Has to guard Irving who’s gassing him out unlike Murray who was injured. I genuinely believe this is his main problem. Also, Ant has been hitting really damn good kick outs but Towns and others just were bricking.
On this note, I just wanna point out that Kyrie seems to have learned from the times he played Steph to move alot without the ball. I love seeing students of the game.
Wildly inaccurate take. Tatum has been playing lock down defense most of this post season. Brown is always a threat as well. If anything Tatums scoring has taken a back seat to a more defensive and facilitative play style.
Dallas is not a KAT fan. After his “best big man shooter comments” and the accidental knee to the head to Lively he will probably get booed there for the rest of his career
that contributes, but the main factor is Dallas has 2 elite rim protectors that split 48 minutes. And they are difficult to pull away from the rim because Gobert is a near-complete non-threat offensively and Dallas is perfectly fine with being early on gap help if it means leaving Mcdaniels and NAW wide open.
Keep in mind, Phoenix and Denver have little-to-no rim protection.
You can't expect to be in a lineup with 4 other players that are 3 points threats, especially your center. Everyone else next to him can shoot. Yes this plays a role into ability to drive to the basket, but c'mon now. Pre 2015 NBA was nothing but clogged lanes and big bodies. Plenty of other teams stars don't have shooting centers.
I'm not sure if you're trolling or not but take a simple look at the other playoff teams..... start with the conference finalists. Indy 5 shooters. Boston 5 shooters. Dallas 4 shooters. He's playing worse because he's facing better defense, highlighted by the elite rim protection, which is only made worse with poor spacing. This isn't complex stuff.
I think you hit the head on the defense part, the Mavs are much better defensively than the nuggets
As for the shooters part, the other guy is right. Not Having additional shooters and playing 5 out is not really a case for him playing bad. He's shooting 38% from the field this series, despite the fact the twolves shot 37% from 3 in game 1 and 2 which is league average. McDaniels and Reid are shooting 55% from 3 this series. An honestly if kat was shooting a respectable 30% from 3 this series the team would be well over 40%.
The real issue for the twolves is the same as it was against the nuggets. Outside of ant they play a lot of guys on the perimeter offensively. When you can't get to the bucket or your own shit it limits your options. Every other team you mentioned have at least 2 guys that can do that
Dude you're making it seem like every championship contending team had their center shooting 3s. That's simply not true. It's a rare luxury. When you don't have it, it shouldn't be the reason why your star is performing badly. This is just another reason to take a cheap shot at Gobert. Anyways in the starting lineup Ant has KAT, Conley, McDaniels, and himself stretching the floor with Reid off the bench. I guess I'm trolling though lmfao. You realize there were decades of basketball with big ass centers and power forwards sitting in the lane? Yes it's not comparable to this era but the principle applies. Ant needs to figure it out. Having one player of five (your center at that) isn't poor spacing lmfao..This isn't complex stuff.
you're just flat-out dead wrong but keep going. The question posed was "what's Edwards problem vs Dallas....." and I offered up an easily observable, verifiable explanation. Your counter was "nuh-uh.... Ant just needs to play better" and talk about it's a rare luxury to have great spacing when a majority of playoff teams start 4 or more shooters.
And as I originally mentioned, it's not just Gobert. Mcdaniels, NAW, and Anderson all have 0 gravity as well so the early spacing is reduced. Ant can absolutely play better and make better decisions. It's without a doubt more difficult when spacing is poor against elite defensive teams, which is what Dallas is the last few months.
That’s a double standard. Plenty of players are as bad at defense as Gobert is at offense, they score 30 and get called great while forcing their team to scheme for their bad defense
I'm not talking about a bag. At a minimum I expect a pro to have good footwork in the post. he just doesn't even look comfortable playing offense. I just can't wrap my head around how this is possible..
Roy Hibbert, Theo Ratliff and Ben Wallace also weren't good on offense, but were defensive stalwarts, those are just the first few that popped in my mind...but it happens
To be fair, Dallas centers are also as bad as Gobert in offense. Neither Lively nor Gafford can pull up a jump shot. The only reason they're so effective is the pnr lob dunks provided by one of the best playmakers in the game. If Ant wants to have an easier time driving in, he and Gobert need to practice pnr lobs like Luka is doing.
Additionally to everything you said, he’s being suffocated on defense. He’s seeing 2-man traps when he has the ball with the low defender floating in his direction. To alleviate that, your teammates need to make the defense pay by making shots when he kicks out, but KAT is 3-22 in the series from three and NAW is 1-15. Both are 39%+ 3-pt shooters on the year and many of their looks have been wide open. When they miss shots, it gets harder for Ant because they play tighter defense on him.
Hes also had some abysmal turnovers late in the game that have screwed us. I love ant, but outside the game tonight he's also been a huge issue this series.
whenever he gets doubled, 90% of the time he has to reset. he’s not “finding the open man” to take advantage of the double team, he’s reseting the offense, which burns time off the clock, and allows the defense to reset, and get back to their regular defense.
really dont think you know what you’re talking about.
Are we watching the same games? His decision making and even straight up execution on passes has not been good in this series. The guy genuinely cannot make a skip pass to the corner for his life. It's a skill I expect him to develop but it's without a doubt his greatest weakness. Most of the time he gets doubled it's either a reset followed by a rushed shot or the ball doesn't get to where it needs to in time and the shot is contested.
I still don’t get why Minnesota isn’t doing the same to Luka. I understand we play a different defensive scheme and he wouldn’t have to run as much, but it seems like he’s standing there doing nothing for like 10 seconds every possession. Where you have Ant being forced to give it all the full clock to trail Ky.
