Thoughts On Nikola Pekovic?

[AHF]

I would go for him aggressively. I would MUCH rather have him than Josh, Jefferson, etc.

[Admin]

Imagine if we had Pek and re-signed Zaza. They'd never actually be able to walk into a China shop together because of the damage that they'd cause.

[Alex]

I would absolutely take a flier on Pekker as I like to call him. I've seen him play a few times live and he is a bruiser. Plain and simple. He has a deceptively good offensive game and is surprisingly agile and athletic for a man his size. I do think he benefits greatly from Rubio running the offense for the Wolves though. He also loves the Godfather movie.

[Buzzard]

http://www.caller.com/news/2013/feb/07/how-would-al-jefferson-fit-spurs/

And we haven't even covered defense. According to BasketballValue.com, the Jazz give up 110.53 points per 100 possessions while Jefferson is on the floor. When he is off the floor, their defensive efficiency drops to 101.21 points per 100 possessions allowed. That means Utah's defense gets nearly 10 points per 100 possessions better when Jefferson is off of the floor. With his net negative value of 9.32 points per 100 possessions on defense, Jefferson ranks as the third worst defensive player in the league by this metric. Jefferson is so bad on defense that, on a per 100 possessions basis, he is actually a net negative for the Jazz that gives up more than he adds back.

As a result, ball handlers are shooting 48% against Jefferson in the pick-and-roll. Per Synergy, of the 26 players that have defended pick-and-roll ball handlers on at least 200 possessions this season, Jefferson has given up the second most points per possession. As of right now teams are scoring a point per possession any time they put Jefferson into a pick-and-roll.

You are killing me with this 100 possessions stat KB. Jefferson played 31 MPG, so it was bench vs bench that had that great defensive stat line. Given that the Jazz 2nd string front line ( Kanter and Favors ) would start on a lot of teams, it should not be a surprise that their bench basically took opponents benches to school on a nightly basis.

[tbhawksfan]

Asik should be our next C. Get Asik and Robinson. Let Dwight and Josh reunite in Houston. Draft best C and SF available.

[Guest Walter]

Asik should be our next C. Get Asik and Robinson. Let Dwight and Josh reunite in Houston. Draft best C and SF available.

"Never go full retard". I know the saying. But In this case, don't go part retard. If you are going to help our competition for DH and CP, then help ALL of them! Here is the Full Retard Hawk's lineup.Trade cap space for one more year of Marion and Dallas' 13th overall pick. Dallas then renounces collision and beabios leaving only $28 mil in salaries on the books as OJ Mayo opts out. Dallas might also try to move Vince carter to get additional room. Do the Asiks/Robinson deal.Sign one year deals. Exchange firsts with Utah (ok has nothing to do with Dwight).We still have enough cap space to go after one big fa next off-season when marion comes off the books/before Asiks deal balloons.Asik/ZellerHorford/RobinsonMarion/giannis JJ/LWTeague/MCW

[nitte]

I don't watch the Wolves a lot but Pekovic is not a traditional center that can help you play Horford at PF. He is undersized, averages 0.5-0.8 blocks per game and 5.1 rebounds per game. Don't expect him to bring the inside presence of Hibbert, Marc Gasol or even Omer Asik. On the other hand he is a good inside player. He is skillful, plays hard. I would love him on our team but not for maximum contract or anything close to that.

Edited June 3, 2013 by nitte

[coachx]

I would be happy with any 1 those bigs. After Howard my order of FA bigs would be: Jefferson, Pekovic, Hickson, and Splitter. I'm still high on Tyreke Evans too.

I would still draft Dieng for solid depth in the frontcourt.

The road through the East runs through Miami, Chicago (assuming Rose comes back 100%), and Indiana...........you some bigs to get by any of those teams. The Knicks don't scare with their 1 man team of iso-ball around Melo, with Woody calling the shots.

Edited June 3, 2013 by coachx

[coachx]

I don't watch the Wolves a lot but Pekovic is not a traditional center that can help you play Horford at PF. He is undersized, averages 0.5-0.8 blocks per game and 5.1 rebounds per game. Don't expect him to bring the inside presence of Hibbert, Marc Gasol or even Omer Asik. On the other hand he is a good inside player. He is skillful, plays hard. I would love him on our team but not for maximum contract or anything close to that.

