Thinking Basketball on Ant

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Nice! Ant got a write-up from the Thinking Basketball guy on his improved decision-making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qu65PAJd_M

I think this might overstate his improvement a little bit, partly because he was already showing growth last year and partly because sometimes I still wish he'd get that pass off a little quicker and I wish he would recognize and throw the lob just a little bit. I know you're not supposed to leave your feet to pass, but if Ant got a little crafty by starting a shooting motion as a decoy for the pass when opponents bring a second player, he'd probably create some even more wide-open targets for passes.

Still, it is really exciting to see Ant become more methodical and careful with his decision making. He'll never be CP3, Luka, or probably even James Harden as a passer, but he's gotten much closer in the last year. And that's no slight to Ant because he's also so much more athletic than Luka, so much better than Harden as a defender, and so much bigger and able to stretch the floor than CP3.

And on top of that is his charisma. This isn't the sort of thing you can put in a breakdown of Xs and Os, but CP3 alienated his teammates with his flinty hard-assed nature, Harden just kind of ignored his teammates, and as much fun as Luka is, he does seem sensitive sometimes and doesn't seem to focus his post-game pressers on praising his teammates like Ant.

Whatever happens in these playoffs, you gotta like the trajectory with Ant so far.

[Q-is-here]

Good stuff here Drew. I agree that a lot of what he's doing in terms of passing is still pretty rudimentary and he still has room to improve, but he has so much gravity as a scorer that just making the simple pass a little more often than not can open up the offense.

One thing he has definitely improved on this season is turnovers. Pre-all star break he was averaging 3.5 TOs per game. After the all-star break, he averaged 2.5 TOs per game and it helped contribute to our improved offense. That is a HUGE decrease if you think about it. And against the Lakers he averaged 1.2 TOs per game.

[Monster]

When talking about Edwards often his play making passing ability is compared to whether he becomes Luka or Harden etc. What if he ends up becoming more of a Stephen Curry like play maker? His progression as a shooter from last year is pretty significant and IF this is real and if he builds on it he would be a better shooter than some of the premium playmaker stars of the last few years. Plus at it has been mentioned Edward's is an asset on D not a liability. It's really pretty impressive how far Edward's has come with his game and it would make sense he has more improvements to make.

[thedoper]

Ant had more assists per game than Luka in the first round.