Who's got the GDT? - Pelicans at Wolves GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

I guess I have to repeat myself again. I'm not saying we should trade Ant just for the sake of getting rid of him. But if Dallas called and wanted Ant for Luka, hell yes I'm making that trade. If the Wizards get the number 1 pick and they want to trade us #1, Bill Sarr, and Bilal Coulibaly, yes I'm making that trade. I don't want to close my eyes to something that could make us better.

I think Wemby is the only guy who projects to have a higher ceiling in 3-5 years by most. I would consider Wemby but no other player in the NBA or draft for Ant. Wembys a freak who will probably be a perennial DPOY (if he can stay healthy) while also being near elite on offense. Thats just a tough combo to beat. I could be talked into that. Otherwise forget Luka or anyone else.

[Coolbreeze44]

I guess I have to repeat myself again. I'm not saying we should trade Ant just for the sake of getting rid of him. But if Dallas called and wanted Ant for Luka, hell yes I'm making that trade. If the Wizards get the number 1 pick and they want to trade us #1, Bill Sarr, and Bilal Coulibaly, yes I'm making that trade. I don't want to close my eyes to something that could make us better.

I think Wemby is the only guy who projects to have a higher ceiling in 3-5 years by most. I would consider Wemby but no other player in the NBA or draft for Ant. Wembys a freak who will probably be a perennial DPOY (if he can stay healthy) while also being near elite on offense. Thats just a tough combo to beat. I could be talked into that. Otherwise forget Luka or anyone else.

Just remember this team loses games at home when they are overwhelming favorites. The biggest reason? On and off-court leadership. If a Jordan, Magic, or Bird led team had this happen to them once, that would be the end of it. Not the Wolves though, we go right back to thinking there is nothing wrong and the fans follow suit.

[60WinTim]

I guess I have to repeat myself again. I'm not saying we should trade Ant just for the sake of getting rid of him. But if Dallas called and wanted Ant for Luka, hell yes I'm making that trade. If the Wizards get the number 1 pick and they want to trade us #1, Bill Sarr, and Bilal Coulibaly, yes I'm making that trade. I don't want to close my eyes to something that could make us better.

I think Wemby is the only guy who projects to have a higher ceiling in 3-5 years by most. I would consider Wemby but no other player in the NBA or draft for Ant. Wembys a freak who will probably be a perennial DPOY (if he can stay healthy) while also being near elite on offense. Thats just a tough combo to beat. I could be talked into that. Otherwise forget Luka or anyone else.

Just remember this team loses games at home when they are overwhelming favorites. The biggest reason? On and off-court leadership. If a Jordan, Magic, or Bird led team had this happen to them once, that would be the end of it. Not the Wolves though, we go right back to thinking there is nothing wrong and the fans follow suit.

I gotta say, Cool. I think you need to embrace your "it's a process" mantra. ANT is 23 years old. You and I are not close enough to the situation to know if ANT is on a super-star path. But it sure seems premature to abandon ANT so early in his career.

[Coolbreeze44]

I think Wemby is the only guy who projects to have a higher ceiling in 3-5 years by most. I would consider Wemby but no other player in the NBA or draft for Ant. Wembys a freak who will probably be a perennial DPOY (if he can stay healthy) while also being near elite on offense. Thats just a tough combo to beat. I could be talked into that. Otherwise forget Luka or anyone else.

Just remember this team loses games at home when they are overwhelming favorites. The biggest reason? On and off-court leadership. If a Jordan, Magic, or Bird led team had this happen to them once, that would be the end of it. Not the Wolves though, we go right back to thinking there is nothing wrong and the fans follow suit.

I gotta say, Cool. I think you need to embrace your "it's a process" mantra. ANT is 23 years old. You and I are not close enough to the situation to know if ANT is on a super-star path. But it sure seems premature to abandon ANT so early in his career.

Just because I don't think he's a top 5 player in the league, doesn't mean I'm abandoning him. I hope he goes on to dominate the league as much as anyone. I'm just taking an objective viewpoint.

[Wolvesfan21]

I guess I have to repeat myself again. I'm not saying we should trade Ant just for the sake of getting rid of him. But if Dallas called and wanted Ant for Luka, hell yes I'm making that trade. If the Wizards get the number 1 pick and they want to trade us #1, Bill Sarr, and Bilal Coulibaly, yes I'm making that trade. I don't want to close my eyes to something that could make us better.

I think Wemby is the only guy who projects to have a higher ceiling in 3-5 years by most. I would consider Wemby but no other player in the NBA or draft for Ant. Wembys a freak who will probably be a perennial DPOY (if he can stay healthy) while also being near elite on offense. Thats just a tough combo to beat. I could be talked into that. Otherwise forget Luka or anyone else.

Just remember this team loses games at home when they are overwhelming favorites. The biggest reason? On and off-court leadership. If a Jordan, Magic, or Bird led team had this happen to them once, that would be the end of it. Not the Wolves though, we go right back to thinking there is nothing wrong and the fans follow suit.

Do the regular season games really matter though? To us they do, but in the grand scheme they are pretty meaningless. Playoffs count. If you want to rip Ant for being tired in the Dallas series then sure. He underperformed. Maybe it was off the court issues, maybe not. We don't know.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Well, Jaden’s biggest problem was picking up 2 early fouls, getting himself yanked…

Yeah. But I bet Scottie Pippen did that once or twice, too.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm usually the one who bristles at "yeah, but he's only xx years old" takes.