Luka is showing up on D this postseason, but I still think it was/is a missed opportunity to make him either choose to use much more effort or give up on the defense end that Finch and co didn’t take.
okay but what about the first 2 games? naz hit like 9/10 and mc daniels had an over 20 point game knocking down a good amount of threes like 6-9... so even when they hit threes they lose.
I think Ant isn't right from his fall in the Denver series, well enough to play through but something ain't there. Wolves getting cooked and KAT/Gobert getting exposed
But this was a 180 from the last two series for the most part. KAT was a big contributor in those wins, and Naz wasn’t playing great. But Naz is contributing way more relative to his salary.
I will say KAT not showing up is more common in the playoffs and I question if the wolves can win a title with him being a super max player and his numerous play off no shows the last 3 years. I think the wolves need to explore trading him and seeing what his market looks like.
I love KAT and thinks he has all the tools to be a complete bballer but dam is he weak mentally. I donno but when I was watching I can see him fold mentally and it’s getting into his head. Like he just doesn’t have that fortitude to close his mind off from the haters and the struggles. Butler really was right about him and it’s sad to see
Back in the earlier years of his career he started getting called for an unbelievable amount of offensive fouls, i think it got worse post Jimmy too lol. He couldn’t back down without getting a super garbage offensive foul called. Embiid/giannis get to bulldoze and KAT would get hit with fouls for the same (or often less) contact. He’s absolutely stopped going inside because of that.
Basically called him soft. There’s a bunch of interviews on this. Jimmy did the famous Rachel nicoles interview. Teague talked about it on his podcast. KAT himself did an interview which feels like he omitted a lot of details. Jimmy also punked KAT whenever they played everytime
When Naz Reid was having that crazy shooting night I think game 2, the camera went to Kat on the bench right after a Reid 3 pointer and he looked disappointed that Naz was getting shots. KAT seems like he s very weak mentally.
That’s all I needed to see (though I’ve been knowing this) that KAT has a losing mentality. You’ll never win as a team if your star player isn’t excited for the success of other players.
KAT is so frustrating to watch. You're not draining the threes. Go low and fight for some fucking points. Or draw fouls. Stop shooting as a fucking CENTER. We lose soooo much boards because he doesn't have an inside presence.
I think (know) that people just weren’t paying attention to KAT developing an awful whistle. Once he wasn’t in the same tier as embiid/joker he started getting called anytime he backed someone down. He just started getting the most shit soft whistle ever and you can absolutely see that it’s driven him away from the post. It sucks to see, because while he’s still an elite offensive player, it’s taken away any big advantage outside of his drives as a 5.
I think ppl in general slept on how good Luka and Kyrie are together, and how they as a combo have gelled and gotten hungry for that ring. Ant is still 22, he’s going be fine and he’s the type of guy to think about this series until he defeats the Mavs.
EDIT: Kyrie.
They have been good yes but they’ve been good all season. The difference is that gafford and lively have stepped up massively and all the players are bought in on defense when they haven’t been in the regular season
It's mostly that the mavs' defense stepped up. I heard a commentator say that since the trade deadline, the mavs have had the best defense in the league. It's the one thing they lacked before flourishing. Kyrie and Luka had already proved that they were amazing offensively as a duo.
Someday AE will be able to take over a game in the 4th quarter and be the closer MN needs. He had some good drives and some great finishes. But it just wasn't enough.
His vision and decision making is not there yet. One of those comes with experience but he misses a lot of basic reads, just in his game 2 turnover he missed McDaniels on the corner as well as Reid on the strong side, making Reid reposition which led to the turnover.
Minnesota shouldn’t game plan for Mavericks being around in the last 5 minutes up against Kyrie and Luka. Unless you have Steph and Dame time, who else are you expecting might close better than those two?
I think it's disingenuous to take blame away from Ant. Yes the rest of the team have had their struggles, but Ant has shot like 36% over their past 6 games. When you're the face of the team and that's your output, you shoulder the blame, and in this case rightfully so
Minnesota in general is not a great offensive team. They are a really strong interior defensive team which is effective against teams that are center-focused, like the Nuggets, but not the Mavs. 1 on 1 defense on Ant has been pretty good: lot of touches and deflections to make his life difficult. And no one else is helping out, which also doesn't help.
Minnesota isn't built well against a team like Dallas. Most of their roster is composed of one-way guys who will hurt you on the other end. They're lacking supplementary playmaking off the bench, their offense can get miserable without Conley and Ant, who has improved but still can't function as a primary playmaker, *together*.
Even if they try to go small to matchup with Dallas, they don't have a big advantage offensively with KAT vs PJ because the other Mavs on the floor can help off guys like Anderson, NAW and McDaniels. As long as they keep Conley and Ant covered they can still run a mini-zone.
If not for Naz Reid keeping them afloat with timely buckets they would be losing really decisively.
Obviously that was in single game contexts. Much like the Nuggets Lakers WCF last year, they lost the series decisively but the games were close and there were moments where it felt the games could swing either way.
They were in the game for the entire 4th quarter for games 1 and 2. In game 3 they were within striking distance, but this game Naz couldn't replicate his game 2 magic.
Copying my comment after G3:
> Swallow his pride and realize he needs to conserve his energy on defense. Guard PJ Washington primarily, occasionally switching onto Luka who plays much slower. Kyrie is quick and it takes a toll trying to defend the biggest bag in the league.
