Yosimar wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 11:41 pm
The offensive rebounds were 19 to 19. TO’s were a big reason for sure. I said it going into the game they needed to win that battle.
But this is simple. 13 shots in 41 minutes in what was essentially a must win game at home is unacceptable. Meanwhile your counterpart took 30 and scored 40. The whole he made the right play thing is nice and all but can you imagine a Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan taking 13 shots in a game of this magnitude?. Hell not even LeBron would be that passive. The fact is he wasn’t even doubled that much compared to other games. OKC just went out of their way to deny the ball as much as possible and meet him up high. He needed to do a better of job of fighting of those ball denials instead of just standing there and ball watching for way too much in this game. He was lucky the game was close, because if not he would rightfully be getting shredded for the disappearing act. Donte and NAW are not repeating those shooting numbers again.
In the end in these close games you need your best players to step up, OKC’s did and ours went out with a whimper.
It was their defense though. Once he got the ball he was doubled. Now maybe getting Ant in even more space at the top is the key for him to ISO and get cooking. But even then the OKC defense dictated with strong help defense and essentially showing him a triple team.
Making the smart play is winning basketball. If you want to rip him for his subpar off ball defense and rebounding, sure. Offensively he was OK and more then not made winning plays. Those guys only cooked because Ant and Ju get doubled and tripled. You do understand that right?
I agree that their defense had a lot to do with Ant getting so few shots. But his refusal to move without the ball played even a bigger part. He is such a terrific catch and shoot scorer, but you aren't going to get those opportunities unless you move. Ant made great strides this offseason with his 3-point shot. What I want him to do this offseason is spend hours with Chris Hines watching how Steph Curry gets so many open looks despite defenses keying on him...he is constantly on the move. I want to see Ant moving and using big body screeners like Rudy and Julius to get open. But his mindset is to want the ball at the top of the key where defenses can throw 2 or 3 guys at him. Too often when the ball is in somebody else's hands, you can see Ant just standing and watching. That needs to change next season.
I think we try to project onto Ant all the things we want him to be versus what he actually can be. The dude is built like a linebacker and will never be able to run and cut all night like Steph Curry, who is the equivalent of an elite marathon runner in basketball.
We may not like it, but he is definitely more of a "take turns" scorer that needs another strong shot maker/creator to give him a break. Think Doncic/Irving or Tatum/Brown or LeBron/Wade. And keep in mind that when Ant just stands around on the perimeter, he has an elite defender hugged up right on him, meaning he's spacing the floor by simply standing there and doing nothing.
Where I'm most disappointed in Ant was his defense last night.
Are you dense? You don't get it!!!! Conley is cooked. Ju sucks. OKC built a foundation of youth and didn't burn draft picks. They were patient in roster building. Wolves were NOT!!! And the so-called win now moves by TC are narrowing Ant's window.
How does the recent drafting of Rob Dillingham, Shannon Jr., and Jaylen Clark (not to mention Miller and Minott) fit into your narrative of the Wolves not building for the future?
I agree with you as well. We got too many guys right now who don't get minutes. Why do we need more guys rotting on the bench? How are these guys going to get better when they never play? That's reality.
I love our young guys/depth already. Plus we add two more maybe this year. It makes zero sense to cry about our "lack of picks?" Like WTF kind of crack are you smoking to think that.
KG4Ever is imagining a world where Connelly hits the jackpot on every draft pick and we somehow replicate what Presti did in OKC. But of course it wouldn't be Connelly doing the drafting since KG thinks he's an idiot. It would be some other magical wizard dreamed up that would turn us into a yearly Finals team. And while he lives in a world of hypotheticals and "what ifs", he's completely missed out on the joy of watching the Timberwolves make two consecutive WCF appearances in a row after 20 years of failing to do so using the approach he's advocating.
I've always been in favor of constructing a team to fit Ant's timeline, but TC came in wanting to make a big splash and fk'd up the timeline. TC aged this team bringing in Rudy, Conley and Randle. We had a young core of Ant, Jaden, Naz, KAT and TC traded away control of every FRP save 1 plus a great scorer in KAT and used up our capspace to age this team. TC has done great harm to this franchise.
