Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:04 am
Some troubling questions emerged from last night’s loss:
1. Will Ant ever grow up? Ant is an incredible talent who has improved his game every season. But he still has another big step to take and that next step will require a level of maturity he has yet to achieve. His lazy defense, potato chip snack and constant barking at officials last night were three signs he hasn’t turned the maturity corner yet. He still does not look like the top player on a championship team.
2. Is Rob ready to assume the starting PG duties? The answer so far is absolutely not. In fact, he doesn’t look close to ready to be our #2 PG. I still love his talent. It looks to me like he’s completely lost any confidence. Hence, he plays tentatively and that negates his quickness, which is his key attribute. Good thing we have Bones on the roster.
3. Is this team built to win a championship in today’s NBA? Last night’s game reminded me of my concern last season that this team is too slow and plodding to win a ring in today’s NBA. It made me recall why I wanted to trade either Randle or Rudy after last season. Interestingly, Randle played really well last night while Rudy was embarrassingly bad. But in my view it’s never been about the talent and productivity of either one; it’s simply about overall fit. Having Randle and Rudy on the floor with the 38 year old Conley makes us relatively slow and plodding compared to teams like OKC and Indiana.
4. Does this team have the competitive drive, intensity and mental toughness to win a championship? Apart from possibly being too slow, I was concerned last season that this team lacked consistent intensity and way too often lost because the other team out-competed us. We saw that last night. It was our pre-season home opener against the Eastern Conference Finals Pacers yet the Pacers totally out-competed us. Yes, it’s one game, but a very troubling sign. If defense is going to be our foundation, last night’s performance suggests this Timberwolves house is going to collapse.
We’ll see how this team performs the rest of the preseason. Maybe last night’s game was that one stinker that will motivate this team to turn the corner consistently going forward. But right now, I’m not feeling good about my 57-win projection and I’m wondering if we can even match our 49 wins from last season.
It wouldn't bother me if I didn't think it was his avg diet, which I think it too often is.
Though Jordan and company (if you watched the last dance) use to drink beers after games, order pizza for room service and other non healthy shit too. I kind of think if you work out so much your body burns all the bad shit out too, but maybe you do need good nutrients as well for recovery and energy.
How about a great juicy steak and some freshly steamed broccoli. Sounds better to me then pizza and chips?
I'm glad Lip mentioned the whining as another aspect of Ant's forgettable first game of the preseason...it was annoying and constant. This team has so much talent, and optimism on this board is high as evidenced by 2/3 of our wins predictions over the vegas line. But the maturity of our most important player is an issue that can't be ignored. Let's hope this was just a bad night for him, and he's ready to be a mature leader of this team.
I think it's starting to hit home that there's no plan for Rob and even if Rob on Thursday had a 19 point 10 assist game, nothing's gonna change.
What really annoys me is this idea that if Rob doesn't pan out that it's not a big deal and not a poor reflection on Connelly (specifically the guys over at SKOR North) when in reality, they're not gonna try another PG project after Rob. They'll just try to make Ant and Randle quasi-PG's which will not work.
I didn’t watch the game but I’m going to defend Ant on the potato chips. Potato chips are a pretty common thing to deal with cramps. My best friend is an athletic trainer and they have potato chips on the sideline for the players because of this. I believe mlb Jason Hammel used to have potato chips before every game because he was dealing with cramps.
Ant might of just been having a bag of chips but chips are pretty common for dealing with cramps
FNG wrote: ↑Wed Oct 08, 2025 10:00 am
I'm glad Lip mentioned the whining as another aspect of Ant's forgettable first game of the preseason...it was annoying and constant. This team has so much talent, and optimism on this board is high as evidenced by 2/3 of our wins predictions over the vegas line. But the maturity of our most important player is an issue that can't be ignored. Let's hope this was just a bad night for him, and he's ready to be a mature leader of this team.
The old curmudgeons in us, are just going to have to accept complaining is part of the NBA. Lebron is older than some of us here and one of the best players in history, and still complains constantly. By the way we come on here and complain about the complaining.
Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 08, 2025 8:04 am
Some troubling questions emerged from last night’s loss:
1. Will Ant ever grow up? Ant is an incredible talent who has improved his game every season. But he still has another big step to take and that next step will require a level of maturity he has yet to achieve. His lazy defense, potato chip snack and constant barking at officials last night were three signs he hasn’t turned the maturity corner yet. He still does not look like the top player on a championship team.
2. Is Rob ready to assume the starting PG duties? The answer so far is absolutely not. In fact, he doesn’t look close to ready to be our #2 PG. I still love his talent. It looks to me like he’s completely lost any confidence. Hence, he plays tentatively and that negates his quickness, which is his key attribute. Good thing we have Bones on the roster.
3. Is this team built to win a championship in today’s NBA? Last night’s game reminded me of my concern last season that this team is too slow and plodding to win a ring in today’s NBA. It made me recall why I wanted to trade either Randle or Rudy after last season. Interestingly, Randle played really well last night while Rudy was embarrassingly bad. But in my view it’s never been about the talent and productivity of either one; it’s simply about overall fit. Having Randle and Rudy on the floor with the 38 year old Conley makes us relatively slow and plodding compared to teams like OKC and Indiana.
