Well, it would be Ayo then at the 2 and Ant at the 3 if that were the case.
Ayo's defense is sort of weird to me. He looks like he could be really good, but he's just sort of OK on that end. Not an ideal POA defender, but perhaps if that's all he has to focus on he can be better.
Ayo is so confusing lol
His advanced metrics are impossible to really interpret though. They all look terrible, but significantly improved after joining the wolves, but a lot of the numbers still include the whole season of data.
DPM for example finished at like -0.5 or something like that, but improved from like -1.2 or whatever from his time with the Bulls.
He had the 2nd best net rating of rotation players on the Wolves after the trade deadline (a measley+2.3) and had a very solid 110 defensive rating.
I think we're all gonna end up very happy that he's a wolf next year, but it'll be interesting to see how he's used
I have a list of worries about the Wolves next season but Ayo isn’t on that list. He’s going to be a huge positive. Here’s my list of worries in addition to the general worry about injuries:
1. LaMelo’s ankles
2. Rebounding with Randle and Naz both gone
3. Toughness, physicality and size inside - don’t think we have enough
4. Defense when Rudy’s not on the court - same problem as last season but our offense should be better
At least regarding number 4 we have an actual backup center on the roster this year. Problem is he's untested
But yeah I'd say I generally agree with all of those concerns
His advanced metrics are impossible to really interpret though. They all look terrible, but significantly improved after joining the wolves, but a lot of the numbers still include the whole season of data.
DPM for example finished at like -0.5 or something like that, but improved from like -1.2 or whatever from his time with the Bulls.
He had the 2nd best net rating of rotation players on the Wolves after the trade deadline (a measley+2.3) and had a very solid 110 defensive rating.
I think we're all gonna end up very happy that he's a wolf next year, but it'll be interesting to see how he's used
I have a list of worries about the Wolves next season but Ayo isn’t on that list. He’s going to be a huge positive. Here’s my list of worries in addition to the general worry about injuries:
1. LaMelo’s ankles
2. Rebounding with Randle and Naz both gone
3. Toughness, physicality and size inside - don’t think we have enough
4. Defense when Rudy’s not on the court - same problem as last season but our offense should be better
At least regarding number 4 we have an actual backup center on the roster this year. Problem is he's untested
But yeah I'd say I generally agree with all of those concerns
I’ve always been an advocate for playing the young guys so I’m not going to complain about relying on Beringer as Rudy’s main backup.
I have a list of worries about the Wolves next season but Ayo isn’t on that list. He’s going to be a huge positive. Here’s my list of worries in addition to the general worry about injuries:
1. LaMelo’s ankles
2. Rebounding with Randle and Naz both gone
3. Toughness, physicality and size inside - don’t think we have enough
4. Defense when Rudy’s not on the court - same problem as last season but our offense should be better
At least regarding number 4 we have an actual backup center on the roster this year. Problem is he's untested
But yeah I'd say I generally agree with all of those concerns
I’ve always been an advocate for playing the young guys so I’m not going to complain about relying on Beringer as Rudy’s main backup.
I'd add that as a concern: will Finch lean into playing young players and let them play through mistakes, and really this concern is an offshoot of concern over him playing a deeper rotation.
I'd say my biggest concern is offensive creativity and will Ant and Melo make the necessary adjustments to their games.
They are so complimentary of each other, but not without changes and sacrifice. There is a real, non hyperbolic opportunity for this to be a historic pairing, but they have to be smarter players than they shown to be thus far into their careers
Well, what do you want them to do Wildwolf!? You seemingly pour cold water on everything the Wolves do! Tell us what big man that can defend the paint and shoot 3's is out there for the Wolves to go magically trade for or conjure up out of thin air.
Going this route wasn't my plan, and the way TC has been caught with his pants down, didn't appear to be his either. All he thought was, get LaMelo, keep Jaden, to hell with everything else and I'm sure SOMEONE halfway decent will play here for free, right? Right?
I've already mentioned my suggestion: bring back Slow-Mo and basically tell Marvin Bagley this might be your last chance to prove to the world that you're not a failure. It's either this or a long life overseas. Your choice.
It's another offseason where TC overlooked something massive that we'll be spending assets down the road to fix.
Hilarious levels of dooming
Ain't dooming if it's imminent.
A year ago it was "we have ballhandlers, Ant can do it." After that failed they went and really corrected that. Now it's ehh we can go small we'll look at it and see, only now they don't have what's necessary to fix that if it fails.
At least regarding number 4 we have an actual backup center on the roster this year. Problem is he's untested
But yeah I'd say I generally agree with all of those concerns
I’ve always been an advocate for playing the young guys so I’m not going to complain about relying on Beringer as Rudy’s main backup.
I'd add that as a concern: will Finch lean into playing young players and let them play through mistakes, and really this concern is an offshoot of concern over him playing a deeper rotation.
