Nikola Pekovic

T-Wolves Notes: Adelman, Love, Rubio

Rick Adelman‘s contract with the Timberwolves includes a mutual option with the team in which either side can opt out of the deal; the agreement calls for a decision to be made no later than two weeks after the end of the regular season (noted by the Associated Press). The above piece sheds light on the biggest criticisms surrounding Adelman’s performance this year, and it specifically mentions his questionable rotation decisions with Kevin Love and the team’s young players. Team president Flip Saunders is expected to sit down and talk with the long-time NBA head coach to discuss their future.

Keeping that in mind, Andy Greder and Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press write that there is an understanding between Adelman and the team that he can return next season as a consultant. Greder and Walters have more interesting tidbits to pass along out of Minnesota, and you can find them below:

  • Despite the uncertainty of Love’s future, there is no intention of trading him.
  • On the premise that Ricky Rubio hasn’t performed at an all-star level this season, It seems more probable that the T-Wolves would choose to offer a four-year extension rather than a five-year max when the two can negotiate a rookie deal extension between July and October.
  • The team will look to add a two-way wing player this summer. While they could also look to make a trade in order to boost their defense, owner Glen Taylor says it probably wouldn’t be a “big” one.
  • As with Love, Taylor doesn’t seem open to dealing Pekovic or Rubio right now.
  • Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng are expected to be key contributors next season, and Dieng’s standout performances during the latter portion of this year gives the team some added flexibility as it continues to deal with Nikola Pekovic‘s lingering injury concerns.

And-Ones: Donovan, Union, Heat, Kidd

Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan has enjoyed great success at the college level. He’s on the way to his fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA tournament, but he isn’t ruling out a potential jump to the NBA one day, revealed an Associated Press report (via ESPN.com). Donovan accepted a head coaching position for the Magic in 2007, but changed his mind shortly after and returned to continue coaching Florida. Here’s more from around the NBA:

  • Roughly two dozen players and agents would like to see the NBA player’s union push back their selection of a new executive director to July, passes along Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report. We had previously heard that David White and Michele Roberts were the two finalists for the role, but the opposing group wants the candidates to be reconsidered, possibly widening the fielding by “starting from scratch.”
  • Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel thinks the Heat would be wise to alter their draft strategy in light of the impending enforcement of the repeater tax. It’s important to secure young talent at the rookie-scale price rather than relying on expensive free agent contracts to build a team, says Winderman.
  • Nikola Pekovic won’t appear in 70 or more games this year, so he won’t receive the bonus he would have drawn for doing so, notes Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Wolves signed Pekovic to a five-year, $60MM deal last summer that had up to $8MM in potential incentives.
  • Nets GM Billy King doesn’t think Jason Kidd is getting the credit he deserves for turning Brooklyn into a winning team, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. King notes Kidd was receiving flak when his club was struggling, but few people credit the rookie coach for his instrumental role in their recent success.
  • The report that the Nets are prioritizing a signing for Shaun Livingston next summer might mean the team is confident they’ll re-sign Paul Pierce, tweets Bondy. Another tweet from Bondy reiterates that King has not offered Pierce an extension and hasn’t discussed next season with Kevin Garnett.
  • Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times runs down how the round of 64 in the NCAA tournament affected the draft stocks of many of the best college players. Jabari Parker and Marcus Smart were two top prospects who saw an early exit from the tourney yesterday.

Western Notes: Timberwolves, Pekovic, Rockets

Timberwolves GM Milt Newton is content with how the roles have worked themselves out on the roster: “I see our team already falling into knowing their roles and playing their roles, so that’s good to see. I’ve spoken to guys from other teams, and there’s a period that a lot of teams go through when they’re trying to figure out who is the go-to guy, who is the guy who’s going to get the most shots. We don’t seem to have that problem” (Charley Walters of TwinCities.com).

It doesn’t seem to be as easy of an adjustment for everybody, however. With Kevin Love‘s return to the lineup and Kevin Martin securing a major role within the team’s offense, Nikola Pekovic has been struggling to return to the niche he found on that side of the floor last season. Though Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune points out that Pekovic’s scoring average (11.0) and shooting percentage (38.9%) are significantly lower than last year (16.3 and 52%), the 6’11 center insists that he isn’t unhappy and is focused on trying to find other ways to help the team win games.

