Portland Trail Blazers Interested In Spurs’ Tiago Splitter, Wolves’ Nikola Pekovic

Earlier today, we reported that the Portland Trail Blazers had interest in Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who was nearly traded to the Boston Celtics last week.

And while the Blazers may continue to work a potential trade out for Jordan, they also have their sights set on Tiago Splitter of the San Antonio Spurs and Nikola Pekovic of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Per Oregon Live:

"A league source said on Monday that the Blazers, who hold the No. 10 pick in the first round, have interest in two restricted free-agent centers: San Antonio’s Tiago Splitter and Minnesota’s Nikola Pekovic. This comes after a trade-proposal report that would have the Blazers trading their lottery pick to Phoenix for center Marcin Gortat."

As the report states, both Splitter and Pekovic are restricted free agents and the Wolves have said they’ll pretty much match any offer for Pekovic. Of course, the Chicago Bulls said the same thing last year about Omar Asik who received an offer from the Houston Rockets which the Bulls opted not to match. Granted, the finances of each respective franchise plays a role in such a decision, but at least that gives the Blazers some home.

The Spurs have been a bit more quiet about their intentions with Splitter – they’ll obviously want to keep the young big man if they can, but at what price does he become unfordable for the Spurs to match?

It would take a hefty offer for either player to not be matched, but that might be what the Blazers are planning on.