Minnesota Sports Forum

guest81 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2026 7:34 pm

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:06 pm The Wolves won 49 games and finished 6th in the West last season. Assuming Donte doesn’t get back on the floor until the playoffs or the very end of the seasons, we won’t have Donte, Randle or Naz for the regular season. Those three are out and in their place we’ll have Ayo, Ball and Kuminga. In my mind, the question about whether this Wolves offseason has been a success boils down to the following quesiton: Are we a better team with Ayo, Ball and Kuminga instead of Donte, Randle and Naz?

I look at it more as how much better will Ant be now that they are playing to his strengths rather than putting him in roles not suited for him. Can peak Ant be a top 3 player? If so they are much better

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2026 2:25 pm

guest81 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2026 7:34 pm

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:06 pm The Wolves won 49 games and finished 6th in the West last season. Assuming Donte doesn’t get back on the floor until the playoffs or the very end of the seasons, we won’t have Donte, Randle or Naz for the regular season. Those three are out and in their place we’ll have Ayo, Ball and Kuminga. In my mind, the question about whether this Wolves offseason has been a success boils down to the following quesiton: Are we a better team with Ayo, Ball and Kuminga instead of Donte, Randle and Naz?

I look at it more as how much better will Ant be now that they are playing to his strengths rather than putting him in roles not suited for him. Can peak Ant be a top 3 player? If so they are much better

Yep, I believe Ant was #1 in the NBA in catch and shoot 3P % last year, he just didn't have enough of them though!!! So yeah, with Ball opening up good looks for him, you know whats coming.

The thing too is Ant still struggled with handling the ball and passing out of doubles. He OK and much better then a few years ago, but it's still not great. Just remembering the Spurs series and basically every game he's played, it been obvious he needs to be off the ball more.

Not only that Ball is now an elite outlet guy who if the defense is coming off a double from Ant, Ball is elite at passing and making the opponent pay. We really didn't have an elite option to either score on their own but more importantly continue to break down the defense with dribble drive and pass and make them pay for doubling Ant.

I'm excited to see Ant playing next to an elite PG and I can't see how it doesn't make both of the better. Ant never really clicked that much on court with either Ju or KAT if we're honest!!!

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 06, 2026 11:10 am

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2026 2:25 pm

guest81 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2026 7:34 pm

I look at it more as how much better will Ant be now that they are playing to his strengths rather than putting him in roles not suited for him. Can peak Ant be a top 3 player? If so they are much better

Yep, I believe Ant was #1 in the NBA in catch and shoot 3P % last year, he just didn't have enough of them though!!! So yeah, with Ball opening up good looks for him, you know whats coming.

The thing too is Ant still struggled with handling the ball and passing out of doubles. He OK and much better then a few years ago, but it's still not great. Just remembering the Spurs series and basically every game he's played, it been obvious he needs to be off the ball more.

Not only that Ball is now an elite outlet guy who if the defense is coming off a double from Ant, Ball is elite at passing and making the opponent pay. We really didn't have an elite option to either score on their own but more importantly continue to break down the defense with dribble drive and pass and make them pay for doubling Ant.

I'm excited to see Ant playing next to an elite PG and I can't see how it doesn't make both of the better. Ant never really clicked that much on court with either Ju or KAT if we're honest!!!

That’s a good analysis. If we’re going to be better with Ball, Kuminga and Ayo than we were with Randle and Naz it will be because of the synergies we get that make Ant better and the team overall better.

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2026 2:42 pm Very good summary, monster. You might be interested in Ben Beecken's latest pod on Locked on Wolves in which he discloses where he ranks certain Wolves in the top 100 (I believe each of the "locked on" correspondents around the country does a top 100 ranking and they then aggregate them to arrive at a consensus), and then expresses his outrage at the latest analyst saying the Wolves got worse in the offseason. His "player-in, player-out" analysis is slightly different from yours, but the conclusion is the same...it was a very good offseason, and it's absurd to conclude the Wolves got worse.

Monster wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2026 2:30 pm Now that the dust has settled and we likely have the Wolves roster other than a 15th signing and maybe changing a 2-way deal let's look at what we have.

First of all I want to comment on Kuminga. I was skeptical about getting him partly because I didn't think he would come here as I perceived him as a guy looking for money or at the very least the most money for the opportunity. He did want a little more money than the vet min so the Wolves had to make a move although after that was done I don't see that as too big of a "cost" although that 2 million in dead money for a couple years is maybe the worst of it all. Anyway, from the info I have cleaned and what we have in front of us it seems as Souchan said on the last Jon K podcast Kuminga is doing exactly what fans or people say sole players should do take less money for an opportunity on a winning team. I still have my doubts but I think the floor of what Kuminga will be with the Wolves is higher than what I thought a few weeks ago and I think that's maybe pretty notable.

Let's do the classic in and out of the roster moves. I kinda lined up guys in terms of either role position or some sort of value to the roster etc.


Out Randle In Kuminga
Out Conley in Lyles
Out Naz in Ball
Out Ingles in to be seen or Evans?
Out Leonard Miller/Julian Phillips in Cody Williams

Other considerations
Ayo here all season and Donte out much of the season and returning from injury
15th man all season? Beringer is the backup center.

Key resigning
Ayo
Clark
Bones

Assets out. One first round pick, some pick swaps and some 2nds

For as maligned as Kuminga is if you put up some of his stats next to Randle or Naz in some ways he is more comparable than you might think. Meanwhile if healthy Ball has a chance to a massive upgrade in several ways.

