Timberwolves announce Nikola Pekovic is out indefinitely

Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic began the 2015-16 NBA season with an ‘out indefinitely’ designation, and it appears that he just might finish the campaign in the same fashion.

The Timberwolves’ public relations team released a statement on Tuesday confirming the fears of Wolves fans everywhere after we’ve seen Big Pek wearing street clothes behind the bench for the past eight contests spanning the All-Star break.

Here is the statement, in part:

"The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that center Nikola Pekovic will be out indefinitely as he continues his recovery from surgery on his right Achilles. Pekovic underwent a debridement and repair of his right Achilles on April 8, 2015.“Our main concern is for the health of Nikola,” said Timberwolves General Manager Milt Newton. “Our priority is getting him back on the court, playing at a consistent level for a sustained period of time. After much consulting with Nikola, our medical staff and some of the leading doctors in this field, we believe this is a necessary step in that process.”“A typical recovery from an Achilles surgery is 9-15 months,” said Timberwolves Vice President of Sports Performance Arnie Kander. “While we’ve made significant strides with Nikola since his surgery, we’ve come to the conclusion that to ensure he has the best opportunity for sustained success on the court, we need to continue to focus on his rehab and make that the priority. We will continue to do that for the foreseeable future with the goal of him returning to the court at the appropriate time. We will continue to provide further updates as they relate to his return to action.”"

Unfortuantely, the news doesn’t come as a surprise, as Pekovic has battled these ankle/foot/Achilles’ issues for years. It’s interesting that the Wolves are being candid about this surgery taking up to 15 months to recover from, given that Pek came back much closer to the nine-month time frame mentioned above by Kander.

At the same time, Kander stated in Wednesday’s Star Tribune that he believes Pekovic ‘will be Nikola Pekovic again.’ The reason for the shutdown this time around isn’t the Achilles’ itself, but heel pain and muscle soreness associated with compensating from the surgery. Therefore, Kander thinks that additional rest will get Pekovic back to 100 percent.

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The biggest issue for the Wolves for the remainder of this season, however, is simply that of roster balance and flexibility. There are now two big men apparently out for indefinite stretches in Pekovic and Kevin Garnett. Add in the oldest player in the NBA in Andre Miller and another aging player in Tayshaun Prince, neither of whom can really play much of 20 minutes per game, and that’s four roster spots that are being occupied by less-than-full-time players.

We’ll be seeing a lot of Adreian Payne in the coming weeks, no doubt, and it’s officially sink or swim time for the 25 year-old, second-year power forward. We also could see some of Damjan Rudez, as well as Shabazz Muhammad playing some significant minutes at the four-spot.

Look for the Wolves to reconsider a buyout of Kevin Martin or perhaps even Prince or Miller in the next week. March 1st is the deadline for playoff teams to sign players that then would be eligible to play in the postseason. If the Wolves are now sold on Tyus Jones playing backup point guard minutes (and they should be at this point in the season), Miller serves little purpose.

Next: Should the Timberwolves trade Andrew Wiggins?

And while Martin is still useful, he ultimately doesn’t fit what the bench unit should be doing at this point in time from an offensive perspective, so he remains the most likely buyout candidate.

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