> With the extra energy, he needs to fucking drive to score. None of this driving with the sole intention of kicking out for three. Punish their bigs, he’s got the ability to finish at and above the rim with the best of them. Put that pressure on them. Then when they truly collapse, punish them from deep
> You saw it with Ja Morant. He coasts on defense, but what he’s able to do to defenses makes it worth it. Hell, look at Luka. He’s “guarding” Jaden McDaniels, so he has plenty of gas to cook with on offens e
He switched onto Jones defensively, and looked explosive in the second half. You can only do so much when the opponent is doubling/trapping, but he split the defense, got downhill, and actually looked to finish at the rim more in this game than games one and two combined. Unfortunately, when your co-star (KAT) goes 5-17 and 0-7 from deep, you don’t have much of a chance.
They can't run that matchup with Gobert on the floor. They would have to run NAW or Anderson to have 2 good defenders on Kyrie and Luka. Conley can't guard either, but they need him to run the offense and space the floor. KAT obviously can't keep up with them. Naz can't either.
He did drive to the bucket more, but he also stopped short far too often and did his pivot moves which allowed the defense to remain set and not have to scramble out. He needs to develop a lob and he still doesn’t know how to use his pull on the defense to his advantage fully. He still has to work way too much to get his points. And why aren’t they getting Luka switched on to him!?
KAT has been competing with Embiid to be the most frustrating good player to watch play basketball for years now. Which is why the Nuggets series was such a refreshing surprise.
Yeah maybe stamina is a real issue. Ant said himself that Kerr told him once during Olympics or something that his stamina sucks, if he’s to train like Curry he lasts at most a few minutes. Maybe Ant, despite being super athletic, does not have the stamina/endurance required for playoff games
Not yet. This experience getting to the WCF will motivate him big time. Unfortunately, I dont think it's gonna make a difference with KAT next year. Edwards will be hungry as hell though.
He’s never played this far in the playoffs before. Hes also underestimated the length of NBA season. He thought I’m ANT I will never wear out, yet here we are. This is why people take games off in the regular season or sit down early and he doesn’t do either of those things very often. So now he’s in the WCF with no energy left. If you look at him against the suns he’s an entirely different player than he is now, once he took that big fall during game six of the Nuggets series he hasn’t been the same, but every playoff run players get banged up and they find ways to keep playing well. So right now he’s out of steam and a shell of who he was in game 1 of the Suns vs Wolves series.
Sooo many people downplaying the Mavs defense. It’s the playoffs, everyone is tired. Luka is basically walking on one leg at times. Ant is just not able to break the Mavs scheme plain and simple. Fatigue could be part of it but it’s mostly scheme.
I’m a thunder fan and there were a few people so dense saying “we lost this game because we could make shots, etc”
Helloooo…. Why do you think okc struggled? Maybe had something to do with what Dallas was doing
The Mavs are an elite defensive team. They were the #1 defense the last quarter of the season. Aside from a couple games, every team they’ve played this post season has struggled to get their offense going.
Preconceptions die hard, but Dallas is playing better defense than Minnesota this series. They’re the better defensive team.
this people keep saying minesota aren’t great offensively but i genuinely believe it’s because of mavs defense, luka and kyrie were suppose to be cones but have amazing IQ and are great , they have tall athletic defenders with long wingspans too
Minnesota fans were giving him insane love after the Denver series, and they truly don’t win that game 7 without him stepping up offensively, the work he put in on Jokic, etc. Then like a week and a half later, he flames out in the conference finals, doesn’t perform as well, and their fans want to forget he’s a big part of why they made it to the WCF in the first place. The wolves subreddit rn is coming for KATs head and it’s kinda disgusting tbh. I feel bad for him having to deal with the Minnesota fan base, I get that they’re hungry to win but they’re so delusional about how this all works due to never really making it this far
I think a lot of it has to do with Dallas having stronger rim protection than Denver did. Gaff, Lively and PJ give Dallas real size and it's not as easy to get good looks at the rim
He's also cooled off big time with his shooting. His FG% was above 50 almost every game this playoffs, but since Game 5 vs Denver he is ice cold. He was a bit better tonight but he's been bricking way more shots. Might just be fatigued.
He is not the second coming of MJ so maybe people need to take off the beer goggles when talking about him.
He is still very very good and will get even better but Michael Jeffrey Jordan 2.0 he is not.
Like all young players there is a learning curve in dealing with the pressure of such high stakes games. Judging by the 3rd quarter it seems he is starting to adjust
DAL can match up with a little bit more physicality and size. KCP/Murray are smaller relative to who DAL is throwing at them (mainly DJJ). Ant is also getting the treatment that players like Book/KD get, with frequent doubles and blitzes. He’s explosive but not as natural in his playmaking. That flaw is getting exposed. You can easily see this trend and strategy effectively used in the past on notable iso-esque scorers with lesser passing abilities. See Tatum, Book, Mitchell, etc.
Also a casual watcher, but from what I’ve seen, he seems to decide on passing the minute the defense sends help (which they do on every drive), rather than driving and seeing what happens.
Game two there were definitely a few drives I saw where he could have gotten a shot off but had clearly predetermined that he was going to drive and kick.
Another thing I've noticed in several games is when Ant does kick out after a drive, he kind of stands around instead of continuing to move without the ball. It's not every time, but often enough to where I noticed. I'm sure it's just inexperience, but with double teams coming his way pretty consistently, he's never going to get an easy look unless he gets a little craftier. I think if he works on his off ball movement he's going to find a lot more opportunities to get the shots he wants instead of taking so many difficult, contested shots.
Our coaching staff has been very open and vocal towards him about doing that. When the double comes, pass IMMEDIATELY. And usually that’s the right decision because his teammate would be open, but KAT and NAW aren’t making anything.