We already have too many young guys we can't play and two more top 31 picks this year too. IDK what the name brand of crack you're smoking. We need to dump more picks, we got too many!
Are you dense? You don't get it!!!! Conley is cooked. Ju sucks. OKC built a foundation of youth and didn't burn draft picks. They were patient in roster building. Wolves were NOT!!! And the so-called win now moves by TC are narrowing Ant's window.
Yeah, come on WolvesFan…quit being dense, and try to be more enlightened like KG4ever. He knows that Mike’s plus 33 in this series (team best maybe?)is just luck, and doesn’t mean he’s not washed up. Tim McCarver once said Bob Gibson was the luckiest pitcher he ever saw because he was always pitching on nights the other team didn’t score. Mike is the same…he’s lucky that he happens to be on the floor only when we’re outscoring the opponent. Learn the game!
Last edited by FNG on Tue May 27, 2025 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
How does the recent drafting of Rob Dillingham, Shannon Jr., and Jaylen Clark (not to mention Miller and Minott) fit into your narrative of the Wolves not building for the future?
I agree with you as well. We got too many guys right now who don't get minutes. Why do we need more guys rotting on the bench? How are these guys going to get better when they never play? That's reality.
I love our young guys/depth already. Plus we add two more maybe this year. It makes zero sense to cry about our "lack of picks?" Like WTF kind of crack are you smoking to think that.
KG4Ever is imagining a world where Connelly hits the jackpot on every draft pick and we somehow replicate what Presti did in OKC. But of course it wouldn't be Connelly doing the drafting since KG thinks he's an idiot. It would be some other magical wizard dreamed up that would turn us into a yearly Finals team. And while he lives in a world of hypotheticals and "what ifs", he's completely missed out on the joy of watching the Timberwolves make two consecutive WCF appearances in a row after 20 years of failing to do so using the approach he's advocating.
We probably shouldn’t feed the troll, but it is kinda fun. KG is not satisfied with 2 conference finals in a row and would rather be Utah, but I’m quite happy. My goal going into this series was advancing to the finals, but I didn’t really think it would happen. I’ll be delighted if we somehow win Wednesday, but I will be satisfied believing we are the second best team in the league behind OkC
Ultimately not being able to take care of the ball sunk the Wolves in this game and most likely the series. I'm not down on where this team is headed but I had to admit to myself after lunch I was a bit down on a workday following the long weekend partly due to the loss (I watched the game this morning).
The Series isn't over but OKC is a really good team I don't have my hopes up.
I feel like though that in this game OKC won more than the Wolves lost it.
Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Mon May 26, 2025 11:42 pm
The question is how do we get Randle to opt in to his one-year or decide to test the market. If I'm the Wolves I am NOT entertaining an extension. Make him take the year if he wants to stay and then we can trade him any time or walk away the following year.
Absolutely this is it. Ju is a stop gap, we probably shouldnt have extended Rudy either but he earned it last year. Get to our youth as quickly as possible now.
I've always been in favor of constructing a team to fit Ant's timeline, but TC came in wanting to make a big splash and fk'd up the timeline. TC aged this team bringing in Rudy, Conley and Randle. We had a young core of Ant, Jaden, Naz, KAT and TC traded away control of every FRP save 1 plus a great scorer in KAT and used up our capspace to age this team. TC has done great harm to this franchise.
If the wolves use their 2 draft picks this draft. 7 of the 15 guys on the wolves roster will be on rookie contracts. OKC is currently at 7 of 14 players next year on rookie deal, with 3 picks, realistically they will have 8 of 15. So very little difference.
Stop acting like they gave up the whole future in the Rudy trade. I don’t want to do it again, even without doing you Rudy trade the wolves would be near the 2nd apron next year and in a very similar cap situation they are in now.
How does the recent drafting of Rob Dillingham, Shannon Jr., and Jaylen Clark (not to mention Miller and Minott) fit into your narrative of the Wolves not building for the future?
I agree with you as well. We got too many guys right now who don't get minutes. Why do we need more guys rotting on the bench? How are these guys going to get better when they never play? That's reality.
