Timberwolves Player Preview: Nikola Pekovic

This is the first part in our series previewing the entire Minnesota Timberwolves roster, player-by-player from the least to the most minutes played last season.

Nikola Pekovic was once one of the top-10 centers in the entire NBA. And that wasn’t all too long ago, either.

In fact, travel back just three calendar years. Heading into training camp in fall of 2013, Pekovic was coming off of a campaign that saw him average a career-high 31.6 minutes per contest and post per-game averages of 16.3 points and 8.8 rebounds. And all of this while maintaining impressive efficiency and being a monster on the offensive glass.

The 2013-14 season was actually better for Pekovic from a statistical perspective, at least until he broke down entirely — first 44 games into the season, and then after missing 13 games and returning for seven contests, Pek missed 15 of the final 18 games of the season.

That’s right, it was just two seasons ago, under former head coach Rick Adelman, that Pekovic averaged 17.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and tallied a true shooting percentage of .582.

But Adelman overworked the hulking Montenegrin, and Pekovic’s grinding style, banging in the post and on the offensive glass especially, caught up to him.

Pekovic has played in just 43 games over the past two seasons. And nearly as alarming, his performance over that half-season’s worth of games is nowhere near the level that Timberwolves fans had grown to expect.

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After posting a plus-starter-level win shares per 48 minutes of .147 over the first four years of his career, Pekovic’s WS/48 is just .055 between 2014-15 and 2015-16. His true shooting percentage has plummeted from a stellar .583 in his first four seasons to just .496 in the last 43 games.

Pek was downright bad in 13 games just last season. In all likelihood, he returned to early after the serious ankle debridement surgery that he underwent in spring of 2015.

Pekovic still has $23.7 million remaining on the final two years of his contract. He’s clearly no longer a trade option, and with the rapidly rising salary cap, the contract is worth virtually nothing as an expiring in the season after this one, either.

The Timberwolves reportedly had Pekovic at Mayo Clinic Square over the summer, although Darren Wolfson reports that he, along with Kevin Garnett, is currently not present for informal workouts in the weeks leading up to training camp.

Of course, Pekovic isn’t likely to retire and forfeit the money owed him over the next 24 months — and who could blame him, really.

That leaves a buyout or straight waiving Pekovic. A buyout requires both parties to agree, obviously, and waiving Pek would mean that the Wolves would still have to pay all or most of his contract but wouldn’t be able to reap the rewards if he somehow returned to being a serviceable player.

I’d be surprised if Pekovic sets foot on the court for the Wolves again; even besides the injury, he doesn’t exactly fit Tom Thibodeau’s preferred style of play. Plus, his fit next to Karl-Anthony Towns, albeit in extremely limited action a year ago, seemed clunky and probably isn’t ideal.

So really, this initial playoff preview isn’t really a preview. Pekovic may not play at all, and the Wolves may manage to remove him from the roster before training camp concludes in late October.

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But here’s hoping I’m wrong. Pekovic is a fun player and by all accounts a good guy. If he can return to play 10-12 minutes per game off the bench and finish his career on a positive note, Wolves fans should be all for that.