Minnesota Sports Forum

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:03 pm

thedoper wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 8:46 pm

WildWolf2813 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 8:43 pm if this franchise had any dreams of eschewing PG to just let Ant be the primary decision, give up those dreams.

Jaylen Clark is my new dream.

Is he even a PG?

Yeah, unfortunately Clark averaged a whopping ONE assist per game in his three college years...he's going to have to become a totally different kind of player if he wants to become our PG of the future.

I understand and share Cool’s frustration with Ant’s turnovers and poor decision-making. But you can’t give less than an A- to a SG who scored 33 points on 62.5% FG shooting, hitting 2 of 4 threes and 11 of 12 free throw attempts while also getting 9 rebounds,6 assists and 2 steals in a four-point game. He had a team-leading +13. Jaden and Rudy were great defensively and Rudy’s 18 rebounds were huge, but Ant carried the team offensively while also coming up big on the glass and stepping up defensively in moments throughout the game. I think Kek’s minus was fair based on Ant’s blunders, but I’d probably still give Ant a straight A. Without Ant last night the Wolves lose by substantially more than their margin of victory. Without Ant this season, the Wolves are lottery bound.

I agree with Q that Ant needs a true PG on the floor with him to maximize his net contribution to the team. That might change over the next few seasons, but right now you don’t want Ant running the offense. The good news is that Ant has improved in every statistical category each year he’s been the the League. His improvement has been incredibly linear and impressive. And he’s still only 22. So I can’t dismiss the possibility of Ant developing into a lead guard. He’s nowhere close to being a lead guard yet, but he’s a star SG who has been carrying this team offensively all season to the Wolves current position at the top of the Western Conference standings.

Lip, you make a compelling argument. But I'm just curious, were you at the game, watched it on TV, or just read the box score? I think if you saw it you would realize that a comfortable victory was put in jeopardy and a big reason for that was Ant. I can't argue with the stats, they certainly show a very good game by a great player. But the turnover column, which can be quantified, and the bad decision category which can't, need to be included in a fair analysis. For those reasons I don't believe he had an "A" game.