Here’s more out of the Western Conference tonight:

Contract Details: Sanders, Pekovic, Harris, Bost

Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com is back with another round of salary details for several of the new contracts signed in recent weeks. Here's a round-up:

  • Larry Sanders' new four-year contract extension with the Bucks will pay him an even $11MM in each season. Those figures will increase slightly if Sanders reaches contract incentives currently considered unlikely.
  • The Timberwolves' five-year deal with Nikola Pekovic will pay the big center $12.1MM in each of the next four seasons, before dipping to $11.6MM in year five. His potential incentives are also listed as unlikely, meaning they don't count against the cap for now.
  • Elias Harris' deal with the Lakers is a two-year, minimum-salary pact. It's guaranteed for $100K in year one, and fully non-guaranteed in year two.
  • The Cavaliers inked Matthew Dellavedova to a two-year contract that looks virtually identical to Harris' — his minimum salary is partially guaranteed for $100K in 2013/14.
  • Like Harris and Dellavedova, Dee Bost also signed a two-year minimum contract, but his deal with the Trail Blazers is only guaranteed for $25K this season.

Examining New Deals For Pekovic, Sanders

While most of the summer's most lucrative new contracts were signed last month, a pair of big men have cashed in within the last week. Nikola Pekovic reached an agreement with the Timberwolves on a five-year, $60MM deal, which includes up to $8MM in potential incentives. And just yesterday, Larry Sanders and the Bucks finalized a four-year, $44MM extension, which could include another $4MM in incentives.

Comparing Pekovic's and Sanders' deals is a little tricky — the Timberwolves center wasn't coming off a rookie-scale contract, is already 27 years old, and was available on the open market (albeit as a restricted free agent). Sanders, on the other hand, remained under Bucks control for another year, is just 24, and received a rookie-scale extension.

Still, both players fall into a group of big men that has received four- or five-year contract in recent years, after playing three or four NBA seasons. Here's a look at how Pekovic and Sanders stack up against a few other players who have inked similar deals, along with their career stats at the time they signed their respective contracts (sorted by overall dollar amount):

Bigs

There are a few caveats worth mentioning here: All these players were signed three years into their NBA careers except JaVale McGee, who had four years of experience when he re-upped with the Nuggets. Additionally, only Sanders, Taj Gibson, Serge Ibaka, and Al Horford signed rookie-scale extensions. Pekovic, McGee, and DeAndre Jordan were re-signed as restricted free agents.

Taking these factors into account, our first instinct may be to assume that the Bucks overpaid for Sanders, who ranks noticeably behind most of the players on this list when it comes to experience, playing time, and scoring. Some of his career numbers compare favorably to Gibson's, Jordan's, and McGee's, but Gibson is being paid nearly $3MM per year less than Sanders, and overpaying for Jordan and McGee was more defensible, since their deals came in free agency, rather than a year earlier.

Of course, the Bucks aren't paying for Sanders' career stats; they're paying for his potential, which he began to realize during the 2012/13 season. Sanders' '12/13 averages (9.8 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 2.8 BPG, 18.7 PER) are easily better across the board than the numbers Gibson and Jordan put up in the season prior to their new contracts. McGee's pre-free-agency season was perhaps a little more productive than Sanders', but it's worth mentioning again that McGee was in his fourth season, not his third.

If we assume that Sanders will take another step forward in year four of his NBA career, and also consider how difficult it is for the Bucks to attract marquee free agents, that four-year, $44MM looks like a solid value for the team. It's about in line with the market rate, and it was probably a necessary investment for a club that saw multiple impact players (Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis) choose to leave Milwaukee this offseason.

As for Pekovic, when I asked last week whether the Wolves got a good value, Hoops Rumors readers were nearly split between viewing the deal as an overpay or just about right. Horford provides the easiest point of comparison, since the two contracts are virtually identical, and their career numbers are nearly identical as well, with Pekovic perhaps being a little more efficient in less overall playing time.

Unlike the other players on this list though, Pekovic didn't sign his first NBA deal out of college, but rather spent multiple years overseas before joining the T-Wolves. As such, he's actually a few months older than Horford, despite the fact that the Hawks big man inked his extension nearly three years ago, while Pekovic is just seeing his first huge payday now. When Atlanta locked up Horford at age 24, the club was banking on continued development, whereas there's a good chance that with Pekovic, at age 27, what you see is what you get.