I'd say my biggest concern is offensive creativity and will Ant and Melo make the necessary adjustments to their games.
They are so complimentary of each other, but not without changes and sacrifice. There is a real, non hyperbolic opportunity for this to be a historic pairing, but they have to be smarter players than they shown to be thus far into their careers
I’ll add those two to my list, Aussie. Of the two, I’m more worried about Finch not giving enough rope for development and failing to have a sufficiently deep rotation to keep everyone healthy and make sure the team is fully ready for the playoffs. I’m less concerned about Ant and Melo playing together but Ant will have to adjust to playing off the ball more and Melo will need to reduce his 3-point volume. If you watch the interview Grey posted, it will likely assuage any concern about LaMelo. He’ll adjust and adapt. Moreover, he loves to pass the ball. Ant might be a bit of a challenge. He likes having the ball in his hands and he doesn’t like to run. Finch will need to lean on him to modify his offensive game a bit fit optimize the fit with LaMelo.
Going this route wasn't my plan, and the way TC has been caught with his pants down, didn't appear to be his either. All he thought was, get LaMelo, keep Jaden, to hell with everything else and I'm sure SOMEONE halfway decent will play here for free, right? Right?
I've already mentioned my suggestion: bring back Slow-Mo and basically tell Marvin Bagley this might be your last chance to prove to the world that you're not a failure. It's either this or a long life overseas. Your choice.
It's another offseason where TC overlooked something massive that we'll be spending assets down the road to fix.
Hilarious levels of dooming
Ain't dooming if it's imminent.
A year ago it was "we have ballhandlers, Ant can do it." After that failed they went and really corrected that. Now it's ehh we can go small we'll look at it and see, only now they don't have what's necessary to fix that if it fails.
Folks watched Julian Champenie play power forward for a finals team and are bugging out that the wolves are "too small" with 90% of the roster taller than 6'4"
A year ago it was "we have ballhandlers, Ant can do it." After that failed they went and really corrected that. Now it's ehh we can go small we'll look at it and see, only now they don't have what's necessary to fix that if it fails.
Folks watched Julian Champenie play power forward for a finals team and are bugging out that the wolves are "too small" with 90% of the roster taller than 6'4"
and lost because OG Anunoby could move Wemby off his spot whenever he wanted.
San Antonio proceeds to draft Quaintance, Reed and Maliq Brown and sign Tobias Harris, so clearly size was something they needed to address.
Building a team designed to hopefully beat the Spurs is admirable, but they have to have a team capable of beating anyone. We had no ballhandlers, so we addressed that, but now we're stuck in a situation where TC is gonna do something he was brought here to do but hasn't done yet: actually develop talent. I shouldn't have to hope Trey Kaufman-Renn becomes a massive anomaly, but we might have to just to have an asset of any kind.
A year ago it was "we have ballhandlers, Ant can do it." After that failed they went and really corrected that. Now it's ehh we can go small we'll look at it and see, only now they don't have what's necessary to fix that if it fails.
Folks watched Julian Champenie play power forward for a finals team and are bugging out that the wolves are "too small" with 90% of the roster taller than 6'4"
That has more to do with a 5 that can cover the whole paint area by himself. They also had Barnes to take up some of that slack.
The truth is that TC has failed again to balance the roster out. Last year we didn't have a starting caliber PG, now we don't have any PFs on the team.
A year ago it was "we have ballhandlers, Ant can do it." After that failed they went and really corrected that. Now it's ehh we can go small we'll look at it and see, only now they don't have what's necessary to fix that if it fails.
Folks watched Julian Champenie play power forward for a finals team and are bugging out that the wolves are "too small" with 90% of the roster taller than 6'4"
That has more to do with a 5 that can cover the whole paint area by himself. They also had Barnes to take up some of that slack.
The truth is that TC has failed again to balance the roster out. Last year we didn't have a starting caliber PG, now we don't have any PFs on the team.
The thing is Jaden potentially could be a better 2-way PF than any of those Spurs PFs all of which are undersized in one way or another. Jaden can absolutely play PF it's just whether or not it makes the most sense to do so or not.
AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:02 pm
Folks watched Julian Champenie play power forward for a finals team and are bugging out that the wolves are "too small" with 90% of the roster taller than 6'4"
That has more to do with a 5 that can cover the whole paint area by himself. They also had Barnes to take up some of that slack.
The truth is that TC has failed again to balance the roster out. Last year we didn't have a starting caliber PG, now we don't have any PFs on the team.
The thing is Jaden potentially could be a better 2-way PF than any of those Spurs PFs all of which are undersized in one way or another. Jaden can absolutely play PF it's just whether or not it makes the most sense to do so or not.
It is the weight that he is giving up. I remember Keldon Johnson pounding on Julius and then Kat.
