Wolves vs. Spurs

[Q-is-here]

I’m not going to predict this series. The Spurs are really good and we’re running on fumes. But who could have predicted the outcome of the Denver series. In my view, the Wolves are the Cinderella story of this year’s NBA playoffs. For that reason alone, it would be tremendous if the Wolves could get past the Spurs. But I’m already looking ahead to next season and excited about our prospects after watching the emergence of Jaden (offensively and rebounding) and Ayo along with the re-emergence of TSJ. Those three guys with Ant and Rudy form a great foundation to tweak for next season. We have to find a way to keep Ayo at a much higher price than we expected. Naz might need shoulder surgery and we’ll probably need to trade Randle. We have a 1st round pick to package with Randle in a trade. So I like where we’re at.

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

[FNG]

I’m not going to predict this series. The Spurs are really good and we’re running on fumes. But who could have predicted the outcome of the Denver series. In my view, the Wolves are the Cinderella story of this year’s NBA playoffs. For that reason alone, it would be tremendous if the Wolves could get past the Spurs. But I’m already looking ahead to next season and excited about our prospects after watching the emergence of Jaden (offensively and rebounding) and Ayo along with the re-emergence of TSJ. Those three guys with Ant and Rudy form a great foundation to tweak for next season. We have to find a way to keep Ayo at a much higher price than we expected. Naz might need shoulder surgery and we’ll probably need to trade Randle. We have a 1st round pick to package with Randle in a trade. So I like where we’re at.

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

I understand that Ant being out gives us a much better chance to see what Jaden and TJ can do...they will have to be featured on offense (along with Ju) as long as Ant is out. But I would argue that what we see is not going to be indicative of how they will play next year with Ant. I think both of them thrive in a fast-paced environment like we saw in the Denver series, and we know that is just not Ant's style. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do against a much better defensive team.

[Q-is-here]

I know we have a lot of Ant stans here, but can anyone really make a case that our team is more fun to watch when he is playing? We just never seem to have the ball movement and the crazy pressure defense when Ant is on the court, and those are aspects of buckets I like best.

FNG, you are at the point now where you are turning Ant into a caricature of everything you dislike about him. It's no longer grounded in reality as far as the playoffs are concerned (I get the frustration as it relates to his varying energy levels in the regular season).

In the three full games Ant played against Denver, the team averaged 27 assists per game. In the next three games, the team averaged 25 assists per game. In fact the closing game featured a TON of Jaden and Shannon isolating and getting into the teeth of Denver's defense to either get all the way to the rim (Shannon) or pull up over the defense for a mid-range jumper (Jaden). May be this was more fun to you simply because they aren't Ant I guess?? These shot attempts weren't the result of some beautiful motion-offense sets. It was because they had athletic advantages that the Wolves were trying to exploit....it's the exact same thing Ant would have been doing if he was being single covered.

Defensively, Ant had a better defensive rating in the series than Jaden and Rudy and it was 10 points better than his regular season defensive rating. The idea that somehow our defense suddenly ratcheted way up when he wasn't in the game simply isn't true. He averaged 8 rebounds and nearly 2 blocks per game in his three full games of the series. He was a huge factor in that Game 2 come-from-behind win. But I guess that wasn't fun to you since you had the burden of having to watch him play in that game....

As for him coming back for the Spurs series, I'm a little skeptical given the fact he's had runner's knee on the "healthy" leg. Just seems risky for him to play given everything he's got going on and how off he looked even before the hyperextended knee on the other leg.

[AussieWolf3]

I’m not going to predict this series. The Spurs are really good and we’re running on fumes. But who could have predicted the outcome of the Denver series. In my view, the Wolves are the Cinderella story of this year’s NBA playoffs. For that reason alone, it would be tremendous if the Wolves could get past the Spurs. But I’m already looking ahead to next season and excited about our prospects after watching the emergence of Jaden (offensively and rebounding) and Ayo along with the re-emergence of TSJ. Those three guys with Ant and Rudy form a great foundation to tweak for next season. We have to find a way to keep Ayo at a much higher price than we expected. Naz might need shoulder surgery and we’ll probably need to trade Randle. We have a 1st round pick to package with Randle in a trade. So I like where we’re at.

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

I understand that Ant being out gives us a much better chance to see what Jaden and TJ can do...they will have to be featured on offense (along with Ju) as long as Ant is out. But I would argue that what we see is not going to be indicative of how they will play next year with Ant. I think both of them thrive in a fast-paced environment like we saw in the Denver series, and we know that is just not Ant's style. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do against a much better defensive team.

