Minnesota Sports Forum

This year's playoffs have revealed or confirmed some characteristics of successful teams that bode well for the Wolves going forward:

1. You can be a legitimate contender when one of your two or three stars is a big man. I think this premise has been confirmed or reinforced by this year's success of the Sixers and Nuggets. Both teams finished near the top of their respective conferences in the regular season. The Sixers finished with the best record in the East and have advanced to game 7 of the 2nd round. The Nuggets were knocked out in the first round because their other star, Murray, was out and because they were matched up against what I think is the best team in the West.

Good news for the Wolves: KAT is one of the best bigs in the game with versatility similar to Jokic.

2. One of your two or three stars needs to be a prolific scoring guard or wing who can create off the dribble and score form the three, mid-range and in the paint. The Clippers have Paul George. The Hawks have Trae Young. The Jazz have Donovan Mitchell. The Suns have both Chris Paul and Booker. The Nets have Harden, Kyrie and Durant. The Bucks have Kris Middleton. Interestingly, the Sixers don't really have a player in that category, but Harris comes close and Simmons is a great ball-handler, penetrator and creator for others.

Good news for the Wolves: Ant fits this category perfectly. He shows signs of being a star SG who can break down defenses. And score from anywhere on the floor. He reminds me of Donovan Mitchell. Going back further in time, he reminds me a bit of D Wade. Ant's arrival allows DLO to be the Wolves 3rd guy, which is a better fit given what he brings to the table.

3. Young players can be key contributors on contending teams. Tyrese Maxey and Terrence Mann are two great examples of young players playing key roles as major producers for their respective teams in the playoffs.

Good news for the Wolves: The Wolves have a number of talented young guys in Ant, McDaniels, Naz Reid, Jaylen Nowell and Vanderbilt. They will likely have Bolmaro as well next season. All of these guys are young and talent and all of them have shown promise.

Don't disagree with your takes Lip. While we have somewhat of a facsimile of these great teams (really good big, potentially really good scoring wing), they aren't the "real deal" yet. KAT is not at the same level as Jokic and Embiid and Edwards is trending in the right direction, but certainly still very unproven.

KAT is what he is at this point in my opinion. He's a sweet shooting and scoring big that should be a starting PF that swings to Center late in halves. He simply doesn't impact games on defense and is neutral at best on that side. Edwards is the guy that we need to pour our hopes into. He needs to become our best player sooner rather than later if we are going to make a run with KAT and DLO still around.

Q12543 wrote:Don't disagree with your takes Lip. While we have somewhat of a facsimile of these great teams (really good big, potentially really good scoring wing), they aren't the "real deal" yet. KAT is not at the same level as Jokic and Embiid and Edwards is trending in the right direction, but certainly still very unproven.

KAT is what he is at this point in my opinion. He's a sweet shooting and scoring big that should be a starting PF that swings to Center late in halves. He simply doesn't impact games on defense and is neutral at best on that side. Edwards is the guy that we need to pour our hopes into. He needs to become our best player sooner rather than later if we are going to make a run with KAT and DLO still around.

Good thread Lip.

Q I agree with what you say here about Edwards. I also think McDaniels has to at least become the elite role player it looks like he can become. If he drops off to being just a rotation guy that will really hurt the team pursuit of making some sort of run at being a contender.

Q12543 wrote:Don't disagree with your takes Lip. While we have somewhat of a facsimile of these great teams (really good big, potentially really good scoring wing), they aren't the "real deal" yet. KAT is not at the same level as Jokic and Embiid and Edwards is trending in the right direction, but certainly still very unproven.

KAT is what he is at this point in my opinion. He's a sweet shooting and scoring big that should be a starting PF that swings to Center late in halves. He simply doesn't impact games on defense and is neutral at best on that side. Edwards is the guy that we need to pour our hopes into. He needs to become our best player sooner rather than later if we are going to make a run with KAT and DLO still around.

I agree Edwards is unproven. As I said in my post, Edwards "shows signs of being a star SG." He absolutely needs to become our best player as soon as possible, but he's a lot closer to begin that player than I thought he'd be.

I agree and disagree with you on KAT. I agree that he's more suited to being our PF and he's certainly never going to be anywhere close to Embiid as a defensive presence. However, I think you're understating KAT's offensive and rebounding prowess. KAT isn't just a sweet-shooting scoring big, he's a dominant scoring big who is both an elite low-post scorer and and elite 3-point shooter with a mid-range game in between. He's a good passer who is showing signs of becoming an excellent passer. Let's not forget that KAT won the NBA skills competition as a rookie. His full skill set has never been fully leveraged by his head coaches. KAT is also an elite rebounder. And there's no question that KAT's defense improved last season. At age 25, there's no reason to believe that KAT's defense can't improve some more or that his offensive game won't get even better. While he's not as good as Jokic, he's still "on the same level." KAT's about a year younger than Jokic and his development has been stifled a bit the past couple years by injuries, team-turmoil, coaching changes and Covid.

