Minnesota Sports Forum

The Wolves are 20-11 and likely to move into 4th place with a win over the Nets tonight. But we're greedy Wolves fans that want them to be even better, and our focus here is more often on what is wrong with them than what is right. And the two most discussed problems are our non-Rudy defense and lack of a starting PG.

I'm going to add a third problem that I think is holding us back: the poor defense our two offensive stars regularly bring. We've all been noticing the bad starts to games our squad has...they have trailed at the end of the first quarter in 8 of the past ten games, sometimes by double digits. I think the main reason for our poor starts (and maybe why we're not reaching the ceiling I think we have) is lazy, ineffective defense by Ant and Ju. Over a third of the way into the season, sample sizes are no longer insignificant, and the defensive on/off numbers for Ant and Ju are a disaster. Opponents score 10 points more per 100 possessions when Ju is on the court, and 9.4 more when Ant is out there. And those numbers look even worse when you consider that both of them get to start every first and third quarter next to Rudy and Jaden. I know there's some messiness to on/off stats, but the poor stats are supported by my eye test...Ant and Ju are consistently a negative on defense.

Ant is going to be here a lot longer than Ju, so I'm going to focus on his defense. The frustrating thing is we have all seen moments of defensive brilliance by him...locking down his man one on one or making an impressive chase-down block. He has all the tools to be an all-NBA defender, but he isn't using them. Some of it is lack of effort, and some of it is poor basketball IQ or attention to detail...watch him struggling to know what to do when we go zone. But the Denver game highlighted another huge deficiency: his pick and roll defense. Jamal Murray got off 18 mostly clean look 3-pointers Thursday, and I think most of them were because of Ant's poor PnR defense...especially on inverted pick and rolls. Some might say that it was Jaden's responsibility to switch off of Jokic to take Murray after the screen, but to me Ant had a much better chance of defending Murray's shot if he had been a little more aggressive in fighting through the screen and staying with his man...he made it way too easy for Murray.

The silver lining is that both Ant and Ju play better defense when the playoffs start...both of them had good defensive on/offs in the playoffs last year after bad regular season numbers. They both can do it when they put the effort in, but they just don't seem to care on defense most of the time, and that holds us back in the regular season.

Am I more concerned about this than I should be, or are others also not happy with the defensive effort Ant and Ju bring most nights?

Hmm... Maybe the combination of both players together compounds the problem, thus making their number worse than when they are not playing together?

You focused on ANT, yet I see no universe where we are removing ANT from the equation. So what about Julius. He had been so good to start the season in so many areas, but seems to have returned to the mean recently. I hesitate to remove him from the equation because his bully-ball style is something we just don't have elsewhere, not to mention his playmaking ability which is a significant reason TC targeted Randle in a trade. But I have never liked how his rim-protection is nonexistent, and his rebounding is a bit subpar (but not Thaddeus Young subpar). It's a dilemma...

I'm also way down on Julius, Tim. His last 10 games have been awful...his assists are down, and he's hitting only 28% of his threes. But I'm focusing on Ant because Julius isn't going to be here as long as Ant, and I also think Ant is underachieving on defense more than Ju. Ant has only hit 36% of his treys the past 10 games also, and Donte 34% and Jaden 24%! But we've still won 11 out of our last 14 games despite poor shooting and erratic defense at times. Rudy playing the best basketball of his career has a lot to do with that.

I think we beat Denver Thursday if Ant had defended Murray better on all those inverted pick and rolls.

I think our defense is able to handle one player taking it easy on defense, but not 2 players. Donte hustles, but isn't a good defender either. He is often jumping the passing lane and missing, allowing the player to blow by him. I think Ant can certainly be better at defense for longer periods of time. Part of it is scouting, teams know what Ant's tendencies are on defense, and plan for that. What you will notice is when Ant is on a weaker defenders, teams don't run pick and rolls purposely to get Ant switched onto a player to take advantage of him. Guys like Shannon, Mike, Bones, Donte, are often getting switched onto them in crucial moments by pick and rolls to take advantage of them.

Here is a segment from one of my favorite basketball guys talking about the Wolves vs Nuggets game. Wolves defense is briefly mentioned as "inconsistent", but he acknowledges ANT has take a leap this year offensively. In citing the Wolves top 3 players, Randle is not even mentioned. I really wonder what TC's opinion of how Julius fits on this team and far the team can go with him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpiUwCE3j4

This is a great discussion point.

I've been quite frustrated this year with Ants defense this year as it is notably worse than in years past, and the point of intrigue for me is, why.

First, however, I just want to note that his defense has been on an upward trend the last few games and he has notably played with more intensity on that end.

So again the question is why.