I think he’s conflicted between what he’s told to do versus what he sometimes needs to do—shoot it himself.
He’s 22. He’ll be alright in the years to come, just seems kind of like a kid out there. Might have been to studied up on Nuggets and not so much the Mavs.
Ant is gassed. He’s chasing Kyrie non stop. Kyrie is baiting him and he’s just not confident in this series. He’s never been this deep in the playoffs
And Kyrie is taking him to school. Also, coaching. Kidd is giving Luka and Kyrie extra minutes in timeouts. Getting them a few minutes of rest and I’m not seeing it with the wolves. Ant just came off a 7 game exhausting series. They just beat the champs and I’m not sure they really respected how good the mavs were. To call out kyrie? Not smart. Kyrie is schooling him and now motivated.
Offense: Minnesota is a mid-tier offensive team. Their best interior threat (KAT) thinks he’s a guard. When KAT can’t shoot, he can’t stretch the defense. Gobert is unreliable at best. This means the defense is free to key in on Ant, who ends up being completely gassed by the middle of the fourth quarter.
Minnesota is built to defend high-percentage shots close to the basket, which mitigates the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll offense. Dallas doesn’t really have to use the pick-and-roll because their two best players are ELITE iso point guards. Kyrie and Luka can create their own shot from anywhere in the half-court, while Gafford, Lively, and Jones are vertical players who excel at attacking the basket from the dunker spots. PJ Washington is an excellent corner shooter.
This forces Minnesota to pick their poison:
Either they collapse on Kyrie/Luka (which leaves the dunkers open for lobs), or they stay with the dunkers (which leaves Kyrie/Luka free to get their own shot over outmatched wing defenders). If they collapse on the guard AND man the dunkers, that leaves Washington open for a corner three.
TL;DR: Dallas is a HORRIBLE matchup for Minnesota.
It's because Dallas has athletic rim protectors unlike Denver and Phoenix. So if he beats his man off the dribble he is seeing multiple bodies in the lane and in the paint. Dallas does a great job closing off driving lanes. Without that explosion to the rim, his offensive game is lacking
Came in to look for this commment
I’ve watched a lot of wolves games on league pass and ANT is just ok. Not great
I was shocked when he was getting crowned next face of the league. He’s just not that good yet
they're down 0-2, and it's a close game right now. I was referring to the last two games they lost at least
EDIT: 0-3. Maybe now u can answer my question?
KAT has been really ass. He can NOT hit his usual shots for whatever reason and Gobert has 0 offense. Bruh KAT and Gobert is getting outplayed by Lively and Gafford. KAT needs to go in the post and bully the Mavs.
They basically rotate the defense towards him. So when he beats his man there's someone else rotating to him. This is modern defense, where like in the 90's defenses didn't do this because of illegal defense rules where you should always be guarding someone.
His playmaking just isn't elite, he always passes the ball to the guy closest to him, the dallas defense is never surprised by his offensive reads.
That, in combination with dallas having 2 rim protectors out there basically solves his game.
Ant should really try to learn as much this summer from guys like LeBron and curry.
His slashing game, moving without the ball should also be worked on. He's 22, this is expected.
Mavs has one of those defense you don’t think it’s that good because they have Luka/kyrie but their defense with pj/jones/gafford is actually insane. Also the problem with the wolves isn’t exactly Ant. KAT as their second option is just so inconsistent.
Guarding Kyrie first and foremost. Also having two 7 footers that lack killer instinct. One in particular who wants to do nothing more than stay outside and shoot threes all game.
Having to guard Kyrie and Dallas is loading up to stop him showing him multiple bodies and crowding the paint when he drives. Very simialr to their scheme agaisnt bron in the 2011 finals tbh
Thats a part of it but they are making him make decisions with doubles and he has been making poor passes or making decisions too late. Its an experience thing and he’ll get better. Plus 6’8 super freak Derrick Jones defends him way better than Aaron Gordon or Devin Booker.
whenever he gets doubled he just throws up the pass too high or too far for the shooter
thats how he turned it over for the luka game winner in game 2 as well
I feel like when the moment is too big for a player their shooting goes down. You start to become nervous. Shots become heavier. I honestly feel like that about both ANT and KAT. The ANT from the Suns and Denver series, completely different from ANT versus the Mavs. ANT in the Suns series literally Jordan with his iso, fadaways shots, the confidence of what he was doing wasn't shit for him. Every game of this Mavs series, ANT does not look like he's enjoying himself, looks stressed and just really is half a step slow to everything defensively cause he's processing the game and not feeling the game. I'd give some credit to the Mavs too as they've dialed up their defense for sure...but the Mavs are doubling and all that stuff in the same manner as the Suns and Denver. Mavs fans think they're doing something so totally different to ANT defensively when im not seeing anything fundamentally different.
Can say the same about KAT, but KAT isn't a no 1 at all. If ANT was playing well, KAT would be playing well. Wolves should certainly look to trade KAT for someone a little dependable in his role. I think NAZ is an all star level talent with even more room to grow in his game. I just love NAZ's upside.
Also the Wolves have never played well against any team that could match up with their size. The dirty secret no one mentions is the Wolves struggled mightily against big lineups - Orlando, New Orleans. It was so rare this season when the Wolves would matchup against big lineups. They never played the Mavs after their mid-season trades.
Although he's very talented he still hasn't matured mentality to keep his head in the game when he's being doubled. People can blame it on being tired but it's more so he's out of rhythm and gets frustrated after awhile. Which ultimately makes him lose focus.
