Nikola Pekovic (Photo : Twitter)
There are NBA Trade rumors that centered on aborted talks between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The possible player involved is Nikola Pekovic.
There were rumors about negotiations between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Portlant Trail Blazers last August 22, when Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer tweeted:
"I'm told Blazers and T'Wolves are working on a major deal. Could all fall apart, but something is going on with cap room."
But it did fall apart, as per his next tweet:
"Was told Timberwolves explored trade options. It's dead."
In the NBA, trade talks die, refined and tweaked, and sometimes resurrected. Rip City Project, a Portland Trail Blazers blog, found it worthy to explore the "what ifs" of the dead deal, as it might be brought up again.
The mention of cap room meant that the T-Wolves probably sought to clear one of their huge contracts. Also, the Blazers have 12 guaranteed contracts as opposed to the Wolves' 16, so it seemed logical that Minnesota were the ones seeking to clear.
But who did they seek to dump? While Ricky Rubio is their highest-paid player now, he's playing the only strong position that Portland has (point guard, Damian Lillard). Definitely not Andrew Wiggins, and RCP points out, Shabazz Muhammad and Zach Lavine are cheap, young and building blocks of the future.
The best suspect is Nikola "Pekovic's days have been numbered in Minnesota since the moment the Timberwolves drew the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft," RCP stated. "The Timberwolves were already struggling to find room for both him and Gorgui Dieng at center, but the company of two became a crowd of three with the addition of Karl-Anthony Towns."
His contract is also a good reason: "It is no longer worth paying Pekovic $12M per season (for three more seasons) to either sit on the bench or take valuable playing time away from his more promising teammates."
Why did the trade not materialize? It's highly probable that talent-strapped Portland wanted an asset to go along with Pek, an asset that the T-Wolves did not want to give up.