Again, I agree that Edwards needs to be our best player. But I see him as a 1a with KAT as our 1b. With those two, DLO can be our third guy and I'm actually excited about him in that role. With those three, it's imperative to infuse the rest of the rotation with excellent defenders. McDaniels looks like he could fill that role as a SF or PF (preferably SF). I continue to believe that the most important move this franchise can make now is to add a really good defensive big to the rotation, preferably as our starting C next to KAT. The good news is that we don't need to add a all-star or two-way big. We just need a defensive role-player to anchor our interior defense. Watching the importance of depth and defense in this year's playoffs is a reminder of Okogie's value to this team and it tells me we should keep him. If Edwards continues to develop as he did last season, then I see this team in the playoffs next season and becoming a contender the following season.

Q12543 wrote:Don't disagree with your takes Lip. While we have somewhat of a facsimile of these great teams (really good big, potentially really good scoring wing), they aren't the "real deal" yet. KAT is not at the same level as Jokic and Embiid and Edwards is trending in the right direction, but certainly still very unproven.

KAT is what he is at this point in my opinion. He's a sweet shooting and scoring big that should be a starting PF that swings to Center late in halves. He simply doesn't impact games on defense and is neutral at best on that side. Edwards is the guy that we need to pour our hopes into. He needs to become our best player sooner rather than later if we are going to make a run with KAT and DLO still around.

I think Q is really on point here. Edwards needs to become our best player, and I will add that McDaniels needs to become our third best player. And I predict both of those things will happen. Long way to go but we have hope entering the offseason. That's not something I could say at this point last year.

Some well-presented optimism, Lip, and I agree with some of it. My two biggest concerns though are 1) team defense and 2) whether a team can be successful with over a quarter of their salary cap going to a flawed player...I don't see anyone that contributes in a manner similar to DLO getting a max salary from any of the remaining teams. Booker might be the closest, but I think almost everyone here would label him a far superior player to Russell.

Can these two issues be corrected? Certainly. Somehow moving DLO for a combination of defensive players including a true defensive center might be a pipe dream, but it would go a long way toward fixing our two biggest issues. But I also think getting lucky in the lottery and drafting Mobley would be a huge step in the right direction...a front court of Mobley, KAT and McDaniels would be a terrific start toward building a true NBA defense (I know many here want Cunningham, but I'm confident an Ant/McD combo man the starting wing positions for a long time, and a potential 2-way star center would help us much more).

I don't know that Ant has to become our best player, but I think he has the potential. The more I saw KAT jump out to defend the perimeter last season, the more I thought he could become a perennial all-star PF with a rim-protecting center next to him. And the discussion in another thread about D. Mitchell got me thinking more positively about Ant...the second half of his rookie season, he was better than Mitchell's rookie season. And unlike Donovan, I think Ant has the ability to become a true 2-way star. I know Q said we would be lucky to have Ant get to Mitchell's level and, while I understand the sentiment based on some of the phenomenal offensive games Mitchell had in the playoffs, I need Ant to be a more efficient scorer and better defender than Donovan...and I'm reasonably confident he will be.

So while I appreciate the optimistic tone of Lip's opener here, I'm not happy as I watch more and more of the playoffs, because the level of play is so much higher than what we saw from our Wolves this past season. But we're young and have two potential stars, so the potential is there.

FNG wrote:Some well-presented optimism, Lip, and I agree with some of it. My two biggest concerns though are 1) team defense and 2) whether a team can be successful with over a quarter of their salary cap going to a flawed player...I don't see anyone that contributes in a manner similar to DLO getting a max salary from any of the remaining teams. Booker might be the closest, but I think almost everyone here would label him a far superior player to Russell.

Can these two issues be corrected? Certainly. Somehow moving DLO for a combination of defensive players including a true defensive center might be a pipe dream, but it would go a long way toward fixing our two biggest issues. But I also think getting lucky in the lottery and drafting Mobley would be a huge step in the right direction...a front court of Mobley, KAT and McDaniels would be a terrific start toward building a true NBA defense (I know many here want Cunningham, but I'm confident an Ant/McD combo man the starting wing positions for a long time, and a potential 2-way star center would help us much more).

I don't know that Ant has to become our best player, but I think he has the potential. The more I saw KAT jump out to defend the perimeter last season, the more I thought he could become a perennial all-star PF with a rim-protecting center next to him. And the discussion in another thread about D. Mitchell got me thinking more positively about Ant...the second half of his rookie season, he was better than Mitchell's rookie season. And unlike Donovan, I think Ant has the ability to become a true 2-way star. I know Q said we would be lucky to have Ant get to Mitchell's level and, while I understand the sentiment based on some of the phenomenal offensive games Mitchell had in the playoffs, I need Ant to be a more efficient scorer and better defender than Donovan...and I'm reasonably confident he will be.

