Minnesota Sports Forum

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 4:11 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 3:55 pm I like the idea of holding on to Donte. He could be a nice deadline type acquisition next year.

I don't like the idea of starting Ayo and making Jaden the 4. We will need Ayo's scoring off the bench with NAZ gone, and Jaden though he can play the 4, really isn't a 4. He's not a good rebounder and he will still have to guard the other teams best player more often than not. If we had dealt for a Suggs, I could see him spending more time guarding someone else. But we shot our shot on offense and now Jaden will have to maintain his defensive role.

You mentioned Suggs. I’m excited about this LaMello deal, but I still would have preferred a less deal for Suggs.

D-Loser25 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 3:33 pm

BeenLurkin wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 2:58 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 2:46 pm Jaden is the power forward!

It's wild to me that nobody bats an eye at Chet Holmgren being a PF yet for some reason when it comes to our 7 foot SF it absolutely untenable for him to play PF where he will be significantly more impactful as a defender and as a scorer.

Everyone insists that he's best use at the POA and I'm sorry we only say that because it's what he's done, but the dirty secret is that he has gotten worse and worse at that part of his job every year.

He's best as a roaming playmaker use, along with Rudy is cleaning everything up, and because of his athleticism he can easily switch out to the perimeter.

Barring other moves it's clear that the Timberwolves intend to move Ayo into being the primary POA defender and with this move for Ball there's no more excuses for Ant on defense.

In 23' he was a plus defender, this was also the last time he played next to a real point guard. Ant was on the ball 26% of the time compared to Mike's 38%. Fast forward to now and he is a significantly more efficient scorer playing next to the best passer in the league this side of Jokic.

Melo is goofy and I don't know what to make of his personality fit on the team, but this is a slam dunk basketball fit. Just need to find a back up PF

I’ve been saying for a while Jaden is a 4 defensively and Naz is a 3 in offense. I don’t think we have enough Jaden post game evidence to say that’s a good role on offense but this is supposed to be positiinless basketball under finch anyways. The traditional labels and roles of 1-5 and Pg-C are as antiquated as being upset about a guy making 20m a year to be 6th man. I don’t mind our current roster. I miss Naz and feel terrible for him. He gave everything to this team and was just discarded shortly after Ant said no to trading Jaden. That’s cold man, and I thought they were a trio. I also am terrified of how empty our assets are and how TC has no extension and just sunk the team into this with the last grasp at a big move.

He showed up and first thing he did was trade 4 number ones. Now the last thing he does on the way out the door potentially is to flush another, man this is tough. All the hope I had yesterday…all the troubles seemed so far away..now it could go sideways at any minute.

You’re right about Naz being a 3 (on both sides I think), but I don’t think Jaden is a 4 on either side. He can definitely play as a small ball 4 on defense, but that’s not his ideal fit. What is the real difference between a 3 and 4 on offense? No post players anymore. Naz wasn’t a good rebounder, so I honestly don’t think we really lost a 4

BeenLurkin wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 4:50 pm I wonder if the league is looking at what is happening and horrified at what they have done. Trying to remove the ability to create super teams…results in every offseason a trade that continues to grow and envelop the whole league and everyone just throws in their parts and picks parts from another part of the trade amoeba. It’s something else man. This trade will keep growing…

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 5:33 pm One of the cascading effects of this trade that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that Ball will be very good for both TJ and Ayo --- obviously for Rudy as well but that's been discussed.

Ball is the type of PG who can set his teammates up for easy cuts to the basket and these two will feast on those.

Another one is that this perfectly positions Jaden on the so called totem pole. I'm his biggest fan but even I felt it was a stretch for him to become a legit 2nd option, but as the undisputed 3rd option who can kill mismatches? That's perfect

BeenLurkin wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 2:31 pm

guest81 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 1:47 pm

D-Loser25 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 12:31 pm Actually, no. This is a terrible trade. Looking at all the assets we gave up, this is just completely irresponsible on TC’s part. Trading Naz is the only part I like. There goes your friend again, maxing out all his credit cards again and heading for bankruptcy, just to impress some girl. I don’t even mind Lamelo, I like him in a vacuum, but this is really a fireable offense. It could have absolutely been worse though… that idiot could have done this same trade for Morant, fox or Durant. At least we’ll have a fun team next year, but I’m just so tired of this guy massively overpaying for known commodities. Any idiot can do that. A good GM (presti), finds gems, develops them, and continues to accumulate assets. This guy we have is a freaking clown.

People want flexibility so they can make a big move then when they make a big move they get upset because they don't have flexibility

When the big move creates a new big hole and we now have 0 flexibility to fill that hole… yeah it’s upsetting. We didn’t ever get to see the young core we were promised