Minnesota Sports Forum

KiwiMatt wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:02 pm KAT was the key to winning or losing this series. If he makes season averages in FG% then we win these three games easy. He choked when we needed him most.

3 from 22 shooting from beyond the arc in the last 3 games including 0 - 8 tonight. What happened?

Well, I think what you're saying is true, but there is another side to this. I'm not buying that Ant's back is bothering him. He just looks worn out to me. The experience I hope he takes from this is he has to take his conditioning and nutrition to another level. At the age of 22 I think we can have a little patience with him. But a fresh Edwards has the ability to make game changing plays on each end of the floor. I think you could put him on Luka in a crucial possession and expect to win. We haven't had that guy this series.

Jester1534 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 9:37 pm

TAFKASP wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 9:34 pm

BloopOracle wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 9:33 pm KAT is garbage man, what a disaster class

What will it cost to offload him? This has been such a pathetic three games by KAT, and the Wolves in general. So completely disappointing!

Oh some dumbass gm will think they can fix him there always one of them out there.

Yes, but that dumbass gm typically is employed by the Wolves.

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:09 pm

KiwiMatt wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:02 pm KAT was the key to winning or losing this series. If he makes season averages in FG% then we win these three games easy. He choked when we needed him most.

3 from 22 shooting from beyond the arc in the last 3 games including 0 - 8 tonight. What happened?

Well, I think what you're saying is true, but there is another side to this. I'm not buying that Ant's back is bothering him. He just looks worn out to me. The experience I hope he takes from this is he has to take his conditioning and nutrition to another level. At the age of 22 I think we can have a little patience with him. But a fresh Edwards has the ability to make game changing plays on each end of the floor. I think you could put him on Luka in a crucial possession and expect to win. We haven't had that guy this series.

I’m the most disappointed in Ant. 5 straight bad games from him for his standard.

kekgeek wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:35 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:09 pm

KiwiMatt wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:02 pm KAT was the key to winning or losing this series. If he makes season averages in FG% then we win these three games easy. He choked when we needed him most.

3 from 22 shooting from beyond the arc in the last 3 games including 0 - 8 tonight. What happened?

Well, I think what you're saying is true, but there is another side to this. I'm not buying that Ant's back is bothering him. He just looks worn out to me. The experience I hope he takes from this is he has to take his conditioning and nutrition to another level. At the age of 22 I think we can have a little patience with him. But a fresh Edwards has the ability to make game changing plays on each end of the floor. I think you could put him on Luka in a crucial possession and expect to win. We haven't had that guy this series.

I’m the most disappointed in Ant. 5 straight bad games from him for his standard.

Cool - I’ll just come back to the fact that Ant is 22 years old. There’s no evidence looking at his physique that he’s out of shape. In fact, he showed no lack of energy throughout the playoffs until after he fell on his back. I watched the replay of his fall in the Denver game. He hit hard on his back without his arms or legs breaking his fall. It had to have a lingering effect. As someone with lower back issues, I can see how residual pain from that fall could be limiting him now. It takes something out of your legs, which would likely impact his perimeter shot and his explosiveness. Having said all that, there is probably another level of fitness Ant can and should achieve. MJ did just that after getting bullied by the Pistons in the Conference finals. He was already in great shape, but he then spent the off-season hitting the weights and getting into even better shape. I think what you’re talking about is that next level of fitness and I don’t disagree with you on that. It’s part of the learning process for a 22 year old.

As for tonight’s game, Ant wasn’t in top form, but he still scored 26 points on 11-24 FG shooting along with 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals. You don’t get 9 rebounds and 2 steals in the NBA if you’re out of shape or not giving effort. His 5 turnovers were his problem tonight and that’s indicative of his entire season. He turns the ball over way too much. That’s a part of his game he has to fix as he matures. Meanwhile, there’s no getting around the fact that KAT’s horrific offense in all three games this series are the main reason by far that we’re down 3-0 instead of being up 3-0 or 2-1. KAT was 5-18 from the field tonight, including 0-8 from behind the arc. Yes, he had 11 rebounds, but he had no steals and no blocks. I’ve been a big KAT supporter on this Board for years, but I’m thoroughly disgusted by what we’ve seen from him this series. Our other starting big didn’t help matters tonight with only 9 points, 6 rebounds and 0 blocks.

I was prepared to stand by my view that we should bring the entire team back, including KAT and Rudy, even if we ended up losing this series to Dallas. But seeing our two highest paid players, both seasoned vets, playing so poorly this series tells me perhaps it’s time to move on from at least one of them this summer (maybe both). KAT’s been the more disappointing of the two bigs, but they’ve both been bad this series. So I’ll cut some slack to Edwards who had a decent game tonight and is only 22 years old. But KAT and Rudy get no slack, and after watching them these last three games it will be hard to justify bringing them both back next season with their salaries taking us over the 2nd apron cliff.

I might be ready to take a step back in order to take 2 or 3 steps forward by re-tooling around Ant, Jaden and Naz going forward. We’ll have to see how KAT and Rudy perform in game 4. Perhaps we’ll win on Tuesday and then maybe win another after that with KAT and Rudy playing well. There’s still a chance for redemption. Even if they don’t improve their play and we end up on the receiving end of a sweep, perhaps we still bring the entire team back. They should be highly motivated next season after getting taken out this way.

