Did Dilly Grow? - Wolves at Thunder GDT

[Lipoli390]

Q, yes I do want Ant to change. And it's clear that Finchie does too based on his post-game comments about our spacing issue. I suspect he knows Ant will never be SGA, but the change he (and I) are looking for is not that dramatic. Ant often takes 10-15 seconds at the top of the key to make any decision about how the play is going to develop, and that delay allows the defense to adjust. It's practically impossible for Ant to get to the rim at that point. There is a lot of talent on this roster, and I'm convinced our offense would thrive if Ant (and yes, sometimes Ju) didn't spend the first half of the shot clock making the job easier on the defense by not doing anything! Their 15 second delays are the primary reason I believe for the discouraging stat rapsuperstar provided a couple days ago...both of them rank in the bottom 10 players in the league in points per possession on Iso's! I agree that the coaching staff is trying to do everything they can to make Ant into a more team-oriented productive player rather than just an individual scorer, and I'm sure they are far more frustrated than I am. But I hold out some hope because Ant is still very young (as well as extraordinarily talented and athletic) and is still developing as a player...and meanwhile he is still scoring at a nice pace. I'm hoping the light bulb goes on soon and he learns what he needs to do to maximize his enormous potential. If so, I remain convinced this is a roster with championship potential. Meanwhile, lineups with Ant in them are kinda difficult to watch.

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this topic. I do think Ant can still make improvements, but I'm not banking on that as the key to changing the trajectory of the team from a 2nd or 3rd tier playoff team to a legit contender again. I believe the personnel surrounding Ant has to change. The good news is that some of the ingredients are already on the team!

KAT is a perfect example. We are all very familiar with KAT's flaws - the stray voltage, the whining, the unwillingness to take more 3's despite being the "best shooting big man in history", the wilting under playoff pressure, etc., etc. I wished for years that there were things he would change. He did indeed become a better defensive Center as he put on more "old man" weight and strength, but most of the things I hoped would change didn't.

So what do the Knicks do? They provide him the PERFECT roster set-up for his strengths. Offensively, he's always been best when he plays Center. Now he's back to being a full-time Center. Defensively, they surrounded him and Brunson with switchable wing defenders in OG, Bridges, and Hart. Those guys are all dogs. Suddenly KAT is the toast of New York and having his best regular season ever in combined individual stats and winning.

I want the same for Ant, who like KAT, is also a flawed player. Get him a freakin' roster that plays to his strengths and compliments his weaknesses rather than him having to contort his game to fit what everyone else wants!

You’re absolutely right, Q. I was thinking the other day about all the fan complaining about KAT. Wolves fans in particular seem to suffer from myopia. We tend to focus on the flaws of our star players as one front office after another fails to surround them with enough or the right kind of talent. Then the star moves on to another team that succeeds where the Wolves failed.

From KG to KAT and now Ant, the Wolves organization has failed miserably in putting the right players around them. The Wolves screwed up with KG. I still remember all the fan chat that KG wasn’t clutch enough to be the guy on a championship team. As we found out, KG was plenty good. The organization screwed up with Marbury and then Billups until they finally brought in Spree and Cassell for one season that proved KG could in fact be the best player on a championship contender. When it looked like we had finally it pay dirt pairing Edwards with KAT and winning 46 games, the Wolves front office did a major change to the roster with the Gobert deal. KAT adjusted to that and the Wolves became a contender last season. But of course, the Wolves traded KAT and replaced him with Randle, he is inarguably a terrible fit with Edwards, especially with Rudy on the Court.

We know from last season that this team can be a contender with Edwards as its best player even though last season’s team probably wasn’t the best fit for Ant. We’re seeing now what happens when the fit around Ant gets significantly worse. Ant can improve but he’s not going to fundamentally change. He came to camp in great physical shape this season and has make himself into a great three-point shooter. So it’s not like he’s failing to make the effort failing to improve. I’m at my wits end with an organization that can’t come to grips with the obvious. We’re wasting Ant’s talent now the way we wasted KAT’s and KG’s. This front office incompetence has to stop.