Ant-agonizing the MVP! | Official Timberwolves (#6) vs. Thunder (#1) West Finals Thread

[The God Poster]

I’m happy for OKC but man, I can’t front being the new expansion team and getting a title while the Wolves haven’t even gone to the Finals once got me shaking my head. They’ve kinda been my secondary team.

That draft and stash strat they had really paid off. However they never got cute when they saw a legit elite BPA. That’s how they built such a legit young and great core. See what they can get for players that don’t fit the long term plan and keep the cycle going.

Boy desperate for a chip

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Next steps for Wolves are finding suitable replacements for Gobert and Conley. Especially Conley

Gobert just signed an extension that has a 8 percent trade kicker. He’s not going anywhere

 

[WhoShotCha]

Really disappointed with what I'm seeing from Ant. He was invisible when the game was competitive, then decided to be more aggressive and put up empty stats once the team got down like 30. He's not nearly mature enough on the court or off it to be able to successfully lead this team. He'll need to grow up some before he's able to truly lead this team to a chip. They'll win one at home, but I see it being 3-1 going back to OKC.

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

This makes the Lakers look awful

 

[Ducktales]

Conley is done...he's not meant to play major minutes at this point in his career.

What's up with Dillingham tho...is he injured? I haven't seen him on the floor the entire playoffs

Battling with the same ankle injury the entire playoffs basically unfortunately.

 

[Ducktales]

This makes the Lakers look awful

Ship this French nikka out asap

 

[AkaDemiK]

It was always going to be okc or the nuggets….everybody else just don’t have that “it” that I see putting them over the hump. Okc is a fukking machine.

 

[ClutchVon]

lmao still kind of crazy to me how Ant ain’t more hated with the deadbeat shyt

 

[klutch2381]

SGA is one of the best footwork finesse players we've seen since Kobe breh. Its not fair comparison. Ant is a straight up physical specimen he needs to play smarter on offense right now he's either drive hard or pull up for a three. I haven't seen him post his defender and hit a turn around jumper yet. As he ages that part of his game needs to mature.

Agreed. Ant has some holes in his game. He has to get a mid-range game that isn’t just a dribble pull every 15 shots or something. Like I was saying before, he does nothing out of a triple threat, nothing out of the post. He’s expending a huge amount of energy for his points, because everything is either a three or some drive through the teeth of the defense. I get that Minny doesn’t have a pg that’s going to get him easy looks and he’s Minny’s primary ball handler. I know Ant is not 6’7 or whatever. But…. man, fukking Sam Cassell had a post game.

I will say, some of it is Finch too. Why don’t NBA players get the ball on the wing at an angle anymore? Like, that opens up the drive baseline, drive through the paint, or the little middy? Ant would be lethal on the baseline. Jordan caught an astronomical amount of bodies coming baseline and the paint was more congested when he played than it is now.

 

[Primetime]

SGA is one of the best footwork finesse players we've seen since Kobe breh. Its not fair comparison. Ant is a straight up physical specimen he needs to play smarter on offense right now he's either drive hard or pull up for a three. I haven't seen him post his defender and hit a turn around jumper yet. As he ages that part of his game needs to mature.

What's interesting about Ant is he's an explosive but arguably low motor player. Compared to, say, prime Westbrook who was an explosive, high motor player.

For example, I don't think Ant can make as many drives to the basket as Shai (or young Russ) because i don't think he has the gas tank. He expends a lot of energy on drives, whereas Shai i'm not sure he's ever really going full speed on his drives; he just has great change of pace and direction. Russ went full speed on drives but for all his short comings he was a cardio monster.

Ant made the adjustment this year of jacking up more 3s to supplement his scoring (and deal with the worse spacing from losing KAT) but i think you're correct that he really needs that midrange post-up game as a bread and butter.

 

[Marc Spector]

poor mike Malone, reduced to being a z list ESPN analyst. The NBA stays shytting on coaches.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

Espn is ass


I was on YouTube TV.. anybody else see those PS3 graphics

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Really disappointed with what I'm seeing from Ant. He was invisible when the game was competitive, then decided to be more aggressive and put up empty stats once the team got down like 30. He's not nearly mature enough on the court or off it to be able to successfully lead this team. He'll need to grow up some before he's able to truly lead this team to a chip. They'll win one at home, but I see it being 3-1 going back to OKC.

This is completely unfair to Ant.

He was busting his ass in the first half trying to generate offense when nobody else could besides making open shots; he was visibly tired as a mug because nobody else on the team can create their own shot, consistently. You even had folks criticizing him for taking too many 3s, but it's a necessity for him to open up space because Julius and Gobert shrink the floor. He can't just keep being a crash test dummy driving into the paint with multiple defenders ready to swarm him.

 

[mson]

lmao still kind of crazy to me how Ant ain’t more hated with the deadbeat shyt

That's his personal life.

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

How is this acceptable? this is worse then Harden's flopping first tries to hook the guy's arm, then he rides his hip to trying to foul bait...lol I would have pushed him too. That's insane.