The Minnesota Timberwolves have been hit by the injury bug recently, yet they have actually won three of their last four games. One of the big reasons is the fact that the injuries haven't been to key players. Kevin Garnett has been missing time with a sore knee, but he doesn't play big minutes anyway. Nikola Pekovic has missed time due to foot and ankle injuries, but he too isn't a big part of the rotation. Pekovic's injury issues this season have been frustrating for him and the team, and it appears that he isn't close to a return, according to Darren Wolfson of KSTP.com.
Pekovic missed the first 35 games of the season after having right Achilles surgery in the offseason. Pekovic's recovery from that surgery was slow, as he kept pushing back his return and there were points that there were very few updates because he wasn't progressing as well as he had hoped.
Pekovic was able to finally return to the court in the beginning of January, but even then his minutes were low and he was very rusty, according to Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press. The 30-year-old center had to miss a couple of games here and there due to regular soreness, but now he has missed the team's last five games while dealing with the foot and ankle injuries.
Unsurprisingly there is no timetable for Pekovic, as it has been proven that he is a very slow healer, but he will have the entire All-Star break to rest. Pekovic isn't a big part of the Timberwolves' rotation as the third center on the depth chart, but this is a guy who has been a good player in the league and could still be helpful.
Pekovic's constant injury issues this season have also put the Timberwolves in a rough situation because it makes him hard to trade. Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng appear to have bright futures at the center position, so the Wolves were hoping that Pekovic could come back and increase his value for a possible trade. The fact that Pekovic has only appeared in 12 games all season and he is under contract through 2018 at about $12 million a year makes him almost untradeable. The Timberwolves will likely be saddled with that contract for the duration so they want to at least get something out of him over the next few years.
