That might be their thinking, but at 28 and not exactly durable (possibility of being labeled injury prone if he has another injury this year) . . . one would think they could have negotiated the fifth year being a team option. It's like Minny didn't use any of it's leverage and decided to make Pek a very happy camper . . . which also may be the angle they were playing. But with the new CBA, Pek at 10 million for 4 years is much more valuable to a team than a "happy" Pek at 5 yrs for 12 million (plus 8 million in incentives), IMO. I'm on board with the Neil Olshey Value Train . . . choo choo!
I heard something about how Pek wanted these negotiations to drag on so he could have an excuse to avoid playing internationally. Maybe the Twolves and Pek agreed to the framework of the deal in early July when other teams had cap space. Otherwise if this was just a straight forward negotiation I agree the TWolves got a poor deal and unnecessarily overpaid.
Every year somebody makes a signing that you just shake your head and know they will regret. This may be that deal. I just read up on him a little and it's interesting that he was drafted at 25 years old, and picked #31. In his three seasons, two of them he had a PER of 20+, but never played more than 65 games in a season. It's a risky deal. Next year Minnesota will be committing $27m for just that season to their starting front court. This is a PF/C tandem who have each missed significant portions of the season 60%+ of their NBA careers. Yikes.
If it were me I'd probably try my best to trade one of them. You sign Pek on a 4 year deal or if 5 than a cheaper contract. It just seems like it's going to take a cosmic harmonic convergence for both of these guys to be healthy at the same time, and even if they are neither is a great defender so it's not like you are going to be a deep playoff team anyway.