In the short-term, the Wolves should be just fine if Pekovic produces at the same rate he did in 2012/13, when he averaged 16.3 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and a 20.2 PER. After all, those stats look pretty similar to what Horford did this past season while playing a few extra minutes per game (17.4 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 19.8 PER), and Horford's contract is generally considered an excellent value for the Hawks.

In the longer-term, Pekovic's contract may prove to be an overpay, but he'll only be 32 when it expires, so his production shouldn't fall off a cliff. Considering Pekovic had the chance to talk to any of the NBA's other 29 teams, and the Wolves were still able to lock him up at a rate of $12MM annually, I don't mind the investment, even if it may end up being for one year too long.

Pekovic and Sanders may never become top-20 players in the NBA, but they're talented enough that they should be worth eight-digit salaries. For Minnesota and Milwaukee, which aren't exactly prime free agent destinations, landing a scoring center like Pekovic or a rim-protecting power forward like Sanders isn't easy. I think both teams managed to lock their players up to fair deals, but even if they overpaid by a few million dollars, it will likely be worth it, considering the lack of alternatives available.

T-Wolves Notes: Pekovic, Hummel, Camp

Our most recent poll on Hoops Rumors asked whether the Wolves got a good value when they locked up Nikola Pekovic to a five-year, $60MM contract, which has the chance to increase to $68MM based on incentives. The votes were fairly split between those of you who thought the Wolves overpaid (48%+) and those who believed the deal seemed just about right (45%+). Almost all of you agreed that the team definitely didn't get a steal, however, as that option earned less than 6% of the vote.

Here's more on Pekovic's new deal and on a potential Wolves camp invitee:

  • Pekovic said at Friday's press conference that he never stressed out too much over negotiations between the Wolves and his camp, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune details. "I always knew it was going to get done," Pekovic said. "I was not nervous. I think my agents were more nervous, that’s for sure. They were calling me, like, 'Calm down, calm down.' I said don’t worry, I’m fine."
  • Games played is "almost certainly" one of the many incentives included in Pekovic's deal, according to Zgoda, who points out that the big man hasn't missed less than 17 games in any of his three NBA seasons.
  • Emiliano Carchia of Sportando passes along a report from La Opinion de Malaga indicating that Robbie Hummel has informed Spanish team Unicaja Malaga that he intends to return stateside to try to earn an NBA roster spot. Hummel was selected by the Timberwolves in the second round of the 2012 draft, and spent last season in Spain, while Unicaja Malaga was one of the teams interested in signing him this offseason, says Carchia. Hummel has previously been mentioned as a likely participant in the Wolves' camp, so this news doesn't come as a real surprise.

Poll: Did Wolves Make Good Deal For Pekovic?

Typically, it doesn't take long after free agency opens for the offseason's biggest available names to come off the board. Chris Paul reached an agreement with the Clippers almost immediately on July 1st, while even Dwight Howard had finalized his decision just five days into July.

However, the player receiving the third-most guaranteed money among 2013's free agents, Nikola Pekovic, didn't agree to terms with the Timberwolves until yesterday. Despite not having to compete with many rival suitors, the Wolves went to five years and $60MM for their big center, making him the summer's highest-paid restricted free agent. Pekovic could also earn another $8MM in potential incentives.

There's an argument to be made that the Wolves overpaid Pekovic, and were bidding against themselves. After all, the team originally wanted to make a deal in the neighborhood of four years and $48MM. Only the Sixers had the cap space available to make a similar offer, and Philadelphia certainly didn't seem to have the interest. In the end, Minnesota committed a fifth year to a 27-year-old who has had only one standout year, and has yet to play 70+ games in any of three NBA seasons.

On the other hand, talented centers in their prime aren't easy to find, and given the deals we've seen other free agent big men sign in recent years, Pekovic looks like a reasonable value. He comes at a cheaper annual rate than Roy Hibbert (four years, $58MM+) and Brook Lopez (four years, $60MM+) and is only slightly pricier than more one-dimensional centers like DeAndre Jordan (four years, $43MM+) and JaVale McGee (four years, $44MM). The Wolves wouldn't have been able to find a player of his caliber anywhere else, and by relenting and giving Pekovic the fifth year he wanted, the team avoided a repeat of its Kevin Love situation. The Wolves also didn't exceed the $12MM annual salary they initially offered.

So what do you think? Did the Wolves unnecessarily overpay to bring back Pekovic? Did they get a steal by locking up a rising star in his prime for the next five years? Or does the deal seem about right for both sides?

