems to love even though he doesn't make an impact on the floor. It is what it is.

Imho the worst thing about last season is that we played rookies so little that we dont know if they are legit or not, yes i understand that Dieng looked decent in his playing time, but i am not buying him being legit starter in the NBA, sample is not big enough for me.

Also Wiggins is key point as we dont know how he will be looking next season and how fast he will develop, therefore we dont know how bad we actually want to be (active tanking etc.).

I think that there is no need to trade PEK now, we should wait at least for winter trade deadline, because for example if Dieng will be capable to play at 4 next to PEK we might be actually in pretty good spot (considering Wiggins dont stink completely obviously)

Also PEK is adding new features every year, last year i thought that i will go crazy when he started to drain some midrange shots and in interview afterwards Adelman said that he knows he can make them, but that he is not looking for them. For god sake that is something you have to incorporate to your playbook when you C is able to make 17footers.

L.S.T. I see your point, and you have opened my eyes a bit. I guess this topic point should discuss more about the overall direction and mentality of this upcoming season and is the trade of Love for Wiggins declared a "Rebuild".

Frankly, our talent is getting better and in the West I don't see us making the Playoffs, but that doesn't mean this team approach can't be competitive and fighting night in and night out. If it is simply a rebuild year, Rubio won't want to stay, Williams should not have signed with us and Pek might as well be traded for as much as possible. This is a make or break time frame....do the Wolves under Flip, gel and Wow the league, or crumble and pack it in for the "Chance" to get another Elite talent?

Pek in my opinion is the most important offensive player and losing him and that offense is why I declared it a catastrophic loss if he is traded. We need not only vets, but also need athleticism, IQ, adding a legit PF with both a defensive and offensive skillset would be nice.

I would have traded a couple seasons ago Pek for Gortat tho....love that dudes energy.

If this team is a 25 win team without Pek, does he move the needle enough to make this a 35-40 win team? Even with him we're expecting alot from some unknowns this coming year. What ifRicky still cant shoot? Lavines learning curve is steeper than most on hear expect and Wiggins is a year away from really contributing? And I havent even brought up the biggest unknown (PF position) This team may still only win 25 games. Alot needs to fall into place for this team to be competitive. If you have 4 unknowns in the NBA and Half of them turn out positive Id consider that a win. Expecting everything to fall into place with such a young squad is unreasonable.
I guess what Im say is, if its a lost year and u can get the most for Pek now, why not do it? Instead of waiting for him to have another injury or maybe a down year that kills all his value.

If anything, his value could rise this year. Who's to say Pek doesn't average 20/12 with the added opportunities since Love is gone? Also, as others have added, when the cap rises, his $12M per year is going to look even better. Trading him now would be selling low when we really have no reason to move him anyway.

That's a good point, cam. Pek is already a good rebounder, but he could easily increase to 12-14 per game this year. I know you guys think I rag on Love too much, but I never saw anyone pad rebound stats like him. I'm not saying he's not a great rebounder, because he is, but he made sure that he got ALL the easy ones (like the uncontested missed free throw with the other team busting back on defense). Pek should get his share of those this year. And you're right, if he goes 20-14 this year, he will look really good to a lot of teams at $12 million per. And that gives Dieng another year to prove he is capable of 35 minutes a game at center.

I still hope that Flip is looking at any possibilities to improve the roster, but I'm certainly happy with Pek at center for another year...if he can stay healthy, that is.

12-14 rebounds seem like awefully lofty goals doesnt it? Thats the best of the elite rebounders in this league. Id be pretty happy with 10 a game.

PorkChop wrote:12-14 rebounds seem like awefully lofty goals doesnt it? Thats the best of the elite rebounders in this league. Id be pretty happy with 10 a game.

Pek's a really good rebounder, pork. Start with the almost 9 he had last year, and then just add the 3-5 missed free throw rebounds that Love used to knock Pek down to get...pretty easy for him to get to 12-14 with the stat padder gone!

Dieng was actually the team's best rebounder last season on a per minute basis. And his rebound rate didn't tail off too much once he was inserted into the starting lineup. Depending on how Flip uses him this season, he may end up leading the team in rebounds per game.

PEK didn't average 12-14 the year Love was out, so why are people predicting that this year? Love being gone doesn't mean his rebounding just goes to someone else on our team. I would bet we see a decent spike in opposing offensive boards given up. Also, Ricky is a good rebounder for a PG and Wiggins was a pretty good rebounder on the wing at Kansas. Pek has traditionally not been anything special on the defensive boards getting almost 30% of his boards on the offensive end. I see Pek averaging 18 and 9 on this team per his norm. No Love means life gets more difficult for Pek which is why his numbers didn't get better when Love was out.