Jaden generates transition opportunities just fine whether Ant is playing or not, with 28% of his possessions coming in transition--- 2nd on the team behind Ayo.
What we saw against Denver wasn't Jaden doing that tho, it was him in isolation, him running pick and roll as the handler, basically running offense in the half court and finding success.
Can he continue to do that against a tougher defense? That'll be big data point for TC if he does, Ant or no Ant.

And if TJ continues to ball out that's a really significant thing for Finch to see that literally shows him, oh we can fill the non Ant minutes with a near clone.

Anyway, I think everyone is giving too many flower to the Spurs that they haven't earned yet. Twolves are going to give them a real test, and I think Jaden's star will continue to rise

[Q-is-here]

I’m not going to predict this series. The Spurs are really good and we’re running on fumes. But who could have predicted the outcome of the Denver series. In my view, the Wolves are the Cinderella story of this year’s NBA playoffs. For that reason alone, it would be tremendous if the Wolves could get past the Spurs. But I’m already looking ahead to next season and excited about our prospects after watching the emergence of Jaden (offensively and rebounding) and Ayo along with the re-emergence of TSJ. Those three guys with Ant and Rudy form a great foundation to tweak for next season. We have to find a way to keep Ayo at a much higher price than we expected. Naz might need shoulder surgery and we’ll probably need to trade Randle. We have a 1st round pick to package with Randle in a trade. So I like where we’re at.

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

I understand that Ant being out gives us a much better chance to see what Jaden and TJ can do...they will have to be featured on offense (along with Ju) as long as Ant is out. But I would argue that what we see is not going to be indicative of how they will play next year with Ant. I think both of them thrive in a fast-paced environment like we saw in the Denver series, and we know that is just not Ant's style. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do against a much better defensive team.

Game 6 was the slowest-paced game of the series and featured.....Jaden and Shannon! The fastest paced game of the series was Game 5, which we lost.

You have to be able to score in the half court in the playoffs and while transition offense is something to seek out, that's not ultimately where most games are won, especially in clutch time.

[TAFKASP]

I’m not going to predict this series. The Spurs are really good and we’re running on fumes. But who could have predicted the outcome of the Denver series. In my view, the Wolves are the Cinderella story of this year’s NBA playoffs. For that reason alone, it would be tremendous if the Wolves could get past the Spurs. But I’m already looking ahead to next season and excited about our prospects after watching the emergence of Jaden (offensively and rebounding) and Ayo along with the re-emergence of TSJ. Those three guys with Ant and Rudy form a great foundation to tweak for next season. We have to find a way to keep Ayo at a much higher price than we expected. Naz might need shoulder surgery and we’ll probably need to trade Randle. We have a 1st round pick to package with Randle in a trade. So I like where we’re at.

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

I understand that Ant being out gives us a much better chance to see what Jaden and TJ can do...they will have to be featured on offense (along with Ju) as long as Ant is out. But I would argue that what we see is not going to be indicative of how they will play next year with Ant. I think both of them thrive in a fast-paced environment like we saw in the Denver series, and we know that is just not Ant's style. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do against a much better defensive team.

Last year when Ju was out he said watching how they played without him taught him how to fit in. Ant needs to learn from these game how using his speed is a positive, not only for him, but for the entire team.

[FNG]

I like the optimism, Aussie...I'm not feeling it yet, but fully admit my record in predicting series outcomes for our squad has not been very good the past three post seasons, including my most recent "Nuggets in 5" call.

I also like our relatively more playoff experience compared to theirs, although that didn't seem to hurt them too much against a pretty good Portland team. But the facts are pretty daunting: the Spurs ranked third in both offensive and defensive rating this year, while the Wolves were 13th in offense and 8th in defense...despite being mostly healthy during the season! Many of us noted lapses of intensity with Ant this season, and were counting on him "flipping the switch" in the playoffs. Well, we can't count on that...at least not for the first two games of the series.

So other than Wemby getting hurt, I see our best chance of winning being the answer to this question (which I know is going to be offensive to many here): With the way many of our young guys love to push the pace on offense and fly around on defense, is there a chance we might actually be better missing Ant? I know...sounds preposterous. But we played one of our best games of the season at both ends of the court in Game 6 against Denver, and every time I look at the box score, I don't see him in there. We clearly weren't the most talented team, but we certainly seemed to be the hungriest. And sometimes effort can trump talent My thought is we can't be as good a team though without our highest scorer, and for that reason I'm not very optimistic about this series. Interested and intrigued by how we play shorthanded? Definitely. But just not very optimistic.

[rapsuperstar31]

I know we have a lot of Ant stans here, but can anyone really make a case that our team is more fun to watch when he is playing? We just never seem to have the ball movement and the crazy pressure defense when Ant is on the court, and those are aspects of buckets I like best.