But, Edwards is only 23 years old. Much more importantly though, he hasn't come close to a plateau. He's improved every season... and even IN seasons. As long as that trend continues... I'm excited to have Anthony Edwards in Minnesota.

We all realize he's not a top 5 player. And honestly, not a top 10 player in many ways.

That's ok. For only the 2nd time in 36 years, this franchise has a player with a CHANCE to be a top 5 or top 3 player or whatever. History tells us that Edwards will come back with a new element to his game to make him a better player.



[Note: I think we've discussed it before. But Edwards would be have been such a good match with Garnett. Almost eerie how well they would complement each other.]

[FNG]

Ant has been one of the elite 3 pt shooters this year

Everywhere else has not been great

In restricted area: 61% -- 47th out of 51 players w 230+ att

In paint, non-RA: 40.1% -- 39th out of 41 players with 200+ att

In mid-range: 36.2%, 52nd out of 52 of players with 100+ att

-per Jace Frederick

This team is only going as far as Ant takes them, and the above numbers are discouraging. And I would add to this that the eye test tells me he isn't as good a defender as he was last year either (I don't know what the numbers say, but Dane and Kyle say they support the eye test). We need him to be at least a top 10 player for us to be a contender, and I don't believe anyone can make that case right now. I guess I would say he is nearly a top 10 player when it's not crunch time, but no better than a lower quartile player when the game is on the line...and that's quite meaningful, especially in the playoffs. And Finchie has to take some of the blame for this. Can Ant develop into a good clutch player? Sure, he's only 23, and already is showing signs of better decision making as this season has gone on...and I'll continue to hope that he does, because his upside is enormous. But I have to admit I would feel a lot better about this 2024-5 squad if our best player was someone more reliable in the clutch like SGA or Luke (or a handful of other players). But Ant is our guy, so we have to hope for improvement.

[WildWolf2813]

I'm usually the one who bristles at "yeah, but he's only xx years old" takes.

But, Edwards is only 23 years old. Much more importantly though, he hasn't come close to a plateau. He's improved every season... and even IN seasons. As long as that trend continues... I'm excited to have Anthony Edwards in Minnesota.

We all realize he's not a top 5 player. And honestly, not a top 10 player in many ways.

That's ok. For only the 2nd time in 36 years, this franchise has a player with a CHANCE to be a top 5 or top 3 player or whatever. History tells us that Edwards will come back with a new element to his game to make him a better player.



[Note: I think we've discussed it before. But Edwards would be have been such a good match with Garnett. Almost eerie how well they would complement each other.]

So far in his career, Ant is one of those guys who passes the eye test but has never been a darling of the advanced metrics community.

[FNG]

Just when I thought this team had turned the corner and become what I didn’t think they could be, they have proven over the past few games to be who I initially thought they were. Ant isn’t mature enough to be the best player on a championship contender. And we can’t expect to contend with a starting PF who stalls the ball and turns it over as much as Julius Randle. He had six turnovers tonight and was -20. No telling where the Wolves will end up this season. They’ll at least make the playin and could finish 6th. They might even get out of the first round. But that’s it and it will be painful watching them on their way to wherever they’re headed.

So I’m back to focusing on Wolves 2.0. I love Jaylen Clark and remain high on both TSJ and Dilly, although Dilly’s more of a 2-3 year project in my view. I love Donte and still see Ant and Jaden as the potential core of a championship team with more maturity and consistency. I’d like to believe our front office is prepared to focus on building around Ant, Jaden, Donte, Clark, TSJ and Dilly and that they’ll abandon their ridiculous Kevin Durant fantasies. Along with the core I mentioned, we have Miller and we’ll also likely have picks 18 and 31 or 32 in the upcoming draft. We’ll see.

Lip, I'm bumping this thread from a year ago in response to your post in the Clippers game thread voicing your discouragement with this team (as most of us are after 3 bad losses). You say that even if we win 4 out of the next 5, this is still not a championship caliber team. I think we will win 4 out of the next 5, and I wanted to see how that would leave us compared to last year. We would be 44-27, a full 4 games ahead of the pace of last year's team that went to the finals. And we were coming off of 2 terrible losses, and the mood on this forum was very bad. You said what many of us were feeling after 71 games last season: "They might even get out of the first round. But that's it, and it will be painful watching them on their way to wherever they're headed". But instead we were treated to over 2 months of excellent basketball by our Wolves, including 2 playoff series wins before losing to the eventual champs. I'm just posting this to show how the mood of true fans like all of us can whipsaw throughout the season. We're playing poorly right now, but I would argue this team with Ayo, SloMo and a year of seasoning for Ant, Jaden, Donte and Naz and only missing NAW is a better team than the one that went to the finals last season. And we all know how "Lazy Ant" finds another gear once the postseason starts, and how Finchy teams always seem to click late. That's why I'm not giving up on this club, even though I am as discouraged now as I was after the Pelicans loss last season. I still think we are going to finish 6th, just like last year...we're not a great regular season team. But I think we will pick it up once the playoffs start, and I like our chances against Denver in the first round. And then we would likely face the Spurs, and we are 2-1 against them this season. If past is prologue, this team has a good chance of going deep in the playoffs just like the last two seasons. Let's go!!!!