Nikola Pekovic will not be competing for Montenegro in next month’s EuroBasket championships. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ center was expected to be an important part of his team’s attempt to qualify for next year’s FIBA Championships and eventually the 2016 Olympics, but his contract situation with the NBA will prevent that from happening this year.
Pekovic is currently a restricted free agent, but his management and the Wolves haven’t been able to come to terms on what will reportedly be a four-year extension worth between $12 and $15 million per year. Because of the ongoing negotiations, Pekovic’s representatives have apparently recommended he doesn’t participate in the upcoming FIBA tournament in order for him to stay injury-free, according to a report on the official website of the Basketball Federation of Montenegro.
The club apparently put an August 5th deadline on Pekovic reporting for duty in order for him to get into shape and in sync with his teammates prior to the early-September start of the FIBA Europe Championship tournament. That deadline came and went without a new NBA deal for the 27-year-old center, however, so the team’s officially decided to move on with the roster they already have assembled.
The Montenegrin team’s only other NBA player is fellow big man Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic and he’s expected to play, but the squad will definitely feel the absence of Pekovic as he works on figuring out his NBA contract. They’re grouped with Germany, Italy and Croatia in the first round of pool play, meaning they could be facing the Knicks’ Andrea Bargnani and new Detroit Pistons signee Luigi Datome along with possible future NBAers Bojan Bogdanovic, Mario Hezonja and Dario Saric. That isn’t exactly a murderer’s row of European players, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to have Pekovic available to protect the paint against them.
The fact that Pekovic’s missing the EuroBasket tournament, by the way, likely means that he and the Wolves aren’t as close to getting a deal done as some have reported. Because, if that were the case, it’d seem something could’ve been done to make sure he was available to represent his country in their bid to qualify for the next Olympics.