4. Does this team have the competitive drive, intensity and mental toughness to win a championship? Apart from possibly being too slow, I was concerned last season that this team lacked consistent intensity and way too often lost because the other team out-competed us. We saw that last night. It was our pre-season home opener against the Eastern Conference Finals Pacers yet the Pacers totally out-competed us. Yes, it’s one game, but a very troubling sign. If defense is going to be our foundation, last night’s performance suggests this Timberwolves house is going to collapse.
We’ll see how this team performs the rest of the preseason. Maybe last night’s game was that one stinker that will motivate this team to turn the corner consistently going forward. But right now, I’m not feeling good about my 57-win projection and I’m wondering if we can even match our 49 wins from last season.
It wouldn't bother me if I didn't think it was his avg diet, which I think it too often is.
Though Jordan and company (if you watched the last dance) use to drink beers after games, order pizza for room service and other non healthy shit too. I kind of think if you work out so much your body burns all the bad shit out too, but maybe you do need good nutrients as well for recovery and energy.
How about a great juicy steak and some freshly steamed broccoli. Sounds better to me then pizza and chips?
It would look odd if Ant was cutting into a steak court side. A small hundred calorie bag of chips isn't a big deal, and the salt replenishes what you lost running up and down the court. Elite marathon athletes eat chips, gummy bears, lots of snacks after expending all that energy. Peanuts would have been a better choice than chips though. If the coaches don't think he should be eating chips that is on the coaches, like it was on the Lakers to change Luka's diet.
I was kind of joking about the whole Lay's thing in the game thread. The fact is Ant looks a bit slimmed down, but who really knows what the other 98% of his diet looks like and, if eating and sleeping at a healthy level, whether he can keep it up?
Once again I find that we project our own wishes and desires of the ideal MVP-caliber player onto Ant. He's always going to be a bit ball-dominant, he's always going to complain, and he's always going to fall asleep from time to time on defense. None of that is going to change at this point. Accept it and just hope he gets better at the things he's already good-to-great at and then it's up to Connelly and Finch to get the player personnel and system that works best.
We all know that this team is somewhat awkwardly put together, especially on offense, without a clear identity. Yet we somehow have had the most successful two years in franchise history. Connelly and Finch have their work cut out for them to get this franchise to the Finals.
In my mid 20s I could eat and drink anything and still play BB for 3 hours a day(not at any really competitive level of course), work 8 hour shift and then go out to party all night. Fast metabolism is a real thing. Now I am on the wrong side of 50 and it takes 24 hours to recover from 6 beers after 10pm.
Just saying
DNatagal wrote: ↑Wed Oct 08, 2025 1:29 pm
In my mid 20s I could eat and drink anything and still play BB for 3 hours a day(not at any really competitive level of course), work 8 hour shift and then go out to party all night. Fast metabolism is a real thing. Now I am on the wrong side of 50 and it takes 24 hours to recover from 6 beers after 10pm.
Just saying
Yeah, but everyone is different DN. In my mid 20s I changed my diet radically from my "college diet" because I was noticing a big drop off in athletic performance. And I noticed a positive change right away. My sense is that Ant's situation may be more like mine than yours. Despite not always putting in the effort on the defensive end that guys like Jaden and NAW do, he looks gassed a lot out there...more so than the guys who are working their butts off at both ends of the court. He's been challenged to up his defensive game this season along with quickening his pace on the offensive end. A reporter said that sounded like a lot of running, and asked him if he was going to be up to it. Ant said he didn't know, but thought maybe more sleep might help. I don't disagree, but my experience tells me a better diet could help to. I know we're playing up Chipgate too much, but that's because some of us are concerned that he's still not taking fitness seriously enough. I hope he gets it soon...
I watched the 1st half again, and I have a few comments...
On ANT -- he was just fine. I only saw 3 instances of ref-complaining, and that's nothing for stars around the league. None of complaints were tech-worthy and none of them caused him to lag behind the play, so that's new! I saw no sign of indifferent defense. I was a bit surprised how much zone Finch ran -- maybe it was just something to work on in the preseason? And the first play of the game had ANT posting up and splashing a mid-range shot -- one of his off-season areas of focus.
That starting lineup had to be another Finch experiment to try in the preseason. It was ineffective. I doubt we'll ever see it again, at least as a starting lineup, if Jaden were to miss another game. Both NAZ and Randle are bad at defense, although at least Randle has the body to bang down low.
Rob was REALLY bad in the 1st half. He at least had a few positive plays in the 2nd half. Looks like Bones will be on his tail the entire preseason. And you know what? They could be battling for a low-minute 10th spot in the rotation! I say that because Shannon and Clark continue to show they need to play regularly. And adding those two to the seven regulars -- that's a 9-man rotation right there. Where do Bones and/or Rob fit in?!?
Johnny "McDermott" Juzang continues to impress. Spotrac says he signed an Exhibit 10 deal, but I thought Jonny K said he had a chance to earn a roster spot. It'll be interesting to see how his path unfolds.
We gotta be pretty upbeat with our frontcourt in the future. Both Joan and Rocco show signs of being impactful players in the years to come.