Your right in that he is not a rim protector or an expectional defensive rebounder. Pekovic doesn't have much vertical length. I have not seen his standing reach listed but the eye test tells you he has short arms and that shows up with little shot blocking. I would expect a standing reach of around 8'11'' with him. He probably has a decent wingspan due to his broad shoulders making up for his short arms. I'd guess he has a 7' wingspan. However, he seems to be a good positional defender in the post who can hold position and keep players off their desired spot in the post.

A rim protector like Dieng would be a nice compliment to him.

I think I slightly prefer Jefferson to Pekovic due to the difference in arm length which allows Jefferson to block and effect more shots. Both are physical beast inside.

[coachx]

I don't think Al Jefferson gets beat up on here, but we have to put things into perspective and look at the fit. Al Jefferson only fits with what Mike Budenholzer wants on this team if you are of the belief that you absolutely have to have a high usage scorer on the team. I don't think that is the case, and looking at what he had with the Spurs, I doubt Mike Budenholzer believes he needs a high usage, moderate efficient scorer.

Here's the kicker though. It's his defense that keeps him from being a fit. You don't say that everything starts with defense and then give Al Jefferson the contract he is going to want on the market this offseason.

http://www.caller.com/news/2013/feb/07/how-would-al-jefferson-fit-spurs/

And we haven't even covered defense. According to BasketballValue.com, the Jazz give up 110.53 points per 100 possessions while Jefferson is on the floor. When he is off the floor, their defensive efficiency drops to 101.21 points per 100 possessions allowed. That means Utah's defense gets nearly 10 points per 100 possessions better when Jefferson is off of the floor. With his net negative value of 9.32 points per 100 possessions on defense, Jefferson ranks as the third worst defensive player in the league by this metric. Jefferson is so bad on defense that, on a per 100 possessions basis, he is actually a net negative for the Jazz that gives up more than he adds back.

As a result, ball handlers are shooting 48% against Jefferson in the pick-and-roll. Per Synergy, of the 26 players that have defended pick-and-roll ball handlers on at least 200 possessions this season, Jefferson has given up the second most points per possession. As of right now teams are scoring a point per possession any time they put Jefferson into a pick-and-roll.

Stats are important but 1 important factor in the pick and roll statistic is how bad Utah's PGs were last season. There was once a time when Earl Watson was known as a good defender but that was long ago.

Favors is also better defender then Jefferson. He was probably the best defender on that Utah team. BTW, that Utah team had very little talent when it comes to defense outside of Favors. So it makes sense for the stats to be what they were.

Its just important to realize context when looking at raw team statistics.

Edited June 3, 2013 by coachx

[Guest]

Hickson? - 6'-9"? That doesn't change or size disadvantage, especially defensively. Also read somewhere, Hickson said he will look for a team where is isn't primarily playing center, wants to play PF.

[NBASupes]

Stats are important but 1 important factor in the pick and roll statistic is how bad Utah's PGs were last season. There was once a time when Earl Watson was known as a good defender but that was long ago.

Favors is also better defender then Jefferson. He was probably the best defender on that Utah team. BTW, that Utah team had very little talent when it comes to defense outside of Favors. So it makes sense for the stats to be what they were.

Its just important to realize context when looking at raw team statistics.

Harris went from being one of the worse PnR defenders in the NBA to a solid one in Atlanta. Al Jefferson is a negative difference maker on defense.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Harris also went from guarding elite Western Conference PGs like Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, and Stephen Curry . . . to guarding backup Eastern Conference PGs like CJ Watson, Norris Cole, Kirk Hinrich, and Jason Kidd.

Add the fact that when he did start, he mainly started at the 2 guard ( playing 1/2 of his minutes as a SG, compared to just about all of his minutes as the PG in Utah ), and it put his "improved" defensive numbers in perspective.

[Watchman]

I don't watch the Wolves a lot but Pekovic is not a traditional center that can help you play Horford at PF. He is undersized, averages 0.5-0.8 blocks per game and 5.1 rebounds per game. Don't expect him to bring the inside presence of Hibbert, Marc Gasol or even Omer Asik. On the other hand he is a good inside player. He is skillful, plays hard. I would love him on our team but not for maximum contract or anything close to that.

Since when is 6'11", 290# undersized? Who are you talking about? Who gets 5.1 RPG?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

@ nitte . . . Pekovic is actually a good rebounder. He averaged 8.8 rebounds last year. The 5.1 you cited, were the defensive rebounds he averaged, which is a little below what you would like from your starting center that plays 32 minutes a game. His specialty is offensive rebounding. He was one of the best in the league in this department.