Western Notes: Pekovic, Rockets, Zanik, Aldrich

One of the biggest names on this summer's free agent market finally came off the board today when Nikola Pekovic reached a five-year, $60MM agreement with the Timberwolves. The deal will make Pekovic the highest-paid restricted free agent of the offseason, by both overall value and annual salary. He also landed the third-highest overall guarantee, behind only Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Here's more on Pekovic and other items from around the Western Conference:

  • The new deal for Pekovic won't affect the Timberwolves' ability to keep Ricky Rubio or Kevin Love long-term, president Flip Saunders told reporters today, adding that the team views those three players as the franchise's cornerstones (Twitter links via T-Wolves PR). Saunders also confirmed that Pek's contract doesn't include any team or player options, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
  • About 15 months before they ultimately landed Howard, the Rockets reached a tentative agreement to acquire the All-Star center from the Magic at 2012's trade deadline, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Orlando planned to move D12 at the deadline if he didn't waive his early termination option, and had offers from the Rockets and Nets — Magic officials preferred Houston's offer, says Berger.
  • Agent Justin Zanik, who has worked with Andy Miller at ASM Sports in recent years, is set to join the Jazz front office as the team's assistant GM, reports Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com (Twitter links). Jody Genessy of the Deseret News has a few more details on the hiring of Zanik, who represented NBA players such as Omer Asik, Timofey Mozgov, and Sergey Karasev.
  • Cole Aldrich worked out for Sacramento on Monday, according to Jonathan Santiago and James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom. The Kings have an open roster spot, though it's interesting that they'd need to work out Aldrich, considering they got an extended look at the big man last year after acquiring him at the trade deadline.

Wolves, Nikola Pekovic Agree To Five-Year Deal

The Timberwolves and Nikola Pekovic have reached an agreement on a new contract, according to team president Flip Saunders (via Twitter). While Saunders didn't reveal the terms of the deal, ESPN.com's Marc Stein reports (via Twitter) that it will be a five-year pact worth $60MM. According to Stein (Twitter link), Pekovic will also have the opportunity to earn about $8MM more in incentive-related bonuses.

Pekovic had been the last major free agent on the market, and had long been expected to eventually reach an agreement with the T-Wolves. The team reportedly offered him a four-year, $48MM deal several weeks ago, so it looks like Pekovic and agent Jeff Schwartz convinced Minnesota to agree to an additional year at the same annual salary. As Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities tweets, it's a compromise both sides can live with, since Pekovic wanted a fifth year, while the Wolves didn't want to exceed $12MM per season.

Pekovic, 27, had a breakout year for the Wolves in 2012/13, averaging 16.3 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and a 20.2 PER while playing a career-high 31.6 minutes per game. Teams like the Trail Blazers, Cavaliers, and others were expected to show interest in him this offseason, but it doesn't appear that any rival suitor made a legit run at the big man — any teams with interest likely expected the Wolves to match any reasonable offer.

Depending on the salary in the first year of Pekovic's deal, the Wolves figure to head into 2013/14 with somewhere in the neighborhood of $65MM+ on their books, well below the tax line. The club will also still have its designated player tag available for Ricky Rubio, since that rule only applies to five-year contracts for players coming off rookie-scale contracts. Pekovic wasn't a first-round draft pick, and therefore wasn't subject to the NBA's rookie scale.

According to Wolfson (via Twitter), all five years of Pekovic's contract will be guaranteed. Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune tweets that Pekovic will fly to Minnesota tomorrow, with a press conference to officially announce the new deal scheduled for Friday.

T-Wolves Want To Sign Pekovic By Start Of Camp

The Timberwolves have said repeatedly that they have every intention of retaining restricted free agent Nikola Pekovic.  The saga has now dragged into mid-August without a pact between the two sides, but president of basketball operations Flip Saunders says that he has earmarked the start of training camp as the deadline for a deal, writes Tim Leighton of the Pioneer Press.

"I believe we are the best situation for him,'' Saunders said. "I do believe that Pek knows what we have brought in and that this is a positive place. I think we are moving in the right direction.''

The 6-foot-11, 290-pound big man earned $4.8MM last season and he can expect a sizable pay raise in his next deal.  The question for Pekovic, who averaged 16.3 PPG and 8.8 RPG in 62 games, is how much of a bump he will get.  The Wolves are dangling a four-year extension worth about $48MM plus incentives while the 27-year-old's agent is said to be seeking something with an average annual value of $15MM.