Wolves Nuggets

[thedoper]

6 steals for Beverly this game. He has given us easy baskets all year. Him, Ant, and Finch have completely changed the culture of this team to feisty, grinding, and fun type of basketball. Great win. This year has been a blast.

Understandably, I'm nitpicking, but is Anthony Edwards really deserving of being grouped in with those two yet? I see both a case for and against his mental toughness, which is basically what Chris Finch and Patrick Beverley have provided for this team and helped turn things around.

I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, but it provoked that thought from me.

Yeah I added Ant because of the fun and optimism he has added to the culture of this team. His play is erratic, which could be interpreted as disappointing or expected based on where he is as a player. I think either way he has had a huge impact on how the fans and players feel about the future of this franchise.

[Lipoli390]

6 steals for Beverly this game. He has given us easy baskets all year. Him, Ant, and Finch have completely changed the culture of this team to feisty, grinding, and fun type of basketball. Great win. This year has been a blast.

Understandably, I'm nitpicking, but is Anthony Edwards really deserving of being grouped in with those two yet? I see both a case for and against his mental toughness, which is basically what Chris Finch and Patrick Beverley have provided for this team and helped turn things around.

I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, but it provoked that thought from me.

Yeah I added Ant because of the fun and optimism he has added to the culture of this team. His play is erratic, which could be interpreted as disappointing or expected based on where he is as a player. I think either way he has had a huge impact on how the fans and players feel about the future of this franchise.

Doper - I agree with you on including Ant with Beverley and Finch as our three main culture changers. As you noted, Ant brings fun and optimism. Interestingly, so does Beverley. You can tell that both of them love playing the game. They play with pure joy as well as competitive zeal. Does Edwards have Beverley's mental toughness? I'd say yes because he seems fearless.

Another player who has contributed to the culture change in my view is Taurean Prince. I think he's brought a maturity this team needed. His play wasn't good for the first half of the season, but he's played really well in the second half and I suspect he's brought a lot to the locker room and practice all season.

KAT remains the best player on this team. He's one of the best players in the League and incredibly consistent game to game. There are four players on this team who bring key attributes that KAT doesn't provide:

1. Beverley: Brings mental toughness, moxie, fun, personality, and high IQ
2. Ant: Brings fun, personality & moxie. I also think he has a high b-ball IQ, but he's still young so it's not fully developed.
3. Prince: Brings maturity
4. DLO: Brings high IQ

One of the key moments in the season, in my view, was when Ant called out Towns for holding the ball too long. He said something to the effect that KAT would be unstoppable if he would attack quickly as soon as he gets the ball rather than waiting, which would allow time for a double team to come. It's something that many of us have been saying for years. I like that Ant had the basketball IQ to notice it and the moxie to publicly (and privately) say it. There's no doubt that KAT has been much better about attacking quickly and not holding the ball too long like he did for years. And it's made KAT even more effective offensively. Of course, we should give some credit to Finch, but I think that comment by Ant was a key to getting a stubborn KAT to change one of his long-standing bad habits.

[Monster]

6 steals for Beverly this game. He has given us easy baskets all year. Him, Ant, and Finch have completely changed the culture of this team to feisty, grinding, and fun type of basketball. Great win. This year has been a blast.

Understandably, I'm nitpicking, but is Anthony Edwards really deserving of being grouped in with those two yet? I see both a case for and against his mental toughness, which is basically what Chris Finch and Patrick Beverley have provided for this team and helped turn things around.

I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, but it provoked that thought from me.

Yeah I added Ant because of the fun and optimism he has added to the culture of this team. His play is erratic, which could be interpreted as disappointing or expected based on where he is as a player. I think either way he has had a huge impact on how the fans and players feel about the future of this franchise.

Doper - I agree with you on including Ant with Beverley and Finch as our three main culture changers. As you noted, Ant brings fun and optimism. Interestingly, so does Beverley. You can tell that both of them love playing the game. They play with pure joy as well as competitive zeal. Does Edwards have Beverley's mental toughness? I'd say yes because he seems fearless.

Another player who has contributed to the culture change in my view is Taurean Prince. I think he's brought a maturity this team needed. His play wasn't good for the first half of the season, but he's played really well in the second half and I suspect he's brought a lot to the locker room and practice all season.

KAT remains the best player on this team. He's one of the best players in the League and incredibly consistent game to game. There are four players on this team who bring key attributes that KAT doesn't provide:

1. Beverley: Brings mental toughness, moxie, fun, personality, and high IQ
2. Ant: Brings fun, personality & moxie. I also think he has a high b-ball IQ, but he's still young so it's not fully developed.
3. Prince: Brings maturity
4. DLO: Brings high IQ

One of the key moments in the season, in my view, was when Ant called out Towns for holding the ball too long. He said something to the effect that KAT would be unstoppable if he would attack quickly as soon as he gets the ball rather than waiting, which would allow time for a double team to come. It's something that many of us have been saying for years. I like that Ant had the basketball IQ to notice it and the moxie to publicly (and privately) say it. There's no doubt that KAT has been much better about attacking quickly and not holding the ball too long like he did for years. And it's made KAT even more effective offensively. Of course, we should give some credit to Finch, but I think that comment by Ant was a key to getting a stubborn KAT to change one of his long-standing bad habits.

Prince didn't play well for 20 games not half the season but your point stands about Prince's affect on the team. We have talked a lot on this forum about guys being me tors or whatever but Beverly and Prince have helped on the court for sure. Prince has been as good as I imagined he could be if he was healthy when we received him in a trade. I'll add that a few times in this Denver game I was like...damn Prince looks pretty explosive out there.

I think one Key to Ant being part of the culture shift this season is it seems from what I have seen and comments on this board that the guy plays defense and sometimes he hasn't done much in games but he is sometimes really doing some good work there on that end. I also think Edwards has bought into sharing the ball. There were a couple spots in this game where he made plays for others that kinda kept things rolling. Edwards isn't a complete player yet but he absolutely shows ability of being able to do things complete players do. It's a heck of a development hopefully he continues his progression.

[Monster]

I just finished watching this game. Here are a few thoughts.

I thought Towns played Jokic pretty well. I was not happy with the officiating earlier in the game but as it went on there were several bad calls going both ways. I'm not sure who benefited the most.

Beverly was awesome and he also made some terrible decisions at times especially late. There was one time after he stole the ball he should have simply waited and milked some clock. People talk about Vanderbilt missing shots around the rim Beverly missed quite a few shots in the painted area. Still Beverly was obviously a positive in this game but there was some lowlights too.

McLaughlin had a nice night going 3-4 from the 3 point line and was a part of the Wolves bench that was pretty good.

That was a good win and I honestly forgot what the score was but Morris kept that thing interesting with his shooting late. He is just another reason why 2nd rounders are valuable.