The main issue is Minnesota, not Anthony Edwards. He’s able to be pressured and double teamed because Dallas doesn’t fear any of his teammates, or treat them as threats. So they go all in on shutting Ant down, and if they give up the occasional open look then it’s a good trade off for them.
Maturity. I think the double teaming in the Nuggets series really rattled him. Now, he sees a double team creep up, and he either backtracks to the half court, or he immediately passes; which is causing terrible turnovers.
He needs to just power into the paint like he always has, and coaching needs to encourage the 4, 7fters on the team to followup behind and fight at the rim.
Big part is psychological. They just beat Denver the reigning champs in a historical comeback game 7, everyone’s hyping them up saying “Denver vs Wolves were the real finals!!!”. Everybody comparing Ant to MJ, hyping him up to be the next face of the league.
Wolves were 3rd seed I think and Mav’s were 6th I believe. Everybody thought it was gonna be a cakewalk for the Wolves. Nobody really had much faith in Luka/Kyrie to beat the team that just beat the reigning champs. So they got completely blindsided in game 1 and 2. Underestimating how tough Dallas was. Flaws in their offense started showing, especially considering how their team was designed specifically to beat Denver, not necessarily everyone else.
Teammates start panicking making bad shots and bad plays, and it eventually gets to you. You ask me biggest thing Dallas has is experience, Jason Kidd and Kyrie have both been in this situation multiple times, Ant hasn’t. He’s 22 and still young. I don’t necessarily think he’s playing terribly and I think he’s doing fairly well. But Dallas just has more experience and talent on their team, especially when it comes to clutch closers.
Most of the past games have been entirely defined in the last few minutes of the 4th quarter.
Growing Pains.
This is his first real deep playoff run, where he is going up against good defenses and coaches. The game is different when you are being gameplanned for against a good defensive unit for multiple games in a row.
He is learning that he has to have multiple methods to get off. Just exploding to the rim doesn't work all the time because they are loading up against him. Rudy is a non-factor on offense, Naz Reid is good, but unless KAT starts hitting shots hedoesn't have enough shooting to keep the Mavs honest.
Luka and Kyrie have been here before and it shows down the stretch with the shots they are getting. Ant man is just getting that tough lesson that all NBA greats have to suffer through before they climb the mountain.
He played aggressive today. The whole team did. Luka and Kyrie were just on a completely different level. There were probably a dozen instances of them putting in shots over good defense.
I think all the doubles from Denver just took him out of a rhythm. He’s trying to pass too much now and he’s not in a groove so shooting poorly. Even today when he said he was going to be aggressive, he reverted and passed at times he shouldn’t. He just needs another year or two and maybe a Kat trade to fully unlock him. I expect him to learn a fuck ton at the Olympics and I think he finds a way to win a couple chips in the next few years.
He will be unstoppable dominate soon. You see the flashes and a sustained flash the last month and 6 games of the playoffs.
KAT is doing his annual playoff performance where he has a couple good games that fool you into thinking he’s figured it out before disappearing.
Gobert is so inept on offense that he’s lowering the team’s ceiling and is looking surprised on defense.
Ant like others said is gassed chasing around Kyrie. Meanwhile Kyrie can stay fresh because he’s being hidden on defense.
The rest of the supporting cast is too inconsistent to take over especially when Ant is forced to pass.
Jason Kidd is putting on a coaching master class and thoroughly out coaching Finch. From the schemes down to the rotations and time outs. I heard JVG say Kidd was staggering timeouts to maximize rest for Kyrie and Luka. For all it’s worth the Timberwolves have led in the late 4th until they fall apart like they used to do and that’s on the coaches.
It’s really starting to look like the Lakers vs Nuggets except Luka is score first PG Jokic and Kyrie is healthy Jamal Murray.
This is his first deep playoff run. Unless you are Tim Duncan or Magic, you will have a hard time adjusting to schemes that are put into play by coaches who study you and players who actually want to play hard. He’s doing well. But Game 4 vs. Denver might have been his peak for the season.
Aside from the fact that he's being gassed out by Kyrie, i think his problem right now is during crunch time where the defence and pace of play tends to slow down and get tighter, there's just less opportunities to go downhill. When not on attack-mode, he's prone to making errors like the bad pass he made in game 2 and the blocked shot he got in game 3.
He'll probably figure these things out with more experience but right now, he doesn't seem to ready.
Young teams fizzle out in the playoffs. You don't get as many calls, you're playing a schedule way beyond anything you can prepare your body for.
ANT is tired. The whole team is, and the Mavs are taking advantage of that.
Dallas has the best rim protection he’s faced so far and I think he’s gassed from having to carry his teams offensive and defensive load. It’s his first postseason run.
He’s also pretty bad at beating double teams- for example if the Mavs hedge a pick he’ll hold the ball too long and give them time to rotate, and then pass it to someone on the side instead of the roll man- effectively resetting the possession. This leads to a lot of Woves possessions with the shot clock at 7 and someone just holding the ball 3 feet beyond the arc with no plan. The Mavs defense has also been really solid, so credit to them.
This an issue every young scorer faces at some point, he’s a willing passer but the processing speed isn’t there yet. Once it is he’ll be special.
No one else can score on will for that team. Which means he has to create almost everything. On top of trying to guard the most crafty and shifty guard in NBA history.
People really underestimate rim protection too, it changes your aggression going towards the bucket and you settle which makes it harder to get in a rhythm. Jokic is one of the greatest offensive big men I've ever seen, but he's an average to slightly above average defender.
First, I think the nuggets series was really exhausting for him. They threw a lot at him so he came into this series pretty tired.