So while I appreciate the optimistic tone of Lip's opener here, I'm not happy as I watch more and more of the playoffs, because the level of play is so much higher than what we saw from our Wolves this past season. But we're young and have two potential stars, so the potential is there.

There are also a lot of these playoff teams we will be watching that added key players within the last 2 seasons. An NBA roster can be pretty fluid.

You sorta hinted at it but the way the Wolves can make up for playing the Max to 2 guys that are flawed is have high performing players on much cheaper deals. I think Towns and Russell both have room to up their value to the team. Dane Moore and Brit Robson in their podcast wrapping up the season both heaped a lot of praise on Russell for how he played down the stretch. That surprised me a little even from Dane but especially from Brit who isn't exactly in love with guys that don't play D. They weren't saying they though Russell was going to play like that consistently next year but it sounded like if he did they would be very pleased.

True, I did think DLO was a bit more locked in defensively down the stretch this season, but I don't think we should count on that as the norm going forward. Hopefully what it does mean is that if we ever get into a playoff series, he shows a willingness to put more effort in on that side. In the meantime, we need to add a defensive big and a better version of Okogie off the bench.

I noticed what Monster noticed too...that Moore and normally DLO-critic Robson both were fairly positive about him down the stretch. To Q's point, we don't know that we can rely on DLO being locked in on defense like he was in spurts toward the end of the season. Here's one thing I think we can rely on though...I will conveniently forget about what DLO has shown on defense his entire career, and only consider the final 10 games of this season to convince myself next October that he turned a corner this May and is worthy of a max contract. Yep, I feel another misguided 45-win prediction brewing inside of me...

FNG wrote:Some well-presented optimism, Lip, and I agree with some of it. My two biggest concerns though are 1) team defense and 2) whether a team can be successful with over a quarter of their salary cap going to a flawed player...I don't see anyone that contributes in a manner similar to DLO getting a max salary from any of the remaining teams. Booker might be the closest, but I think almost everyone here would label him a far superior player to Russell.

Can these two issues be corrected? Certainly. Somehow moving DLO for a combination of defensive players including a true defensive center might be a pipe dream, but it would go a long way toward fixing our two biggest issues. But I also think getting lucky in the lottery and drafting Mobley would be a huge step in the right direction...a front court of Mobley, KAT and McDaniels would be a terrific start toward building a true NBA defense (I know many here want Cunningham, but I'm confident an Ant/McD combo man the starting wing positions for a long time, and a potential 2-way star center would help us much more).

I don't know that Ant has to become our best player, but I think he has the potential. The more I saw KAT jump out to defend the perimeter last season, the more I thought he could become a perennial all-star PF with a rim-protecting center next to him. And the discussion in another thread about D. Mitchell got me thinking more positively about Ant...the second half of his rookie season, he was better than Mitchell's rookie season. And unlike Donovan, I think Ant has the ability to become a true 2-way star. I know Q said we would be lucky to have Ant get to Mitchell's level and, while I understand the sentiment based on some of the phenomenal offensive games Mitchell had in the playoffs, I need Ant to be a more efficient scorer and better defender than Donovan...and I'm reasonably confident he will be.

So while I appreciate the optimistic tone of Lip's opener here, I'm not happy as I watch more and more of the playoffs, because the level of play is so much higher than what we saw from our Wolves this past season. But we're young and have two potential stars, so the potential is there.

FNG - You make a good observation about KAT defending on the perimeter. I still remember when he shut down Steph Curry guarding him late in Sam Mitchell's one season as head coach. I though it was Sam's high-point as our head coach. And KAT didn't just guard Curry in a few stretches; he guarded him most of the game. A lot of us on this board see KAT as a much better defensive fit playing the PF position with a true interior defender as our center. KAT's uniquely versatile offensive game, plus the scoring punch of Ant and DLO in combination with KAT, gives the Wolves the luxury of settling for a defense-only big in the starting lineup next to KAT. I'm still hoping we can get Steven Adams without giving up a lot. Adding a guy like Adams improves our defense in two ways - (1) adding a really good defender to the lineup, and (2) putting KAT in a position where he will be better defensively.

I've already written off getting lucky in the lottery. But if we do, then that's just icing.

I agree that the level of play we're seeing in the playoffs is significantly above what we saw from the Wolves, but the difference isn't as big if you focus exclusively on the Wolves last 20 games when Ant was firing on all cylinders, KAT seemed healthy and DLO came back. Moreover, while I agree with you there' s sizable gap between the Wolves and this year's playoff teams in level of play, there isn't a huge gap, if any, in talent. KAT, Ant, DLO, McDaniels, Beasley, Naz Reid, Nowell, Okogie and Ricky are a pretty talented group. It all depends on the development of Ant and McDaniels as well as KAT and DLO taking another step forward defensively even if they don't become good defenders. And maybe we'll be able to all those guys, minus Ricky, and end up with Steven Adams or Myles Turner. :)