News from the NBA free-agent market this morning says that the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors are both reckoned to be closing in on officially incorporating a pair of big names from The Continent.

The Associated Press is reporting that Timberwolves GM David Kahn soon hopes to be reporting the official signing of Nikola Pekovic, who will join Minnesota on a three-year deal. You can see this short reportage, complete with pronunciation key to those difficult Slavic names here, although the AP seems to have left out help for a pair of crucial names: “Ricky Rubio” is pronounced “¡Rrrrrrrrrrrrrricky Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrubio!” while for assistance in sounding out “Kahn,” see below the break.

Meanwhile, up there in the Great White North, the Toronto Sun surmises that the “The Denver Nuggets, who retain [Linas] Kleiza’s rights, aren’t expected to match the offer after using their mid-level exception to acquire Al Harrington.” (BiE’s thinking that the Euraptors might’ve gotten the better end of that machination – at least until playoff time.) Kleiza is to be getting a four-year, $20 million contract from Toronto.

For those of you keeping score at home, as they say, the Raptors roster for 2010-11 will include Kleiza, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli, Jose Calderon, and possibly Boris Diaw, although the first attempt at a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats for the Frenchman fell through.

(Incidentally, was Hedo Turkoglu really “the worst Raptor of all-time”?)

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