The roster got even younger while still adding talent and guys that have played plenty of basketball. The Wolves still have sole depth. I mean Evans is a late 1st early 2nd guy that has almost no path to playing time. Bones isn't even assured of being in the rotation. True bigs are a little different story but we do have a roster spot that could be used on a player that could help there.

Trade assets and contracts...don't get too excited about these! Lol
-Ayo
-Evans
-Cody Williams salary and a cheap young player that was high draft pick 2 years ago and likely will be an expiring...some.team.might not hate taking him back and taking a flyer on him. He will be 2-way eligible in 2027 off-season.
-A little bit of wiggle room after the green signing and waive and stretch of Konchar.
-Donte although it seems like they have no interest in moving him I'll put him down.
-Kuminga although with a 1 year deal he would have a no trade clause and something would have to go stray for him to get moved...or some unexpected opportunity to add a player.
-Bones
-Clark
-TSJ

As you can see the Wolves outside of Ayo don't exactly have a much of exciting assets but they have some cheap moderately interesting younger players that might help them make some sort of move maybe similar to the Ayo move last trade deadline. I'm not expecting a deal it's just worth looking at when looking at how the off-season has gone especially when the Wolves traded away so many draft picks.

At this point I'm gonna have to move my off-season grade to an A- another way to look at the off-season if you had told me before the draft we could move Randle for basically nothing to sign Kuminga to a 1 year 6 million contract as much as I wasn't in on Kuminga I would have been heck yeah let's do that. The other part of my grade is it feel.like in general the pieces of the roster for together. Young athletic guys with a couple guys filling gaps and still another chance to add a player to the roster. What Connelly did was unsurprisingly way outside what I would have expected which...I predicted to some extent. We are less than a month away from preseason games and a little over a month from the regular season. I'm intrigued and relatively excited about this group.

Edit: Correction Kuminga has that 2 year deal with a player option so idk if he has a no trade clause or not although I don't expect it to matter...

D-Loser25 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2026 8:47 pm

Monster wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2026 2:30 pm Now that the dust has settled and we likely have the Wolves roster other than a 15th signing and maybe changing a 2-way deal let's look at what we have.

First of all I want to comment on Kuminga. I was skeptical about getting him partly because I didn't think he would come here as I perceived him as a guy looking for money or at the very least the most money for the opportunity. He did want a little more money than the vet min so the Wolves had to make a move although after that was done I don't see that as too big of a "cost" although that 2 million in dead money for a couple years is maybe the worst of it all. Anyway, from the info I have cleaned and what we have in front of us it seems as Souchan said on the last Jon K podcast Kuminga is doing exactly what fans or people say sole players should do take less money for an opportunity on a winning team. I still have my doubts but I think the floor of what Kuminga will be with the Wolves is higher than what I thought a few weeks ago and I think that's maybe pretty notable.

Let's do the classic in and out of the roster moves. I kinda lined up guys in terms of either role position or some sort of value to the roster etc.


Out Randle In Kuminga
Out Conley in Lyles
Out Naz in Ball
Out Ingles in to be seen or Evans?
Out Leonard Miller/Julian Phillips in Cody Williams

Other considerations
Ayo here all season and Donte out much of the season and returning from injury
15th man all season? Beringer is the backup center.

Key resigning
Ayo
Clark
Bones

Assets out. One first round pick, some pick swaps and some 2nds

For as maligned as Kuminga is if you put up some of his stats next to Randle or Naz in some ways he is more comparable than you might think. Meanwhile if healthy Ball has a chance to a massive upgrade in several ways.

The roster got even younger while still adding talent and guys that have played plenty of basketball. The Wolves still have sole depth. I mean Evans is a late 1st early 2nd guy that has almost no path to playing time. Bones isn't even assured of being in the rotation. True bigs are a little different story but we do have a roster spot that could be used on a player that could help there.

Trade assets and contracts...don't get too excited about these! Lol
-Ayo
-Evans
-Cody Williams salary and a cheap young player that was high draft pick 2 years ago and likely will be an expiring...some.team.might not hate taking him back and taking a flyer on him. He will be 2-way eligible in 2027 off-season.
-A little bit of wiggle room after the green signing and waive and stretch of Konchar.
-Donte although it seems like they have no interest in moving him I'll put him down.
-Kuminga although with a 1 year deal he would have a no trade clause and something would have to go stray for him to get moved...or some unexpected opportunity to add a player.
-Bones
-Clark
-TSJ

As you can see the Wolves outside of Ayo don't exactly have a much of exciting assets but they have some cheap moderately interesting younger players that might help them make some sort of move maybe similar to the Ayo move last trade deadline. I'm not expecting a deal it's just worth looking at when looking at how the off-season has gone especially when the Wolves traded away so many draft picks.

At this point I'm gonna have to move my off-season grade to an A- another way to look at the off-season if you had told me before the draft we could move Randle for basically nothing to sign Kuminga to a 1 year 6 million contract as much as I wasn't in on Kuminga I would have been heck yeah let's do that. The other part of my grade is it feel.like in general the pieces of the roster for together. Young athletic guys with a couple guys filling gaps and still another chance to add a player to the roster. What Connelly did was unsurprisingly way outside what I would have expected which...I predicted to some extent. We are less than a month away from preseason games and a little over a month from the regular season. I'm intrigued and relatively excited about this group.

Edit: Correction Kuminga has that 2 year deal with a player option so idk if he has a no trade clause or not although I don't expect it to matter...

Thanks for listing out stuff that everyone on here already knows 100x over. Big help.