60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 10:00 pm
And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 10:00 pm
And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Ha, you and me both, Q...may just be a statistical quirk, because I like everything I see in this guy!
I'm more on the Lip train when it comes to Rob. I think in three years both teams will look back at this trade as a classic win/win.
60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 10:00 pm
And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Ha, you and me both, Q...may just be a statistical quirk, because I like everything I see in this guy!
I'm more on the Lip train when it comes to Rob. I think in three years both teams will look back at this trade as a classic win/win.
Wolvesfan21 was right earlier in this thread about 2nd year guys that regress/stagnate compared to their first year rarely panning out. Believe me, when Rob was still on the roster I searched far and wide for examples of guards that had slow starts and eventually became really good NBA players. There were plenty that had horrific rookie seasons, but they all showed legit improvement in their second year.
There is one caveat to this though....Rob's 2nd year isn't over yet! With the longer stints he's getting in Chicago, may be his confidence grows with each game and he shows real improvement in his shooting efficiency, decision making, etc.
60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 10:00 pm
And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Evey time I watch a highlight video of him, I see multiple end of shot clock makes, buzzer beaters end of quarters, game winners, and clutch shots. Hell he has several end of shot clock, and end of quarter made baskets in just the first three games here already.
While not a traditional PG, Ayo has more PG attributes than I thought he had. More than Donte has shown. Finch has been leaning on Ayo to bring the ball up a lot in these first few games. I believe TC has found an ideal running mate for ANT 2.0, although likely not until next season.
60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 10:00 pm
And this popped up in my youtube feed. It was put together 5 months ago and is a collection of Ayo highlights. Some of the quickness he has is pretty amazing. Bones and Ayo are really going to up the Wolves pace!
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Evey time I watch a highlight video of him, I see multiple end of shot clock makes, buzzer beaters end of quarters, game winners, and clutch shots. Hell he has several end of shot clock, and end of quarter made baskets in just the first three games here already.
Well, there are reasons it's called a "highlight" video! He does all these wonderful things, yet somehow his team is better with him on the bench every. single. season.
I need to watch him for 20+ games to see if there is something amiss in his game that just can't be found in box scores or highlight videos.
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Evey time I watch a highlight video of him, I see multiple end of shot clock makes, buzzer beaters end of quarters, game winners, and clutch shots. Hell he has several end of shot clock, and end of quarter made baskets in just the first three games here already.
Well, there are reasons it's called a "highlight" video! He does all these wonderful things, yet somehow his team is better with him on the bench every. single. season.
I need to watch him for 20+ games to see if there is something amiss in his game that just can't be found in box scores or highlight videos.
Haha yeah that's true it is a highlight video. I guess what I meant was it seemed like something he's good at. I'm sure guys like Jaden, Donte, and Naz have more game winners, buzzer beaters, and clutch shots than I remember, but it seems like Ayo has more than the three of them have combined as Wolves. Donte's had a few, but also missed too many wide open clutch shots, Jaden doesn't' get a lot of opportunity but I remember him missing some big wide open clutch shots, Naz has missed multiple wide open game winners including the back breaker against Dallas in the playoffs. Even Ant before this season hadn't had a go ahead or tie clutch shot with less than 5 seconds to go in his career until this season
He seems to offer a bit of everything we ideally need off the bench: Pace, shooting, ball handling, low turnover rate, defense. He also in theory seems like someone that won't play himself off the floor, whereas Naz still has disastrous stints from time to time (esp. in high leverage situations like the OKC playoff series).
I think because he is a legit 25-32 MPG type player, it really solves a huge part of our depth issues.
(I'm still befuddled by his net rating and net on/off numbers though!)
Ha, you and me both, Q...may just be a statistical quirk, because I like everything I see in this guy!
I'm more on the Lip train when it comes to Rob. I think in three years both teams will look back at this trade as a classic win/win.
Wolvesfan21 was right earlier in this thread about 2nd year guys that regress/stagnate compared to their first year rarely panning out. Believe me, when Rob was still on the roster I searched far and wide for examples of guards that had slow starts and eventually became really good NBA players. There were plenty that had horrific rookie seasons, but they all showed legit improvement in their second year.
There is one caveat to this though....Rob's 2nd year isn't over yet! With the longer stints he's getting in Chicago, may be his confidence grows with each game and he shows real improvement in his shooting efficiency, decision making, etc.
That is true, if Rob starts to show something before the season is up then I'll have to give him more of a chance. Off the top of my head I just struggle to think of anyone who did regress in year two then turned it around, barring injury. Just bad play.
Plenty of guys had slow starts, but the bad 1st year to 2nd year worse regression is a tough one to see how he can progress. Still not a bad lotto ticket for Chicago to play, they can give him minutes and see if they can hit a homerun.
Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 12:54 pm
How did Billups do his 2nd year?
He was a late bloomer and I thought of him, I should look up his stats. He actually made decent progression from his 1st year (pretty awful) age 21 to second age 22. Doesn't really work. Got hurt looks like in Denver, then even here for a couple years after he was decent (I never disliked him as a Wolf). Got even better with the Pistons of course shooting some nice 42%+ from 3P. Looks like his 2P numbers were never good, but that was kind of that era too. Kind of a natural progression really if a bit slow though to come around.
