Wolves Need To Keep Dieng and Pekovic Involved

[jonathanlambert33]

The emergence of Gorgui Dieng has been a fascinating development to a weird season that never fails to drop my jaw.

Through the first 41 games of the season (he got hurt in Game 42), Nikola Pekovic was a godsend. He was worth the five years, $60 million the Minnesota Timberwolves, Flip Saunders, and Glen Taylor committed to him this past offseason. They navigated his restricted free agency beautifully, remaining patient and never succumbing to the pressure of rumors about the market or other suitors. The Wolves got him for exactly what their initial offer was to him, which is pretty stunning for a mid-market team like this one.

Pek earned that contract for much of this season, exuding his brute strength and deft touch around the basket and at the free throw line. His defense was better than reported but not as good or effective as last season. He seemed to be often lamented for not being a rim protector, even though he wasnt one last season when he was a really solid pick-and-roll defender. Perhaps it was the absence of Bill Bayno on the Wolves coaching staff, which kept Pek from keeping that form on the defensive end. Or maybe last seasons effort and production on defense was an outlier to what he is supposed to be.

Regardless, Pek was still giving the Wolves something very few centers have given their teams this season, and for $12 million per season, thats pretty good value. Then the forgotten first round pick of the Wolves stepped in during a recent string of missed games for Pek. Dieng with his unreliable hands that dont actually make any mistakes (its the only way I know how to describe what hes doing out there) started churning out double-doubles and the Wolves started defending much better with him on the court. He wasnt having the impact Pek was having in the month of March, but he was playing when Pek couldnt and it got a lot of people wondering why we even had Pekovic anymore. This is where the idea of two dragons comes in for me.

Theres a scene in Starsky and Hutch the movie (which is criminally underrated by the way) in which Owen Wilson (Hutch) and Ben Stiller (Starsky) are trying to extract information at a prison. Theyre talking to Will Ferrells character and in order to get the information they need, Owen Wilson has to pretend to be a dragon. Then in order to get really important information, they both do.

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/2014/04/suggestion-box-the-wolves-need-to-keep-things-weird-with-two-dragons/#more-2524

 

[jonathanlambert33]

bump for the afternoon crowd

 

[dcpwner]

I agree lol. I was a fan of Diengs coming outta college. Similar to Thabeet but with more offensive upside so hell actually make it in the L. And obviously Pek is in the upper tier if Cs IMO and will continue to be good and get better over time hell definitely be worth his contract.

 

[BwareDWare94]

The Wolves really should trade Kevin Love and rebuild the right way. It's so hard to build a team around a player who doesn't play both ends of the floor.