I personally have a hard time just writing things off as simply a matter of laziness or lack of trying- even if there is lack of effort on one side or the other. The reality is that very few players in history have been consistently great on both sides of the ball. With as much effort as both Ju and Ant expend on offense there seems to not be enough energy - a finite resource- for defense. This may read like I'm making excuses but that isn't the case, because if a defender of Ants caliber doesn't have enough energy to play to his abilities than there are inefficiencies at play that need to be addressed. Ant expends a lot of energy getting his points on O and when he locks in on defense it's very labor intensive as well- in his stance, staying with his man, yada yada- it's just not realistic to maintain that level for 35 minutes a game, 82 games a year, it just isn't.

His attention to detail and focus also fluctuates- that's something he needs to recognize and address. Having been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, I can empathize with issues with inattentiveness, even if the underlying issue is different for him.

Ant's intensity has been much better lately imo. Part of that has been the quality of competition, but part of it has also been him being off the ball a little more (especially so in the Knicks game). Interestingly, I didn't think Ant's defense was bad against Denver for lack of trying, however there were mistakes liking helping off Hardway that had big affects on the game, or getting hung up on Jokic's screen in OT. I think Ant believes he can toggle his defense at will and I think hes dead wrong. He needs to approach learning and growing his defensive skill with same enthusiasm as offensive skill.

Bottom line is that these two need to be more intentional about what their role is. Ant is better as a defender when he doesn't have to spend a ton of energy initiating offense and creating his own shot, can Julius do more of that so Ant can be a scorer/two way superstar (the best use of his skills imo).

To be honest I think they would all be better served locking in on defense like they did two years ago, create offense in transition and then when they are in the half court be way less iso heavy than they currently are. Energy is a finite resource and they all need a better sense how to distribute that on a team wide level that is more efficient and effective

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 11:21 am Here is a segment from one of my favorite basketball guys talking about the Wolves vs Nuggets game. Wolves defense is briefly mentioned as "inconsistent", but he acknowledges ANT has take a leap this year offensively. In citing the Wolves top 3 players, Randle is not even mentioned. I really wonder what TC's opinion of how Julius fits on this team and far the team can go with him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpiUwCE3j4

I don't regard him in the top 3 either, it's Ant, Rudy and Jaden imo- however Jaden is not utilized in this way

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 1:37 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 11:21 am Here is a segment from one of my favorite basketball guys talking about the Wolves vs Nuggets game. Wolves defense is briefly mentioned as "inconsistent", but he acknowledges ANT has take a leap this year offensively. In citing the Wolves top 3 players, Randle is not even mentioned. I really wonder what TC's opinion of how Julius fits on this team and far the team can go with him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpiUwCE3j4

I don't regard him in the top 3 either, it's Ant, Rudy and Jaden imo- however Jaden is not utilized in this way

I think we have to include Ju as top 3. Yes, his defense is subpar, but he leads the team in assists, and is second in scoring and rebounds. Jaden and Donte have both been terrific this season, but I have both of them just outside my top 3.

I know this is an Ant defense thread, but I agree with the youtuber that he has really improved his offense this season. His TS% has taken a leap, and his shooting percentage in every distance category (0-3 feet, 3-10, 10-16, 16-3pt, ad 3pt) is not only better than last season, but the best of his career! I don't have the stats, but he seems to clearly be better with his clutch shooting. And while his assists are down, I have seem improvement in how he handles doubles. He is already offensive player, and still improving ar a very young each.

But that defense though...

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 2:12 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 1:37 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 11:21 am Here is a segment from one of my favorite basketball guys talking about the Wolves vs Nuggets game. Wolves defense is briefly mentioned as "inconsistent", but he acknowledges ANT has take a leap this year offensively. In citing the Wolves top 3 players, Randle is not even mentioned. I really wonder what TC's opinion of how Julius fits on this team and far the team can go with him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpiUwCE3j4

I don't regard him in the top 3 either, it's Ant, Rudy and Jaden imo- however Jaden is not utilized in this way

I think we have to include Ju as top 3. Yes, his defense is subpar, but he leads the team in assists, and is second in scoring and rebounds. Jaden and Donte have both been terrific this season, but I have both of them just outside my top 3.

I know this is an Ant defense thread, but I agree with the youtuber that he has really improved his offense this season. His TS% has taken a leap, and his shooting percentage in every distance category (0-3 feet, 3-10, 10-16, 16-3pt, ad 3pt) is not only better than last season, but the best of his career! I don't have the stats, but he seems to clearly be better with his clutch shooting. And while his assists are down, I have seem improvement in how he handles doubles. He is already offensive player, and still improving ar a very young each.

But that defense though...

I get what you say about Julius, and it honestly hard to say for sure who has a greater impact on the score of games, however I do think if Jaden were given greater opportunity and more offense was run through him he would show that he's the better player.

But yes Ant's offense has really taken a massive step forward, which is nuts considering where he was already before this year- more specifically his scoring has taken a big step, but his playmaking has seemingly gone backwards.

But again to the point of his defense either the offensive load needs to be lessened or he needs to better team defender. It really seems that he only thinks he needs to lock in if he's on ball