FNG, you are at the point now where you are turning Ant into a caricature of everything you dislike about him. It's no longer grounded in reality as far as the playoffs are concerned (I get the frustration as it relates to his varying energy levels in the regular season).

In the three full games Ant played against Denver, the team averaged 27 assists per game. In the next three games, the team averaged 25 assists per game. In fact the closing game featured a TON of Jaden and Shannon isolating and getting into the teeth of Denver's defense to either get all the way to the rim (Shannon) or pull up over the defense for a mid-range jumper (Jaden). May be this was more fun to you simply because they aren't Ant I guess?? These shot attempts weren't the result of some beautiful motion-offense sets. It was because they had athletic advantages that the Wolves were trying to exploit....it's the exact same thing Ant would have been doing if he was being single covered.

Defensively, Ant had a better defensive rating in the series than Jaden and Rudy and it was 10 points better than his regular season defensive rating. The idea that somehow our defense suddenly ratcheted way up when he wasn't in the game simply isn't true. He averaged 8 rebounds and nearly 2 blocks per game in his three full games of the series. He was a huge factor in that Game 2 come-from-behind win. But I guess that wasn't fun to you since you had the burden of having to watch him play in that game....

As for him coming back for the Spurs series, I'm a little skeptical given the fact he's had runner's knee on the "healthy" leg. Just seems risky for him to play given everything he's got going on and how off he looked even before the hyperextended knee on the other leg.

It's pretty funny how ungrateful some are towards Ant simply because they don't like who he is off the court. Not one game Ant has sat has been more exciting than our series against Phoenix, Denver two years ago, Lakers, and Golden State. No regular season games this year without Ant were more exciting than our first game of the year when Ant showed us he worked on his clutch game, our Christmas loss that Ant almost willed us into victory, our two games against San Antonio that Ant willed us to victory in one and we got screwed by a missed foul call that should have sent Joan to the free throw line instead of San Antonio hitting a killer three in a game Rudy was out.

This last win against Denver was very exciting and fun to see. Denver's defense is so bad they couldn't figure out how easy it is to defend Shannon by forcing him to the right and blocking his shot when he refuses to shoot with his left hand. This team has the tools to win a championship for the first time in existence, it's probably not gong to happen this year with Ant and Donte out, but our best youngish players aren't even in that 26-29 year old superstar championship window yet when stars generally win their first championship. This teams best years are still to come, we just need to figure out what we are going to do as Rudy gets older hopefully that is Joan.

[FNG]

Yeah, I think this series without Ant (at least to start) continues to give Connelly a great look at what he's got headed into the offseason. Can Jaden be a #2 option? Can Shannon, Jr. be a 6th man scorer off the bench? Is Bones a just a nice regular season backup guard that is easily replaceable or does he have another gear in the playoffs?

I understand that Ant being out gives us a much better chance to see what Jaden and TJ can do...they will have to be featured on offense (along with Ju) as long as Ant is out. But I would argue that what we see is not going to be indicative of how they will play next year with Ant. I think both of them thrive in a fast-paced environment like we saw in the Denver series, and we know that is just not Ant's style. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do against a much better defensive team.

Game 6 was the slowest-paced game of the series and featured.....Jaden and Shannon! The fastest paced game of the series was Game 5, which we lost.

You have to be able to score in the half court in the playoffs and while transition offense is something to seek out, that's not ultimately where most games are won, especially in clutch time.

Yeah, pace is probably the wrong word to use, and I fully admit that my comment is based more on eye test than data. But I would argue that the style of play (not pace) at both ends of the court was more in line with how many of our guys like to play. Making a lot of passes before a shot means you're going to go deeper in the clock and have a lower pace number, but it's much more pleasing to my eye. Don't get me wrong...I had no problem with TJ dribbling the ball for most of the clock on a few possessions and then getting to the rim! But my preference will always be ball movement and flying around on defense, and that's what I enjoyed in Game 6.

[AussieWolf3]

An interesting sub plot to this series is how Randle plays.
Randle didn't have a great Denver series, at least not great in the way we all thought he needed to--- i.e. great on offense especially after Ant went down. He did however, become a good "do stuff" guy, and in game 6 willingly deferred to Jaden and Shannon.

Can Julius continue to grow himself into a new role as he ages? Can he continue to be more consistent and forceful on defense and on the boards?

I don't think Randle is championship number 2, but can he adjust his play and priorities to be more of role player number 3 or 4?

It'll be interesting to see what answer this series provides towards these questions because it might determine Ju's future in Minnesota