Are the Wolves the Most Talented Team in the West?

[worldK]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.

4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Agree on all your points lip. My main point is base on the thread title, we are probably the 5th most talented team now. The teams I had higher than us now are teams with proven league mvp level superstars. The only needle mover for us is Ant. While jaden, nowell, slow-mo and improvements from Kat and dlo are certainly possible and very much welcomed, this is a superstar league. I view Towns and Gobert as all star level max guys but they are not 1 of the few true superstars in the league. Ant is the guy that can reach that level. 3rd season are usually the season where those type of guys make that big leap, it is going to be a big year for ant and the wolves.

[FNG]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.


4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Thanks for reminding us of that, Lip. Kyle not only played a lot of PG in college, he played it very well. In fact, he was the guy who kept Zach Lavine on the bench a lot because Kyle was more effective at both ends of the court. I watched that UCLA team a lot that season, and Anderson always caught my attention. Heck, he averaged 6.5 assists per game and was consistently the best defender on the floor. We probably aren't talking about him enough, but he's a guy who could see a lot of court time at the end of close games.

[Q-is-here]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.


4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Thanks for reminding us of that, Lip. Kyle not only played a lot of PG in college, he played it very well. In fact, he was the guy who kept Zach Lavine on the bench a lot because Kyle was more effective at both ends of the court. I watched that UCLA team a lot that season, and Anderson always caught my attention. Heck, he averaged 6.5 assists per game and was consistently the best defender on the floor. We probably aren't talking about him enough, but he's a guy who could see a lot of court time at the end of close games.

He's also a guy that could allow us to go without a pure PG in the closing minutes of a game. Imagine a lineup of KAT, Kyle, McDaniels, Ant, and Prince for example. Those guys can switch everything defensively and Kyle and Ant gives you two ball handlers on offense. I'm not suggesting this should always be our closing lineup, but just showing that we can play a bunch of 'tweener wings and a single big just like other teams can. Or we can go really big. Or we can go smaller with multiple ball handlers (DLO, Ant, Nowell).

[Monster]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.


4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Thanks for reminding us of that, Lip. Kyle not only played a lot of PG in college, he played it very well. In fact, he was the guy who kept Zach Lavine on the bench a lot because Kyle was more effective at both ends of the court. I watched that UCLA team a lot that season, and Anderson always caught my attention. Heck, he averaged 6.5 assists per game and was consistently the best defender on the floor. We probably aren't talking about him enough, but he's a guy who could see a lot of court time at the end of close games.

He's also a guy that could allow us to go without a pure PG in the closing minutes of a game. Imagine a lineup of KAT, Kyle, McDaniels, Ant, and Prince for example. Those guys can switch everything defensively and Kyle and Ant gives you two ball handlers on offense. I'm not suggesting this should always be our closing lineup, but just showing that we can play a bunch of 'tweener wings and a single big just like other teams can. Or we can go really big. Or we can go smaller with multiple ball handlers (DLO, Ant, Nowell).

Good point Q. People that would like to get Ben Simmons on this roster Andersen is basically a budget version of him.

[Q-is-here]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.


4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Thanks for reminding us of that, Lip. Kyle not only played a lot of PG in college, he played it very well. In fact, he was the guy who kept Zach Lavine on the bench a lot because Kyle was more effective at both ends of the court. I watched that UCLA team a lot that season, and Anderson always caught my attention. Heck, he averaged 6.5 assists per game and was consistently the best defender on the floor. We probably aren't talking about him enough, but he's a guy who could see a lot of court time at the end of close games.

He's also a guy that could allow us to go without a pure PG in the closing minutes of a game. Imagine a lineup of KAT, Kyle, McDaniels, Ant, and Prince for example. Those guys can switch everything defensively and Kyle and Ant gives you two ball handlers on offense. I'm not suggesting this should always be our closing lineup, but just showing that we can play a bunch of 'tweener wings and a single big just like other teams can. Or we can go really big. Or we can go smaller with multiple ball handlers (DLO, Ant, Nowell).

Good point Q. People that would like to get Ben Simmons on this roster Andersen is basically a budget version of him.

Indeed, good point. His strengths aren't as good as Ben's strengths (ball handling, passing, defense), but his weaknesses aren't quite as negative either (shooting...Anderson is at least willing to take the open 3 and actually he does make them every once in a while).

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

We are probably number 5 right now.

The difference maker is going to be Ant. I think Ant has established himself as "The Guy" in the playoffs. This is going to be his team moving forward.

Kat, Gobert and Dlo are already playing at their peak. They don't have another tier to climb. They may make improvements here and there but overall we are seeing them at their best already. Ant, on the other hand can still go way up and he can definitely reach the giannis, steph, lebron, kawhi, durant level; where his mere presence elevates the whole team and make them title contenders.

We used up our assets to build a top 5 team. It now depends on Ant and how high he can take us.