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:03 pm The part I'm having a hard time with is how our sometimes dominant defense could be made to look so ordinary in this series. Luka and Kyrie are great players, but we lost our mojo on D. I think you have to credit Kidd for figuring us out. Q likes to say that good offense will beat good defense. It seems we are seeing that in this series.

Yeah, our defense did look mortal in this series. But I disagree that this series proves good offense beats good defense. Dallas had the best defense in the league since their mid-season acquisitions, and they were by far the better defensive team in this series- just as the Wolves were the far better defensive team in the previous two series (and throughout most of the 56-win season). The Dallas defense made the Wolves offense unrecognizable to me.

FNG wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:04 am

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:03 pm The part I'm having a hard time with is how our sometimes dominant defense could be made to look so ordinary in this series. Luka and Kyrie are great players, but we lost our mojo on D. I think you have to credit Kidd for figuring us out. Q likes to say that good offense will beat good defense. It seems we are seeing that in this series.

Yeah, our defense did look mortal in this series. But I disagree that this series proves good offense beats good defense. Dallas had the best defense in the league since their mid-season acquisitions, and they were by far the better defensive team in this series- just as the Wolves were the far better defensive team in the previous two series (and throughout most of the 56-win season). The Dallas defense made the Wolves offense unrecognizable to me.

As a long-time adherent to Q’s view, I’ll weigh in and agree with Cool although I’d say our defense has been good enough except for the 4th quarter last night. The different in this series is that the Mavs’ two stars have been scoring at a high level in spite of the Wolves defense. They’ve had some easy buckets, but a lot of their points have come with a great degree of difficulty. On the flip side, our two offensive stars - Ant and KAT - have been missing a ton of open looks and making bad decisions with the ball. And that’s the difference. The Mavs have been the better offensive team this series because their two offensive stars have performed while ours have not.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:57 am

FNG wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:04 am

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:03 pm The part I'm having a hard time with is how our sometimes dominant defense could be made to look so ordinary in this series. Luka and Kyrie are great players, but we lost our mojo on D. I think you have to credit Kidd for figuring us out. Q likes to say that good offense will beat good defense. It seems we are seeing that in this series.

Yeah, our defense did look mortal in this series. But I disagree that this series proves good offense beats good defense. Dallas had the best defense in the league since their mid-season acquisitions, and they were by far the better defensive team in this series- just as the Wolves were the far better defensive team in the previous two series (and throughout most of the 56-win season). The Dallas defense made the Wolves offense unrecognizable to me.

As a long-time adherent to Q’s view, I’ll weigh in and agree with Cool although I’d say our defense has been good enough except for the 4th quarter last night. The different in this series is that the Mavs’ two stars have been scoring at a high level in spite of the Wolves defense. They’ve had some easy buckets, but a lot of their points have come with a great degree of difficulty. On the flip side, our two offensive stars - Ant and KAT - have been missing a ton of open looks and making bad decisions with the ball. And that’s the difference. The Mavs have been the better offensive team this series because their two offensive stars have performed while ours have not.

It's always been an interesting discussion topic, and you can make a cogent argument both ways. But I would offer this: Ant is our best offensive player by far, and he has averaged 9 fewer PPG than he did against defensively challenged Phx on 38% shooting. Did Ant suddenly become a bad offensive player, or did the combination of Jones Jr hounding him and the big centers lurking negate his offensive brilliance?

I keep hearing this narrative about Kat having a low IQ. I don't agree with it. He was a 3.5 or 4.0 GPA student in college. And at least when he was drafted, he talked about continuing his education to get a doctorate. Does anyone know if he still takeing classes? Maybe that's why he didn't improve much? I know school smarts and basketball IQ are completely different, but I think he has the intelligence to understand basketbal. I think his problem is he gets way too emotional on the court. It clouds his thinking and prevents him from accessing his intelligence. Even Finch has aluded to it in interviews. Look at his performance on Mother's Day. Maybe he would benefit from therapy or grounding techniques? I guess I'm being an armchair doctor now though? Idk? That's just my opinion on him.

I’m going to defend Kat here.

Kat has 1 turnover in 3 games this series
Kat is averaging 2 fouls a game this series
Kat is not killing the wolves with his historically dumb play, in my opinion I don’t think he’s forcing anything.
Dont give me the lights are too bright for him but they weren’t too bright for him on the road in game 7 against the defending champs.
It sucks ass that he is in a shooting slump at the worst possible time. But I don’t think this 3 game sample size should be the reason the wolves make huge changes especially when is Kat is not killing them mentally like he has in the past.

kekgeek wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 10:31 am I’m going to defend Kat here.

Kat has 1 turnover in 3 games this series
Kat is averaging 2 fouls a game this series
Kat is not killing the wolves with his historically dumb play, in my opinion I don’t think he’s forcing anything.
Done give me the lights are too bright for him but they weren’t too bright for him on the road in game 7 against the defending champs.
It sucks ass that he is in a shooting slump at the worst possible time. But I don’t think this 3 game sample size should be the reason the wolves make huge changes especially when is Kat is not killing them mentally like he has in the past.

And if even a couple of those shots would have gone down it's a different series, but KAT doesn't receive the benefit of the doubt from anyone on a good night, so he's gonna have to do a lot of soul searching before Game 4

and say in Game 4 he gives us 25/12 with very good shooting. The same people who don't like KAT won't be impressed; they'll be frustrated it took this long to give a meaningless performance. He can't win.