Ant out 2 weeks

[kekgeek]

Ant to miss 2 weeks with a hamstring strain

[Coolbreeze44]

Two weeks of Randle ball. I hope he allows others to step up.

[thedoper]

Maybe we get masked Rob to come back as a changed man for 2 weeks.

[rapsuperstar31]

With more opportunities, I hope guys like Jaden, TSJ, Naz, Donte can get into a nice rhythm and really up their confidence. We'll probably lose a few game that we would have otherwise won, but if it gets guys going it might be a good thing for the rest of the season.

[Lipoli390]

Two weeks of Randle ball. I hope he allows others to step up.

It will be interesting, Cool. We saw the best of Randle-ball last night. It works when he’s hitting shots and not turning the ball over excessively via over-dribbling. But when he’s missing shots, taking too many threes and over-dribbling, it can get really ugly. Even at his best, as he was last night, I don’t think it’s sustainable as a path back to the Western Conference Finals. So yes, we have to hope Randle allows others to step up.

The good news is that we won without Ant last night even though Jaden had a particularly bad game. Shannon made some mistakes that were the product of inexperience. I’m certainly he’ll fix those things as he gets more experience. Bones looked a lot better than I expected. If he keeps playing like that, he’ll help us through this stretch. Maybe the most positive spin is that Ant’s absence will give certain player the opportunity to hone their games and while Randle tends to stall the ball, there’s more ball movement without also having Ant on the court.

[FNG]

Bad news, but not unexpected...have we ever seen Ant return from the locker room in street clothes?

Julius's game is pretty easy to understand...if he's not doubled, like last night, he is going to try to score. And if he is doubled, he's going to penetrate and hit the open man. Lip and Cool are asking if he's going to allow others to step up in Ant's absence, but I think that's the wrong question...he's going to get his teammates the ball (his 6 APG are double the next highest assist guy), but are those teammates going to step up is the question. Through 3 games, our 3-point shooting has been horrendous. As a team we're close to 38% and that's fine, but it's mostly because both Ant and Ju are at 47%. Here the guys that need to hit their open threes, but are not:

Naz-22%
Jaylen-25%
Jaden- 28.6%
Mike- 28.6%
Bones- 33.3%

They're going to keep getting open looks, especially if teams decide to double Ju. But they need to step up and make the shots. That's our only hope of winning while we're missing Ant's scoring.

[FNG]

It will be interesting to see who Finchy starts in place of Ant. I think he will likely want to add a PG, since DiVo is really playing SG. Rob is most likely not ready yet, so I expect to see either Mike or Bones starting. Bones has played better than Mike in the first three games, but my hunch is that Finchy will go back to Mike. We will find out tonight.

[Lipoli390]

Bad news, but not unexpected...have we ever seen Ant return from the locker room in street clothes?

Julius's game is pretty easy to understand...if he's not doubled, like last night, he is going to try to score. And if he is doubled, he's going to penetrate and hit the open man. Lip and Cool are asking if he's going to allow others to step up in Ant's absence, but I think that's the wrong question...he's going to get his teammates the ball (his 6 APG are double the next highest assist guy), but are those teammates going to step up is the question. Through 3 games, our 3-point shooting has been horrendous. As a team we're close to 38% and that's fine, but it's mostly because both Ant and Ju are at 47%. Here the guys that need to hit their open threes, but are not:

Naz-22%
Jaylen-25%
Jaden- 28.6%
Mike- 28.6%
Bones- 33.3%

They're going to keep getting open looks, especially if teams decide to double Ju. But they need to step up and make the shots. That's our only hope of winning while we're missing Ant's scoring.

FNG — I like your re-framing of the issue. I have no doubt that Naz’s 3-point shooting will improve dramatically based on his track record and age. I don’t think Mike’s will improve. I think his poor shooting is a reflection of his age. Jaylen and Jaden are wild cards. Not sure about Bones.

[FNG]

Bad news, but not unexpected...have we ever seen Ant return from the locker room in street clothes?

Julius's game is pretty easy to understand...if he's not doubled, like last night, he is going to try to score. And if he is doubled, he's going to penetrate and hit the open man. Lip and Cool are asking if he's going to allow others to step up in Ant's absence, but I think that's the wrong question...he's going to get his teammates the ball (his 6 APG are double the next highest assist guy), but are those teammates going to step up is the question. Through 3 games, our 3-point shooting has been horrendous. As a team we're close to 38% and that's fine, but it's mostly because both Ant and Ju are at 47%. Here the guys that need to hit their open threes, but are not:

Naz-22%
Jaylen-25%
Jaden- 28.6%
Mike- 28.6%
Bones- 33.3%

They're going to keep getting open looks, especially if teams decide to double Ju. But they need to step up and make the shots. That's our only hope of winning while we're missing Ant's scoring.

FNG — I like your re-framing of the issue. I have no doubt that Naz’s 3-point shooting will improve dramatically based on his track record and age. I don’t think Mike’s will improve. I think his poor shooting is a reflection of his age. Jaylen and Jaden are wild cards. Not sure about Bones.

I agree about Naz, and we're really going to need him. I don't know about Mike though. You're right that an older player's legs can really impact his shooting success, and Mike is definitely an older player. But barring an injury, it usually doesn't happen overnight. Mike has made 41% or more of his threes each of the last three seasons, so I can't believe that he is now a sub-30% shooter. What worries me though is that Finchy watches him in practice every day. If he is noticing that Mike is not hitting his shots in shootarounds like normal, that may be why he decided to move him out of the starting lineup. We're going to find out soon enough, because I suspect his minutes will increase with Ant out.

And one guy we haven't talked about here whose minutes are also going to increase with Ant out is TSJ, and he's made 3 of his 4 treys this season. Most of us here want to see him playing more than the 13 and 10 minutes he has played the last two games, and now he's going to get his chance.

[Wolvesfan21]

Bad news, but not unexpected...have we ever seen Ant return from the locker room in street clothes?

Julius's game is pretty easy to understand...if he's not doubled, like last night, he is going to try to score. And if he is doubled, he's going to penetrate and hit the open man. Lip and Cool are asking if he's going to allow others to step up in Ant's absence, but I think that's the wrong question...he's going to get his teammates the ball (his 6 APG are double the next highest assist guy), but are those teammates going to step up is the question. Through 3 games, our 3-point shooting has been horrendous. As a team we're close to 38% and that's fine, but it's mostly because both Ant and Ju are at 47%. Here the guys that need to hit their open threes, but are not:

Naz-22%
Jaylen-25%
Jaden- 28.6%
Mike- 28.6%
Bones- 33.3%

They're going to keep getting open looks, especially if teams decide to double Ju. But they need to step up and make the shots. That's our only hope of winning while we're missing Ant's scoring.

Two weeks seems even less then I was thinking, lets hope he's close to 100% when he comes back. He probably needed to rest the back some anyways just so it doesn't linger and linger on, so not really a bad thing. Get him back healthy and let the others build up some scoring punch hopefully during his absence.

Now my 56 win projection wasn't counting for Ant to be out, so I'm a bit concerned there, lol. He normally been an iron man.