I agree that the biggest factor in how good the Wolves will be is Ant and his development. However, there are a lot of factors, which are all additive. There's actually a pretty small margin between the good teams and the championship contenders. So even a bunch of little improvements added together can catapult a team from #7 into the top 4. Here's the list of improvement factors I have in mind for the Wolves:

1. Adding Rudy Gobert. I didn't like the deal given the overpay and risk, but there's no doubt adding him makes the Wolves significantly better even after factoring in the loss of Beverley and Vando.

2. Adding Kyle Anderson. We shouldn't underestimate the overall upgrade Anderson brings to the roster. He's a PF who played PG in college. He has a unique skills set while also bringing a really high basketball IQ and veteran savvy.

3. Incremental improvement from KAT and DLO. I agree we shouldn't expect any major improvements from either one. But 26 year old players often continue to make incremental improvements in their games as they get more and more experience. I think these guys are more likely than many to improve because neither one has had much continuity until now. DLO has moved from team to team while KAT has experienced changing player personnel and coaching staffs repeatedly in his career to date.


4. Ant's likely improvement. As we all know, Ant is the most talented player on the Wolves. We also know that he's at that point in his career when the best players tend to improve significantly. All the reports we've heard tell us he's really working hard this summer on his game. So we should expect significant improvement from Edwards, although we should keep in mind that he's probably not going to reach his full potential for another couple years.

5. McDaniels' likely improvement. We talk a lot about Ant's likely improvement, but we should keep in mind that McDaniels is about the same age as Ant with less overall playing time in college and the NBA than Ant has had. McDaniels is a really gifted player. He should improve substantially next season.

6. Jaylen Nowell's likely improvment. Finchy is obviously really high on Nowell. He just turned 23 years old this month. He was a really good college player who has shown multiple flashes of being a very good NBA player. If he had stayed in college all 4 years like Desmond Bane, he'd be heading into only his second NBA season. Keep in mind also that Nowell has averaged less than 16 minutes per game in his three years with the Wolves and he hasn't had consistent minutes or a consistent role in those minutes. So there's reason to expect significantly improve from Nowell next season.

7. Naz Reid. Sometimes we talk about Naz as a finished product, He hasn't even turned 23 yet and if he had stayed in college all four years, he'd be an NBA rookie next season. Note also that bigs tend to progress more slowly than other players. So I think it's reasonable to expect significant improvement from Naz as well.

The addition of Gobert by itself substantially improves last season's 46-win team. When added together with the other six things I listed, we should expect this team to move from a 46-win 7th seed to a top 3 team in the West.

Thanks for reminding us of that, Lip. Kyle not only played a lot of PG in college, he played it very well. In fact, he was the guy who kept Zach Lavine on the bench a lot because Kyle was more effective at both ends of the court. I watched that UCLA team a lot that season, and Anderson always caught my attention. Heck, he averaged 6.5 assists per game and was consistently the best defender on the floor. We probably aren't talking about him enough, but he's a guy who could see a lot of court time at the end of close games.

He's also a guy that could allow us to go without a pure PG in the closing minutes of a game. Imagine a lineup of KAT, Kyle, McDaniels, Ant, and Prince for example. Those guys can switch everything defensively and Kyle and Ant gives you two ball handlers on offense. I'm not suggesting this should always be our closing lineup, but just showing that we can play a bunch of 'tweener wings and a single big just like other teams can. Or we can go really big. Or we can go smaller with multiple ball handlers (DLO, Ant, Nowell).

Good point Q. People that would like to get Ben Simmons on this roster Andersen is basically a budget version of him.

Indeed, good point. His strengths aren't as good as Ben's strengths (ball handling, passing, defense), but his weaknesses aren't quite as negative either (shooting...Anderson is at least willing to take the open 3 and actually he does make them every once in a while).

A lot of good stuff here. I really like the Anderson signing more and more.

[FNG]

With about 80% of the board on suicide watch and ready to blow up the team by trading one or both of two potential future HOFers, it's time to take a pause and review how the board viewed TC's roster back in July. Contrast the optimism here with the current despair! So, what happened?

1) A true offensive unicorn who had shot over 40% on threes for his career missed a lot of the same looks in our first 21 games and only made 32% of them. When your best 3-point shooter struggles for 21 games, it's going to have a big negative impact on your chances of winning.

2) The lob connection we had seen between Conley and Rudy that led to 4 years of very efficient 15 PPG scoring was not present...instead we saw Rudy fumbling passes we thought should be caught and not finishing,

3) KAT and JMac got hurt and missed a couple months. How many teams perform well without (arguably) their most important player and critical reserve?

So where are we now? JMac is back, and KAT has been seen without his walking boot and working out on the court. And TC has determined that reviving Rudy's offensive game is vital to this season, and replaced DLo with his best sidekick...Rudy's comments to the press have been nothing short of joyous.

So the question is this. Were we all wrong when we gushed so optimistically preseason (take a look at the wins prediction thread in addition to this one), or have the factors listed above the reason a 50+ win is hovering around .500? It's gotta be one of the two...either a bunch of smart guys (and I think we are mostly smart guys) were completely wrong in assessing the potential of this roster, or we were right, and the return of our injured guys will salvage this season.

A little optimism to kick off the week...