Minnesota Sports Forum

FNG wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:15 am For the ( fill in the blank)th time this season, Ant said something postgame like "the coaches put together a good game plan...we just didn't follow it". Many of us don't think Finchy's game plan is to have Ant bring the ball slowly up the court only to be double teamed as soon as he crosses midcourt. The result is a possession really not getting started until there are less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, and an Ant who is so exhausted he needs to go to the locker room for oxygen. So, who's to blame, and what can they do about it?

It's not a simple answer, and I've heard it discussed often on pods this season. I don't think the players are purposely ignoring the coaching staff. Kyle Thiege had a particularly interesting discussion about "game plan" about a month ago. He said the "game plan" is not a few comments made in the locker room or scribbled on a white board (similar to what many of us may have had during our playing days). It's actually a very detailed bound book handed out to each player several hours before a game. Thiege surmised that perhaps it might be too complex and difficult for the Wolves to understand, so they go back to their old habits. He didn't say it, so I will...players like Jaden, Naz and Ant are all lovable in their own ways, but none of them resembles a Rhodes Scholar. And Finchy seems to be a very cerebral coach to me. There may be a big intellectual disconnect there. Rather than the bound book, maybe it would be helpful for Finchy to keep it simple and focus on just a few key points. I continue to think Ant would be much more effective and have more left in the tank late in games at both ends if he didn't have to work so hard bringing the ball up court...stay off ball, and use screens to get some open looks. I'm not confident anything is going to change tomorrow, but it sure would help if Finchy could get through to these guys.

rapsuperstar31 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 11:01 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:15 am For the ( fill in the blank)th time this season, Ant said something postgame like "the coaches put together a good game plan...we just didn't follow it". Many of us don't think Finchy's game plan is to have Ant bring the ball slowly up the court only to be double teamed as soon as he crosses midcourt. The result is a possession really not getting started until there are less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, and an Ant who is so exhausted he needs to go to the locker room for oxygen. So, who's to blame, and what can they do about it?

It's not a simple answer, and I've heard it discussed often on pods this season. I don't think the players are purposely ignoring the coaching staff. Kyle Thiege had a particularly interesting discussion about "game plan" about a month ago. He said the "game plan" is not a few comments made in the locker room or scribbled on a white board (similar to what many of us may have had during our playing days). It's actually a very detailed bound book handed out to each player several hours before a game. Thiege surmised that perhaps it might be too complex and difficult for the Wolves to understand, so they go back to their old habits. He didn't say it, so I will...players like Jaden, Naz and Ant are all lovable in their own ways, but none of them resembles a Rhodes Scholar. And Finchy seems to be a very cerebral coach to me. There may be a big intellectual disconnect there. Rather than the bound book, maybe it would be helpful for Finchy to keep it simple and focus on just a few key points. I continue to think Ant would be much more effective and have more left in the tank late in games at both ends if he didn't have to work so hard bringing the ball up court...stay off ball, and use screens to get some open looks. I'm not confident anything is going to change tomorrow, but it sure would help if Finchy could get through to these guys.

I do think the game plan is for Ant to bring the ball up most of the time because everyone always looks to pass it to him. In game 4 we did see quite a bit of Ant playing off ball which had some success. The biggest issue with playing Ant off ball is they are face guarding Ant off ball/holding him which is making him work even harder to push off the defender and try to run through screens to get open. And I'd like to primarily see Ant working off ball, but they are really making him work.

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:54 am

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:52 am

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 11:20 am

It's the headline in several places. The Athletic. Bill Simmons pod.

If you haven't heard by now... Naz Reid is the bully and Wemby is the victim.

Speaking of the Bill Simmons pod, he ended the show creating holy shit trades. This is probably the infant stages of this topic coming up but he brought up Ant being traded, specifically to Atlanta. This is probably right up the alley of quite a few of you:

Ant and 28 for Jalen Johnson, either Kispert or Risacher, plus pick 8 and 23 this year, the Bucks pick next year and the Hawks 1st round pick in '29, '31 and '33.

This eliminates contending for the next few years, if not longer, barring a re-flip of those picks or hitting triples and home runs with the 2 picks this year and maybe the Bucks pick next year.

Who loves it?

Lol that's such a fucking haul

I wouldn't like forfeiting the Ant era this early but if you were to do it that's a good place to start for my money.

I'm guessing you might as well off load Jaden and my even Jalen and just start from scratch with all the picks in the world... Idk

It would suck to tank again. It's fun being competitive but it sucks that we don't feel like a legit contender and the only really path I see to that happening with this current iteration is that Ant fully unlocks his highest potential... Which isn't.... Impossible

FNG wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 1:50 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:54 am

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:52 am

Speaking of the Bill Simmons pod, he ended the show creating holy shit trades. This is probably the infant stages of this topic coming up but he brought up Ant being traded, specifically to Atlanta. This is probably right up the alley of quite a few of you:

Ant and 28 for Jalen Johnson, either Kispert or Risacher, plus pick 8 and 23 this year, the Bucks pick next year and the Hawks 1st round pick in '29, '31 and '33.

This eliminates contending for the next few years, if not longer, barring a re-flip of those picks or hitting triples and home runs with the 2 picks this year and maybe the Bucks pick next year.

Who loves it?

Lol that's such a fucking haul

I wouldn't like forfeiting the Ant era this early but if you were to do it that's a good place to start for my money.

I'm guessing you might as well off load Jaden and my even Jalen and just start from scratch with all the picks in the world... Idk

It would suck to tank again. It's fun being competitive but it sucks that we don't feel like a legit contender and the only really path I see to that happening with this current iteration is that Ant fully unlocks his highest potential... Which isn't.... Impossible

You guys know that Johnson put up 23/10/8 last year? Plus he's a very good defender. No way Atlanta gives up multiple first rounders along with him unless someone like SGA is coming back!

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 2:24 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 1:50 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:54 am
Lol that's such a fucking haul

I wouldn't like forfeiting the Ant era this early but if you were to do it that's a good place to start for my money.

I'm guessing you might as well off load Jaden and my even Jalen and just start from scratch with all the picks in the world... Idk

It would suck to tank again. It's fun being competitive but it sucks that we don't feel like a legit contender and the only really path I see to that happening with this current iteration is that Ant fully unlocks his highest potential... Which isn't.... Impossible

You guys know that Johnson put up 23/10/8 last year? Plus he's a very good defender. No way Atlanta gives up multiple first rounders along with him unless someone like SGA is coming back!

Does his playoff performance support this?

rapsuperstar31 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 3:24 pm

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 2:24 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 1:50 pm

You guys know that Johnson put up 23/10/8 last year? Plus he's a very good defender. No way Atlanta gives up multiple first rounders along with him unless someone like SGA is coming back!

Does his playoff performance support this?

Same age as Ant and has a whopping 4 total playoff games won.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2026 11:38 am

rapsuperstar31 wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 3:24 pm

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 2:24 pm

Does his playoff performance support this?

Same age as Ant and has a whopping 4 total playoff games won.

He is not a good defender positionally even though he does get his fair share of "do shit" box score stats. He had the worst defensive rating in the regular season among the Hawks starters after Trae Young was out of the picture.

And offensively, I can assure folks that opposing teams aren't loading up on him to get the ball out of his hands like they do Ant. In fact, Atlanta's go-to guy against the Knicks was 34-year old CJ McCollum.

Jalen Johnson is a great swiss-army knife type of player, but has had very limited success in the playoffs for a reason.