Minnesota Sports Forum

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
·
35m
Anthony Edwards on what putting on 10 pounds this summer will help with most:

"For sure attacking the rim. It makes my three ball a lot easier. It makes everything a lot easier. Defense, people can't just bully me no more. It makes me feel a lot better."

Mmmmm, not sure Ant got bullied by anyone last season. I'm also not sure if adding 10 lbs is particularly useful to him, even if it is all lean muscle mass. The guy is already built like a linebacker, so size and strength was not on my to-do list for Ant this past offseason, especially since he went through a spell of knee tendinopathy last season.

Ant is listed at 6-4 and 239 lbs. on this year's roster. NFL tight ends Irv Smith Jr. and Johnny Mundt are 6-2, 240 lbs and and 6-4, 233 lbs. respectively.

A good article on Ant as well as some other talented young NBA players:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/34825343/5-most-intriguing-players-nba-season

The following passage from this article underscores the importance of Edwards' development to fully validating the Gobert trade. It's the point others, including Draymond Green, have made:

"With few exceptions, even teams that invest big in frontcourt stars -- as the Wolves have done pairing Towns and Rudy Gobert -- need star-level perimeter creation to chase titles. Trading everything for Gobert at age 30 was a massive bet on Minnesota's barely 21-year-old phenom becoming that star ahead of the typical paces."

lipoli390 wrote:A good article on Ant as well as some other talented young NBA players:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/34825343/5-most-intriguing-players-nba-season

The following passage from this article underscores the importance of Edwards' development to fully validating the Gobert trade. It's the point others, including Draymond Green, have made:

"With few exceptions, even teams that invest big in frontcourt stars -- as the Wolves have done pairing Towns and Rudy Gobert -- need star-level perimeter creation to chase titles. Trading everything for Gobert at age 30 was a massive bet on Minnesota's barely 21-year-old phenom becoming that star ahead of the typical paces."

I struggle with this narrative though - that the Gobert trade is a massive bet on Ant. So are they saying if we didn't trade for Gobert that we are somehow less reliant on Ant becoming great!? None of the players we traded away and none of the picks we had would have yielded a player with Ant's potential.

I don't really see the Gobert trade as a bet on Ant, I see it as trying to maximize the KAT prime, while giving Ant and Jaden the opportunity to grow.

Sundog60 wrote:I don't really see the Gobert trade as a bet on Ant, I see it as trying to maximize the KAT prime, while giving Ant and Jaden the opportunity to grow.

Yup. Plus what's wrong with putting a team together that you think can win 50 games per year and be a factor, even if it isn't quite a top level contender yet? This franchise has not had sustained success and such a high floor since the KG days.

Q-was-here wrote:

Sundog60 wrote:I don't really see the Gobert trade as a bet on Ant, I see it as trying to maximize the KAT prime, while giving Ant and Jaden the opportunity to grow.

Yup. Plus what's wrong with putting a team together that you think can win 50 games per year and be a factor, even if it isn't quite a top level contender yet? This franchise has not had sustained success and such a high floor since the KG days.

It might be true that the Wolves front office and ownership were betting on KAT as the main premise for the Gobert deal. If true, I think they made a bad bet. Some pretty good basketball minds like Draymond Green see it more as a bet on Edwards and I agree. The article I posted provides the rationale. The Wolves clearly cashed in all their chips to win now with Gobert, but you don't compete for NBA championships without a dynamic star guard or wing. You don't do the Gobert deal just to make the playoffs or even win one playoff round. You do it to put your team in the running for a championship. A Gobert/KAT tandem, in my view, doesn't get you anywhere close to Western Conference finals, much less the NBA finals and a championship. Anything short of a Conference Finals appearance would be a failure in my view given what what the Wolves have given up and the position they've put themselves in over the summer.

The Wolves were already a 46-win team last season. They brought in Kyle Anderson and had all their core players coming back with an entire season and playoff experience under their belts playing together. There were other moves the front office could made to further strengthen the team without given up Beverley, Kessler and four future 1st-round picks. So if the goal was to simply to win 50 and "be a factor", there were ways to do that without eviscerating the team's draft capital and financial flexibility. I don't believe for a second that Connelly and the Wolves ownership viewed the Gobert deal as anything other than a move that would put the Wolves in a position to contend for a championship over the next 2-3 seasons. I agree with Draymond and the author of the article I posted that Connelly's aspirations will ultimately turn on Ant's progression to elite all-star status this season and in the next couple seasons thereafter. And as the article noted, that's a lot to expect from a player who just turned 21 last month.

lipoli390 wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

Sundog60 wrote:I don't really see the Gobert trade as a bet on Ant, I see it as trying to maximize the KAT prime, while giving Ant and Jaden the opportunity to grow.

Yup. Plus what's wrong with putting a team together that you think can win 50 games per year and be a factor, even if it isn't quite a top level contender yet? This franchise has not had sustained success and such a high floor since the KG days.

It might be true that the Wolves front office and ownership were betting on KAT as the main premise for the Gobert deal. If true, I think they made a bad bet. Some pretty good basketball minds like Draymond Green see it more as a bet on Edwards and I agree. The article I posted provides the rationale. The Wolves clearly cashed in all their chips to win now with Gobert, but you don't compete for NBA championships without a dynamic star guard or wing. You don't do the Gobert deal just to make the playoffs or even win one playoff round. You do it to put your team in the running for a championship. A Gobert/KAT tandem, in my view, doesn't get you anywhere close to Western Conference finals, much less the NBA finals and a championship. Anything short of a Conference Finals appearance would be a failure in my view given what what the Wolves have given up and the position they've put themselves in over the summer.

The Wolves were already a 46-win team last season. They brought in Kyle Anderson and had all their core players coming back with an entire season and playoff experience under their belts playing together. There were other moves the front office could made to further strengthen the team without given up Beverley, Kessler and four future 1st-round picks. So if the goal was to simply to win 50 and "be a factor", there were ways to do that without eviscerating the team's draft capital and financial flexibility. I don't believe for a second that Connelly and the Wolves ownership viewed the Gobert deal as anything other than a move that would put the Wolves in a position to contend for a championship over the next 2-3 seasons. I agree with Draymond and the author of the article I posted that Connelly's aspirations will ultimately turn on Ant's progression to elite all-star status this season and in the next couple seasons thereafter. And as the article noted, that's a lot to expect from a player who just turned 21 last month.

The bet was on Ant no matter what we did. You aren't going to convince me that the draft capital and players we traded could have yielded us a player or prospect with more potential than Ant to become a superstar. So why does the Gobert deal suddenly make Ant so much more important than what he was before?

Enjoy the season Lip, It's on record you don't like the deal.