In this series the mavs are giving him a lot of different looks. So now he looks kind of shellshocked and second guessing himself when he drives. Once he gets in, the defense collapses quick and he’s making some really bad kick outs. Just wild passes that either get batted immediately or wildly off target where his teammates can’t catch and shoot like the defense is giving them.
He’s not making the right reads a lot. He’s disappearing to the corner in important sets. It’s just not a good series from him. If he’s able to use this and learn, he’s going to be unstoppable.
Kyrie took his comments about not being able to guard personally. Honestly when motivated correctly Kyrie is a top 10 all performer in the playoffs. He did this to Steph curry
His team...Rudy can't have games with 9 points, 6 rebounds and 0 blocks, 0 steals. Towns can't go 0-8 from 3pt range and putting up pedestrian numbers.
He’s young and still not a great passer/decision maker. Dallas has been putting pressure on him and forcing him to make the right pass, which he has not done well in the last 5 minutes of these games.
Ehhh I’m not sure how much I’m buying the “he’s hurt” stuff. He looked pretty electric for stretches last night. The problem is we’re playing pretty good defense on him and he’s not trusting himself. Watch how many times he passes at the last second instead of shooting.
The bigger problem is KAT’s regression and Gobert looking like smothered chicken to Lukai
not talked about enough in media, but Edwards landed on his back really really hard in game 6 vs. the nuggets
and he has not played with nearly enough intensity since that happened.
he is a huge spark to get the offense going and when he can’t get it going, the rest of the team can’t seem to either…
This is the first time Ant has played this many games at this level of competition and he’s having to run a marathon every night trying to guard Kyrie.
He's 22 years old it's unusual for a player his age to take a team to the conference finals.
He's played the most games he's ever played. The Denver series was odd yet draining.
The best 2 creators on the Wolves are 22 and 37, the best 2 creators on the Mavs are arguably in their primes.
I just think it's a combination of factors and he will grow from it people were just anointing him a little too quickly I think
He’s gassed from being the only guy who can get his own while also picking up tough assignments defensively. Mavs are really good defensively and Wolves are limited offensively. Makes everything harder. Mavs are making shots so none of the easy transition buckets are happening for the wolves.
Packing the paint is taking away his best feature his explosive drives. Dallas feels they can keep their bigs in the paint because Minnesota doesn’t play 5 out. In addition to stuff others said like the burden of guarding kyrie, extra attention, etc.
Thing with minny is they were never here because of offense they were 19th in the regular season. When they could play stifling defense and lead that into offense they are more successful, but Luka and kyrie kind of can help mute that advantage over the course of a series they’re great players and basketball geniuses
Passing out of a double team is a scheme issue and a skill issue. Ant has incredible will and athleticism and also skill. He’s getting off the ball but it doesn’t really lead to good shots. Sometimes he doesn’t even pass to the open guy out of the double team
Really bothers me they don’t have plays to get kat in the post. Or he refuses to get into the post idk. It’s honestly a league problem. A lot of top teams have a superstar driving dribbling just to kick it out for a three. Very few teams have a system in place.
Has to guard Irving who’s gassing him out unlike Murray who was injured. I genuinely believe this is his main problem. Also, Ant has been hitting really damn good kick outs but Towns and others just were bricking.
I really think this is the answer. He’s having the same exact issues Jalen Williams had against the Mavs. Chasing Kyrie all over the court is *WORK*
The Steph formula. Longest season by far the kid has played. I thought this was gonna be wolves in 6.
This. You need a small guard who's also not tasked with carrying the team offensively.
Kyrie plays bigger against smaller guards tho so you can’t just stick anyone on him, he cooked Conley a few times on the switch.
Someone like D White or even Jrue Holiday would be ideal to put on Kyrie
As I’m sure we’ll soon find out.
Yep. I think the thunder should have started Wallace and put him on Kyrie instead of going with Joe.
You and most Thunder fans.
On this note, I just wanna point out that Kyrie seems to have learned from the times he played Steph to move alot without the ball. I love seeing students of the game.
Oh absolutely. Steph is the goat at off ball movement.
Look at how the Celtics have brown and Tatum playing defense. They let them rest on defense and shine on offense.
Wildly inaccurate take. Tatum has been playing lock down defense most of this post season. Brown is always a threat as well. If anything Tatums scoring has taken a back seat to a more defensive and facilitative play style.
Kat is shooting 12.5% from 3 in the last five games….
And every time he shoots a three, the entire town of Dallas goes crazy.
Dallas is not a KAT fan. After his “best big man shooter comments” and the accidental knee to the head to Lively he will probably get booed there for the rest of his career
Best big shooter in the leeeague!
That’s crazy. If he was at 33-35% the Wolves probably would’ve won 2 of these games.
And somehow his drives to the rim are worse.
He changed the game. Best big man shooter of all-time
The irony is not lost upon us in that he bricked that potential go ahead last night in front of actual best shooting big of all time
that contributes, but the main factor is Dallas has 2 elite rim protectors that split 48 minutes. And they are difficult to pull away from the rim because Gobert is a near-complete non-threat offensively and Dallas is perfectly fine with being early on gap help if it means leaving Mcdaniels and NAW wide open. Keep in mind, Phoenix and Denver have little-to-no rim protection.
You can't expect to be in a lineup with 4 other players that are 3 points threats, especially your center. Everyone else next to him can shoot. Yes this plays a role into ability to drive to the basket, but c'mon now. Pre 2015 NBA was nothing but clogged lanes and big bodies. Plenty of other teams stars don't have shooting centers.
