Minnesota Sports Forum

Ant - B+
Randle - B
McDaniels - C+
Rudy - C
Conley - B-
Reid - B-
DDV - C+
NAW - A
Ingles - Incomplete, barely played

During the summer and in preseason, many of us here (including me) had all but written off NAW and suggested he might be the odd man out in the rotation. Instead, he has arguably been our most valuable player this season. His defense last night was exceptional, and when he hits the open three like he did last night, he becomes a very important piece off the bench. The A you gave him is well deserved.

Ant though is becoming increasingly more difficult for me to grade. What grade do you give a guy who has perhaps the best first quarter a T-Wolf has ever had, but then follows it up with three mediocre quarters? A guy who turns the ball over 5 times and also makes several sloppy passes that didn't result in turnovers, misses 6 free throws in a game his team loses by 6, and ends up with a team-worst -8. To me an A+ first quarter followed up by 3 quarters of D play is probably a C. Ant is our most important player and his brilliance put us up 8 points after the first quarter. But apparently the coaching staff forgot to tell him there were still 3 more quarters to play. A consistent Ant is the key to this roster reaching its potential, and he is still far from showing the consistency a true superstar shows. I remain hopeful, but frustrated.

In contrast there is DiVo. Is there ever a moment when you don't notice him when he is on the court? Constantly moving on offense, and always harassing his man while also playing great help defense. He just makes things happen. But what has happened to his shot? I want to give him more than your C+, but when he shoots 1 for 6, I just can't.

Didn't like this loss, but it doesn't decrease my optimism. DiVo's shot is going to get back to normal, and if Ant can show more consistency, this team will challenge for a championship,

Yeah, I'm OK with downgrading Ant, but he single-handedly took over in Q1 and that's worth something. I can sort of live with the TOs given his usage rate, but the six missed FTAs is pretty inexcusable.

To me Reid's 5 TOs were the killers. You can't have a non-ball handling bench big cough up 5 turnovers! We all love Naz Reid, but I wonder how our team would look if that role was filled by a defensive oriented, "activity" big man that rebounded, defended, got to loose balls, etc. We'd miss his shooting I guess.

A couple more FTAs made by Ant and a couple less TOs by Reid and we win the game. This was less about Dallas's brilliance (although they were very clutch) and more about two of our better players shooting themselves in the foot.