MINNEAPOLIS – The Timberwolves announced Wednesday that center Nikola Pekovic underwent successful surgery to remove bone spurs in his right ankle. Dr. Martin O'Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York performed the surgery.
Pekovic missed eight games from March 18 to April 1 with the bone spurs, which were a nagging problem for much of the spring. Even so, he ended the season on a high note, averaging 14.8 points and 7.2 rebounds in April. In a month during which the Timberwolves won just one game, the center was steady, and in the team's last three games he averaged 20 points and 11.7 rebounds.
The 7-foot, 290-pound center won a starting job from Darko Milicic in February, and he might have been the Timberwolves' best surprise of the season. The 31st overall pick in the 2008 draft, Pekovic came to the NBA before the 2009-10 season, when he was essentially a nonfactor for Minnesota. During his rookie year, he averaged 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds, numbers he nearly tripled in his second season. Most notable, though, was Pekovic's ability to avoid foul trouble this year. In 2009-10, he averaged one personal foul every 4.9 minutes; this year, he improved that number to one every 12.9 minutes.
"I think he's had a great year and gives us a lot of hope at that position for the future," Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said in April.
Pekovic finished third this season in the voting for the NBA's Most Improved Player award, his 13.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game good for sixth- and 12th-best among centers who played more than 45 games this season. He's under contract with the Timberwolves through 2012-13, and both his on-court performance and winning mentality should be assets in the Timberwolves' attempt to replicate the success they had in the first half of the 2011-12 season next year.
Pekovic said in April that he plans to return to his home country, Montenegro, to recover before playing in the NBA summer league in Las Vegas in July.
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