That's why he's like a much better coordinated version of Zaza. He's going to pound the offensive boards and kill you on offense in the post. He'll play good position defense too.

But his lack of athleticism and positioning ( or effort ) to get defensive rebounds has him grabbing defensive boards at a relatively lower rate than most good starting centers.

Pekovic had an offensive rebounding rate of 13%. That's comparable to Zaza, who had a 13.5% offensive rebounding rate last season. 13% would place both guys in the top 10 in OReb% amongst guys who got playing time every night.

Pekovic had a defensive rebounding rate of 19%. That's comparable to Marc Gasol, who is a below average defensive rebounding center. Zaza has a 20.3 Dreb% rate.

Overall, Pekovic rebounds at about the same rate as Al Horford, with Horford being the better defensive rebounder and Pekovic being the better offensive rebounder. With offensive rebounding being a major weakness for this team, Pekovic would be a good add to the Hawks.

But we did have a tendency to get killed on the defensive boards at times, so adding Pek may not help in that area, unless Horford really becomes Karl Malone-like, and starts to gobble up all the rebounds.

Edited June 3, 2013 by northcyde

[yungsta]

there is like a 97% chance the Twolves will keep pek. He can only get like 12 million salary max because of the gilbert arenas rule and that is a steal for him also they are trying to keep kevin love happy so they cant afford to lose a talent like him for nothing. So I would rule him out.

Dont think we will go after Jefferson either since he sucks on defense and Bud wants us to be defensive.

[NBASupes]

@ nitte . . . Pekovic is actually an OK rebounder. He averaged 8.8 rebounds last year. The 5.1 you cited, were the defensive rebounds he averaged, which is a little below what you would like from your starting center that plays 32 minutes a game. His specialty is offensive rebounding. He was one of the best in the league in this department.

That's why he's like a much better coordinated version of Zaza. He's going to pound the offensive boards and kill you on offense in the post. He'll play good position defense too.

But his lack of athleticism and positioning ( or effort ) to get defensive rebounds has him grabbing defensive boards at a relatively lower rate than most good starting centers.

Pekovic had an offensive rebounding rate of 13%. That's comparable to Zaza, who had a 13.5% offensive rebounding rate last season. 13% would place both guys in the top 10 in OReb% amongst guys who got playing time every night.

Pekovic had a defensive rebounding rate of 19%. That's comparable to Marc Gasol, who is a below average defensive rebounding center. Zaza has a 20.3 Dreb% rate.

Overall, Pekovic rebounds at about the same rate as Al Horford, with Horford being the better defensive rebounder and Pekovic being the better offensive rebounder. With offensive rebounding being a major weakness for this team, Pekovic would be a good add to the Hawks.

But we did have a tendency to get killed on the defensive boards at times, so adding Pek may not help in that area, unless Horford really becomes Karl Malone-like, and starts to gobble up all the rebounds.

Horford reb% is very high considering Josh isn't much for off rebs, he is battling C's, and the pace of the game is slower for the Hawks than most teams much less the Jazz of the 90's. It's fair to say he is a great rebounder for either PF or C.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Leadership

[NBASupes]

there is like a 97% chance the Twolves will keep pek. He can only get like 12 million salary max because of the gilbert arenas rule and that is a steal for him also they are trying to keep kevin love happy so they cant afford to lose a talent like him for nothing. So I would rule him out.

Dont think we will go after Jefferson either since he sucks on defense and Bud wants us to be defensive.

That makes it impossible for anyone else to get him since he was a 2nd round pick.

Honestly, if the Hawks miss on D12 and CP3. SnT for Kris Hump and draft picks, trade for a big exp contract who sucks at Basketball, SnT Teague for 2014 draft picks and blow it up.

Too many franchise changing prospects in 2014 draft class and not many options in the 2013 FA class for us.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Leadership

[NBASupes]

I went back at it, I don't see Pek qualifying for the Gilbert Arenas provision.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Nah . . . Horford isn't a great rebounder. He's good though. Maybe he'd be better playing alongside a true center, so that he can roam the floor grabbing boards at the PF spot.

If Horford could rebound like Larry Sanders, he may be a borderline superstar in this league. He'd be putting up Kevin Love type rebounding games on occasion, while still being one of the most offensively efficient PF/C in the game.