I love our young guys/depth already. Plus we add two more maybe this year. It makes zero sense to cry about our "lack of picks?" Like WTF kind of crack are you smoking to think that.
KG4Ever is imagining a world where Connelly hits the jackpot on every draft pick and we somehow replicate what Presti did in OKC. But of course it wouldn't be Connelly doing the drafting since KG thinks he's an idiot. It would be some other magical wizard dreamed up that would turn us into a yearly Finals team. And while he lives in a world of hypotheticals and "what ifs", he's completely missed out on the joy of watching the Timberwolves make two consecutive WCF appearances in a row after 20 years of failing to do so using the approach he's advocating.
It's just nonsensical bitching. Think about this too, just because we went "all in" (which was an idiotic media talking point that people bought) on Rudy doesn't mean we can't do it again next year or in 3 years when Ant does likely hit his prime years. Picks keep coming and we still have to have one every other too we are forced to make. Though I'm totally fine with our roster now as far as youth.
It also never made sense for me to not try and do whatever it takes to win now, the opposite of tank mode (losing is not acceptable here) . The experience these guys are taking is super valuable. Getting beat down is usually part of the process in order to overcome and eventually succeed.
The same Trey Murphy that caused New Orleans to trade Ingram?
Huh?
Keep in mind, if they want that guy, Connelly is gonna have to draft him. There's no way around it.
Directed at KG,
No chance (well super close to zero) to draft one with a late 1st. Once every 10 years do you get a superstar in the late 1st or 2nd round in the entire NBA. 1 in 10 years divided by 30 teams. Do that math. For every Jokic there are hundreds of Ebi's who never play an NBA game.
You wanted a team with Ant and already winning 46 games to tank? How are you going to draft this superstar? Not going to happen. It's a pipe dream. With Ant you're not getting a top 10 pick. (I guess we did last year we took our shot).
I get it wholeheartedly, but tanking also wasn't gonna be an option.
That's why I keep saying it better be Rob. Connelly was brought here because he had a good eye for talent. The big mistake will turn out to be that this team genuinely thought they had two unicorns in Towns and Reid.
We did invest highly in him. If he hits his ceiling he could be that Brunson/Iverson type. He does need to bulk up though for playoff basketball. I don't see how he can physically match up with anyone at 170 pounds or whatever. His elite quickness is great but you still got to have some strength.
I've always been in favor of constructing a team to fit Ant's timeline, but TC came in wanting to make a big splash and fk'd up the timeline. TC aged this team bringing in Rudy, Conley and Randle. We had a young core of Ant, Jaden, Naz, KAT and TC traded away control of every FRP save 1 plus a great scorer in KAT and used up our capspace to age this team. TC has done great harm to this franchise.
We already have too many young guys we can't play and two more top 31 picks this year too. IDK what the name brand of crack you're smoking. We need to dump more picks, we got too many!
Are you dense? You don't get it!!!! Conley is cooked. Ju sucks. OKC built a foundation of youth and didn't burn draft picks. They were patient in roster building. Wolves were NOT!!! And the so-called win now moves by TC are narrowing Ant's window.
OKC is in a unique position in that they look poised to win the chip with 2 main pieces on rookie scale deals. This is not easily replicated based on historical evidence. They also benefitted from Shai not taking off right away during his career, which kept his contract price down. These things will change soon. Even if these 3 take a bit off the top of what they can earn, this team will be very expensive. We can only guess at this point, how far OKC ownership will go with luxury taxes. Would they be OK backing off after winning one or maybe 2? We will just have to see.
TC clearly has a different vision on how to navigate the dual apron world and it seems to be spreading money around after Ant as much as possible. Time will tell how it will play out.
The Thunder have so many draft picks that they will be able to reload around their big 3 for the foreseeable future. Once they can't afford the Wallace's and Dort's, they are well positioned to draft their replacements. They really have an unending supply of assets that they can continue to add to by dealing them for futures. They are in a position to be prime contenders for a very long time. Presti has a great eye for talent, I don't see how the train comes off the tracks.
