Ant out 2 weeks

[TAFKASP]

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.

I picked 50 wins.... so you're saying there's a chance? LOL

[60WinTim]

We have a scheduling quirk that has the chance to work in the Wolves favor. The schedule over the next FOUR weeks has the Wolves mostly playing bottom feeders: Sacramento 3x, Utah 2x, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Washington and Phoenix. The Laker game sans Luka in 3 days and the Dallas game in 3 weeks are winnable games, even without ANT. There are only 3 games which are likely losses even, and were likely losses even if ANT was available: tonight's game against Denver (2nd of a back-to-back), at the Knicks in 9 days, and another game against Denver which is again, the 2nd of back-to-back.

So it's not far-fetched to think the Wolves could manage an 11-3 run over the next four weeks, even if ANT is unavailable. And it might be a blessing in disguise if we can manage a decent record AND have a couple guys blossom in ANT's absence.

(but I'll let FNG take it on the chin tonight with the GDT! )

[Wolvesfan21]

We have a scheduling quirk that has the chance to work in the Wolves favor. The schedule over the next FOUR weeks has the Wolves mostly playing bottom feeders: Sacramento 3x, Utah 2x, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Washington and Phoenix. The Laker game sans Luka in 3 days and the Dallas game in 3 weeks are winnable games, even without ANT. There are only 3 games which are likely losses even, and were likely losses even if ANT was available: tonight's game against Denver (2nd of a back-to-back), at the Knicks in 9 days, and another game against Denver which is again, the 2nd of back-to-back.

So it's not far-fetched to think the Wolves could manage an 11-3 run over the next four weeks, even if ANT is unavailable. And it might be a blessing in disguise if we can manage a decent record AND have a couple guys blossom in ANT's absence.

(but I'll let FNG take it on the chin tonight with the GDT! )

Without Ant every game is a for sure possible loss. I wouldn't count on a win at all against anyone now. Now we might be favored in many games, but they'll still be tough. 11-3 would be incredible, I'd be happy with 8-6.

You're right the beginning schedule is easy, so if we can afford to play without Ant for a while and still stay above .500, then cool.

[FNG]

We have a scheduling quirk that has the chance to work in the Wolves favor. The schedule over the next FOUR weeks has the Wolves mostly playing bottom feeders: Sacramento 3x, Utah 2x, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Washington and Phoenix. The Laker game sans Luka in 3 days and the Dallas game in 3 weeks are winnable games, even without ANT. There are only 3 games which are likely losses even, and were likely losses even if ANT was available: tonight's game against Denver (2nd of a back-to-back), at the Knicks in 9 days, and another game against Denver which is again, the 2nd of back-to-back.

So it's not far-fetched to think the Wolves could manage an 11-3 run over the next four weeks, even if ANT is unavailable. And it might be a blessing in disguise if we can manage a decent record AND have a couple guys blossom in ANT's absence.

(but I'll let FNG take it on the chin tonight with the GDT! )

Without Ant every game is a for sure possible loss. I wouldn't count on a win at all against anyone now. Now we might be favored in many games, but they'll still be tough. 11-3 would be incredible, I'd be happy with 8-6.

You're right the beginning schedule is easy, so if we can afford to play without Ant for a while and still stay above .500, then cool.

Surprisingly the Wolves are 12-7 when Ant doesn't play. And Tim's analysis of the soft upcoming schedule softens the blow a little. Tonight will be tough, but there will be some wins before Ant returns.

[Wolvesfan21]

We have a scheduling quirk that has the chance to work in the Wolves favor. The schedule over the next FOUR weeks has the Wolves mostly playing bottom feeders: Sacramento 3x, Utah 2x, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Washington and Phoenix. The Laker game sans Luka in 3 days and the Dallas game in 3 weeks are winnable games, even without ANT. There are only 3 games which are likely losses even, and were likely losses even if ANT was available: tonight's game against Denver (2nd of a back-to-back), at the Knicks in 9 days, and another game against Denver which is again, the 2nd of back-to-back.

So it's not far-fetched to think the Wolves could manage an 11-3 run over the next four weeks, even if ANT is unavailable. And it might be a blessing in disguise if we can manage a decent record AND have a couple guys blossom in ANT's absence.

(but I'll let FNG take it on the chin tonight with the GDT! )

Without Ant every game is a for sure possible loss. I wouldn't count on a win at all against anyone now. Now we might be favored in many games, but they'll still be tough. 11-3 would be incredible, I'd be happy with 8-6.

You're right the beginning schedule is easy, so if we can afford to play without Ant for a while and still stay above .500, then cool.

Surprisingly the Wolves are 12-7 when Ant doesn't play. And Tim's analysis of the soft upcoming schedule softens the blow a little. Tonight will be tough, but there will be some wins before Ant returns.

I wonder if Rudy raises our floor, especially the DPOY Rudy (he's still nice for sure though), I seem to remember Ant missing games during that season. I think on defense we'll be OK. I do worry about offense though, maybe we'll get the Jaden scoring option going again. Him TJ and Naz will have to pick up the slack.

[FNG]

We have a scheduling quirk that has the chance to work in the Wolves favor. The schedule over the next FOUR weeks has the Wolves mostly playing bottom feeders: Sacramento 3x, Utah 2x, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Washington and Phoenix. The Laker game sans Luka in 3 days and the Dallas game in 3 weeks are winnable games, even without ANT. There are only 3 games which are likely losses even, and were likely losses even if ANT was available: tonight's game against Denver (2nd of a back-to-back), at the Knicks in 9 days, and another game against Denver which is again, the 2nd of back-to-back.

So it's not far-fetched to think the Wolves could manage an 11-3 run over the next four weeks, even if ANT is unavailable. And it might be a blessing in disguise if we can manage a decent record AND have a couple guys blossom in ANT's absence.

(but I'll let FNG take it on the chin tonight with the GDT! )

Tim, I agree that the schedule gets softer here, and I appreciate the optimism. But Ant is expected to miss 8 games, and 5 of them are on the road...I think we will be fortunate to go 4-4 over this stretch.