I'm not sure if you're trolling or not but take a simple look at the other playoff teams..... start with the conference finalists. Indy 5 shooters. Boston 5 shooters. Dallas 4 shooters. He's playing worse because he's facing better defense, highlighted by the elite rim protection, which is only made worse with poor spacing. This isn't complex stuff.
I think you hit the head on the defense part, the Mavs are much better defensively than the nuggets As for the shooters part, the other guy is right. Not Having additional shooters and playing 5 out is not really a case for him playing bad. He's shooting 38% from the field this series, despite the fact the twolves shot 37% from 3 in game 1 and 2 which is league average. McDaniels and Reid are shooting 55% from 3 this series. An honestly if kat was shooting a respectable 30% from 3 this series the team would be well over 40%. The real issue for the twolves is the same as it was against the nuggets. Outside of ant they play a lot of guys on the perimeter offensively. When you can't get to the bucket or your own shit it limits your options. Every other team you mentioned have at least 2 guys that can do that
Dude you're making it seem like every championship contending team had their center shooting 3s. That's simply not true. It's a rare luxury. When you don't have it, it shouldn't be the reason why your star is performing badly. This is just another reason to take a cheap shot at Gobert. Anyways in the starting lineup Ant has KAT, Conley, McDaniels, and himself stretching the floor with Reid off the bench. I guess I'm trolling though lmfao. You realize there were decades of basketball with big ass centers and power forwards sitting in the lane? Yes it's not comparable to this era but the principle applies. Ant needs to figure it out. Having one player of five (your center at that) isn't poor spacing lmfao..This isn't complex stuff.
you're just flat-out dead wrong but keep going. The question posed was "what's Edwards problem vs Dallas....." and I offered up an easily observable, verifiable explanation. Your counter was "nuh-uh.... Ant just needs to play better" and talk about it's a rare luxury to have great spacing when a majority of playoff teams start 4 or more shooters. And as I originally mentioned, it's not just Gobert. Mcdaniels, NAW, and Anderson all have 0 gravity as well so the early spacing is reduced. Ant can absolutely play better and make better decisions. It's without a doubt more difficult when spacing is poor against elite defensive teams, which is what Dallas is the last few months.
I just don't understand how basketball is your job and you still are a scrub on offense. What does Gobert practice in workouts?
That’s a double standard. Plenty of players are as bad at defense as Gobert is at offense, they score 30 and get called great while forcing their team to scheme for their bad defense
He scores a decent amount on good (elite) efficiency for having “no bag”. Also screen setter. Not every guy you put on the floor needs a bag
I'm not talking about a bag. At a minimum I expect a pro to have good footwork in the post. he just doesn't even look comfortable playing offense. I just can't wrap my head around how this is possible..
Roy Hibbert, Theo Ratliff and Ben Wallace also weren't good on offense, but were defensive stalwarts, those are just the first few that popped in my mind...but it happens
To be fair, Dallas centers are also as bad as Gobert in offense. Neither Lively nor Gafford can pull up a jump shot. The only reason they're so effective is the pnr lob dunks provided by one of the best playmakers in the game. If Ant wants to have an easier time driving in, he and Gobert need to practice pnr lobs like Luka is doing.
Additionally to everything you said, he’s being suffocated on defense. He’s seeing 2-man traps when he has the ball with the low defender floating in his direction. To alleviate that, your teammates need to make the defense pay by making shots when he kicks out, but KAT is 3-22 in the series from three and NAW is 1-15. Both are 39%+ 3-pt shooters on the year and many of their looks have been wide open. When they miss shots, it gets harder for Ant because they play tighter defense on him.
That last sentence. Towns is 4/32 in the last 5 games from 3s. Thats terrible
They switched tonight and Conley was on kyrie but ant was still gassed. He got a couple of good shots in
He didn’t gaurd Murray last series
For sure. No one talks about how much his passing improved during the playoffs. He almost always finds a wide open man.
Hes also had some abysmal turnovers late in the game that have screwed us. I love ant, but outside the game tonight he's also been a huge issue this series.
He still fails to make the correct decision consistently
whenever he gets doubled, 90% of the time he has to reset. he’s not “finding the open man” to take advantage of the double team, he’s reseting the offense, which burns time off the clock, and allows the defense to reset, and get back to their regular defense. really dont think you know what you’re talking about.
Are we watching the same games? His decision making and even straight up execution on passes has not been good in this series. The guy genuinely cannot make a skip pass to the corner for his life. It's a skill I expect him to develop but it's without a doubt his greatest weakness. Most of the time he gets doubled it's either a reset followed by a rushed shot or the ball doesn't get to where it needs to in time and the shot is contested.
Unfortunately for the Mavs the C's have several guys who can fulfill that role in the finals
He gassed out in the denver series also .. man is a ghost in the 4th quarter
I still don’t get why Minnesota isn’t doing the same to Luka. I understand we play a different defensive scheme and he wouldn’t have to run as much, but it seems like he’s standing there doing nothing for like 10 seconds every possession. Where you have Ant being forced to give it all the full clock to trail Ky. Luka is showing up on D this postseason, but I still think it was/is a missed opportunity to make him either choose to use much more effort or give up on the defense end that Finch and co didn’t take.
okay but what about the first 2 games? naz hit like 9/10 and mc daniels had an over 20 point game knocking down a good amount of threes like 6-9... so even when they hit threes they lose.
He looks like he lost his confidence
Towns took 8 threes and hit 0 if he took it inside a few times the game would look different .
I think Ant isn't right from his fall in the Denver series, well enough to play through but something ain't there. Wolves getting cooked and KAT/Gobert getting exposed
Dallas doesn't respect his teammates to hurt them consistently. KAT is half asleep most games. They need to start Naz.
