Minnesota Sports Forum

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 7:38 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 5:55 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 7:13 pm

I promise you I don't dislike Ant. He's just not MJ or Kobe or any other number of superstars. If I don't lend some objectivity to this discussion, no one will.

So that's what you call it

Still trolling me? STFU

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 8:19 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 7:38 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 5:55 pm

So that's what you call it

Still trolling me? STFU

Well I've yet to see you offer anything resembling supporting evidence of your profoundly contrarian opinion. I've asked you for it and nope.

Yet you have no problem blasting on about you being the only one who can provide reasonability and objectivity, cause we're all so infantile of course

Ok ... I'm the troll

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:30 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 8:19 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 7:38 pm
Still trolling me? STFU

Well I've yet to see you offer anything resembling supporting evidence of your profoundly contrarian opinion. I've asked you for it and nope.

Yet you have no problem blasting on about you being the only one who can provide reasonability and objectivity, cause we're all so infantile of course

Ok ... I'm the troll

What opinion are you talking about? Believe it or not, you're far more concerned about me than I am about you.

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:39 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:30 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 8:19 pm

Well I've yet to see you offer anything resembling supporting evidence of your profoundly contrarian opinion. I've asked you for it and nope.

Yet you have no problem blasting on about you being the only one who can provide reasonability and objectivity, cause we're all so infantile of course

Ok ... I'm the troll

What opinion are you talking about? Believe it or not, you're far more concerned about me than I am about you.

Should be obvious, but about Ant.

And um.... cool I guess, that's really cool...

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:58 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:39 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:30 pm

What opinion are you talking about? Believe it or not, you're far more concerned about me than I am about you.

Should be obvious, but about Ant.

And um.... cool I guess, that's really cool...

You want evidence for an opinion that Ant can't win a championship as the main man? It's an opinion dumbass, not a fact.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 8:13 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 10:15 pm

rapsuperstar31 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 6:33 pm

Yes there are times I yell at the tv for Ant, Randle, and Naz to pass the ball. Sometimes Rudy when he's in no mans land near the post. He's a superstar in the Jordan and Kobe mold, they are going to stagnate with the ball. Jordan did get better at passing later in his career. Ant is working on his game every single night and offseason. It's going to be a long 3 years, 5, years, or even 15 years for you if you can't separate Ant in real life and Ant on the basketball court. He is going to be here for as long as he wants to be here, and unless he asks for a trade out, our play style is not going to change. He will continue to hone his game and evolve along the way.

And remember that it took Phil Jackson and the triangle offense to loosen MJ’s grip on the ball, although he remained ball dominant throughout his career. Finch made clear last night that Ant is a work in progress in this role but the improvement is there. Tim emphasized that Ant and Jaden are still young and haven’t achieved their full potential yet. One of Ant’s best qualities is that he sets his mind to developing particular facets of his game and ends up being highly successful each time he does. He started his NBA careers as a mediocre to poor three-point shooter coming out of college. He’s now elite in that area. Since then he’s devoted himself to developing his low post and mid-range games. Again, he’s been successful in both areas while retaining his elite 3-point prowess. He initially neglected his physical conditioning. He now seems very well conditioned. Apparently, he’s now being challenged be become our de facto lead guard and Finch said he’s taken that challenge to heart. His head coach noted his improvement in that area last night and I think we’ve all seen it recently ourselves. Does he still have a long way to go? Yes. Will he ever be a Mike Conley game manager? No. Is it my preference to have Ant in that role? No. But he can be highly effective in that role just as MJ, Kobe and Dwayne Wade were effective when they served in that role for their respective championship teams.

Over time, I expect Ant to improve his decision making and while he’ll always have sticky hands like all dominant NBA scorers I expect his hands will become a bit less sticky. Maybe we should bring in Kurt Rambis to install the triangle. . I also expect Ant to become more consistent defensively. Those are the challenges in front of Ant and he’s already established a track record of successfully meeting challenges to improve his game.

We've talked before on here whether one can design drills to help with floor vision and passing, as to your point, Ant has proven that when he puts his mind to it along with offseason reps he does get better at whatever skill he's working on. It just seems like passing is a harder one to work on than scoring-oriented or fitness goals.

That being said, the Wolves starting five has the best offensive rating of any regular starting 5 in the Finch/Ant era.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 10:35 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 8:13 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 08, 2026 10:15 pm

And remember that it took Phil Jackson and the triangle offense to loosen MJ’s grip on the ball, although he remained ball dominant throughout his career. Finch made clear last night that Ant is a work in progress in this role but the improvement is there. Tim emphasized that Ant and Jaden are still young and haven’t achieved their full potential yet. One of Ant’s best qualities is that he sets his mind to developing particular facets of his game and ends up being highly successful each time he does. He started his NBA careers as a mediocre to poor three-point shooter coming out of college. He’s now elite in that area. Since then he’s devoted himself to developing his low post and mid-range games. Again, he’s been successful in both areas while retaining his elite 3-point prowess. He initially neglected his physical conditioning. He now seems very well conditioned. Apparently, he’s now being challenged be become our de facto lead guard and Finch said he’s taken that challenge to heart. His head coach noted his improvement in that area last night and I think we’ve all seen it recently ourselves. Does he still have a long way to go? Yes. Will he ever be a Mike Conley game manager? No. Is it my preference to have Ant in that role? No. But he can be highly effective in that role just as MJ, Kobe and Dwayne Wade were effective when they served in that role for their respective championship teams.

Over time, I expect Ant to improve his decision making and while he’ll always have sticky hands like all dominant NBA scorers I expect his hands will become a bit less sticky. Maybe we should bring in Kurt Rambis to install the triangle. . I also expect Ant to become more consistent defensively. Those are the challenges in front of Ant and he’s already established a track record of successfully meeting challenges to improve his game.

We've talked before on here whether one can design drills to help with floor vision and passing, as to your point, Ant has proven that when he puts his mind to it along with offseason reps he does get better at whatever skill he's working on. It just seems like passing is a harder one to work on than scoring-oriented or fitness goals.

That being said, the Wolves starting five has the best offensive rating of any regular starting 5 in the Finch/Ant era.

I don’t think a player can improve his floor vision. But I think a player can improve his passing accuracy just as players can improve their shooting accuracy. I don’t see why not. I also think a key for the lead guard role is decision making with the ball, which seems like a natural area for improvement with time and experience in that role. Judgement in a particular role should get better with repetition in that role. We don’t need Ant to become John Stockton. We just need him to be better than he’s been and so far we’ve already seeing some modest improvement. Note he’s only been in this lead-guard role for a very short time as it’s become clear Mike Conley just doesn’t have much left in his tank. We’ll see.

I’m more concerned about our non-Rudy defense. I think one key to improving in that area will be more consistent defense from Edwards. Another key in my mind is more minutes for Clark. I really think those 15 minutes currently being allocated to Mike Conley should go to both Clark or Bones (maybe split between both) depending on the situation. Our offensive is clicking and looks to be on an upward trajectory.

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 10:10 pm

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:58 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:39 pm

Should be obvious, but about Ant.

And um.... cool I guess, that's really cool...

You want evidence for an opinion that Ant can't win a championship as the main man? It's an opinion dumbass, not a fact.

You are literally the only person on this forum that I've seen talk this way.... Get a grip