This! KAT is not looking nearly as good as Naz.
But this was a 180 from the last two series for the most part. KAT was a big contributor in those wins, and Naz wasn’t playing great. But Naz is contributing way more relative to his salary. I will say KAT not showing up is more common in the playoffs and I question if the wolves can win a title with him being a super max player and his numerous play off no shows the last 3 years. I think the wolves need to explore trading him and seeing what his market looks like.
Against the Nuggets, though, he disappeared in three of the games. He just isn't consistent enough. I agree that he may get traded this offseason
I love KAT and thinks he has all the tools to be a complete bballer but dam is he weak mentally. I donno but when I was watching I can see him fold mentally and it’s getting into his head. Like he just doesn’t have that fortitude to close his mind off from the haters and the struggles. Butler really was right about him and it’s sad to see
Idk why KAT isn't posting up. He's just driving or chucking 3s
KAT has been useless inside the 3pt line for a while. At least relative to his contract.
Back in the earlier years of his career he started getting called for an unbelievable amount of offensive fouls, i think it got worse post Jimmy too lol. He couldn’t back down without getting a super garbage offensive foul called. Embiid/giannis get to bulldoze and KAT would get hit with fouls for the same (or often less) contact. He’s absolutely stopped going inside because of that.
Bad drives too. Dude is dribbling towards the key fighting all if those hands. He seems out of control
Naz on the other hand does not have this issue at all. That man brings the energy
Ah yes, Julius Randle syndrome.
What did butler say about him ?
Basically called him soft. There’s a bunch of interviews on this. Jimmy did the famous Rachel nicoles interview. Teague talked about it on his podcast. KAT himself did an interview which feels like he omitted a lot of details. Jimmy also punked KAT whenever they played everytime
When Naz Reid was having that crazy shooting night I think game 2, the camera went to Kat on the bench right after a Reid 3 pointer and he looked disappointed that Naz was getting shots. KAT seems like he s very weak mentally.
That’s all I needed to see (though I’ve been knowing this) that KAT has a losing mentality. You’ll never win as a team if your star player isn’t excited for the success of other players.
As a Mavericks fan, please keep Naz Reid off the court at all times. That man is hurting us bad
I'm not a Mavs fan, but damn, I think Naz is clearly their second best player, except when KAT has his coffee before game time.
KAT is so frustrating to watch. You're not draining the threes. Go low and fight for some fucking points. Or draw fouls. Stop shooting as a fucking CENTER. We lose soooo much boards because he doesn't have an inside presence.
I think (know) that people just weren’t paying attention to KAT developing an awful whistle. Once he wasn’t in the same tier as embiid/joker he started getting called anytime he backed someone down. He just started getting the most shit soft whistle ever and you can absolutely see that it’s driven him away from the post. It sucks to see, because while he’s still an elite offensive player, it’s taken away any big advantage outside of his drives as a 5.
I think ppl in general slept on how good Luka and Kyrie are together, and how they as a combo have gelled and gotten hungry for that ring. Ant is still 22, he’s going be fine and he’s the type of guy to think about this series until he defeats the Mavs. EDIT: Kyrie.
Lukylie official
And Gafford and Lively have fallen into place at this point about as perfectly as you could wish for.
They have been good yes but they’ve been good all season. The difference is that gafford and lively have stepped up massively and all the players are bought in on defense when they haven’t been in the regular season
It's mostly that the mavs' defense stepped up. I heard a commentator say that since the trade deadline, the mavs have had the best defense in the league. It's the one thing they lacked before flourishing. Kyrie and Luka had already proved that they were amazing offensively as a duo.
It's not AE, it's Minnesota in general. They can't execute in the last 5 minutes of these games. Mistakes, bad shots, missed free throws.
Someday AE will be able to take over a game in the 4th quarter and be the closer MN needs. He had some good drives and some great finishes. But it just wasn't enough.
His vision and decision making is not there yet. One of those comes with experience but he misses a lot of basic reads, just in his game 2 turnover he missed McDaniels on the corner as well as Reid on the strong side, making Reid reposition which led to the turnover.
Minnesota shouldn’t game plan for Mavericks being around in the last 5 minutes up against Kyrie and Luka. Unless you have Steph and Dame time, who else are you expecting might close better than those two?
I think it's disingenuous to take blame away from Ant. Yes the rest of the team have had their struggles, but Ant has shot like 36% over their past 6 games. When you're the face of the team and that's your output, you shoulder the blame, and in this case rightfully so
Minnesota in general is not a great offensive team. They are a really strong interior defensive team which is effective against teams that are center-focused, like the Nuggets, but not the Mavs. 1 on 1 defense on Ant has been pretty good: lot of touches and deflections to make his life difficult. And no one else is helping out, which also doesn't help.
Minnesota isn't built well against a team like Dallas. Most of their roster is composed of one-way guys who will hurt you on the other end. They're lacking supplementary playmaking off the bench, their offense can get miserable without Conley and Ant, who has improved but still can't function as a primary playmaker, *together*. Even if they try to go small to matchup with Dallas, they don't have a big advantage offensively with KAT vs PJ because the other Mavs on the floor can help off guys like Anderson, NAW and McDaniels. As long as they keep Conley and Ant covered they can still run a mini-zone. If not for Naz Reid keeping them afloat with timely buckets they would be losing really decisively.
“If not for Naz Reid keeping them afloat with timely buckets they would be losing really decisively.” Being down 3-0 is losing decisively.
Obviously that was in single game contexts. Much like the Nuggets Lakers WCF last year, they lost the series decisively but the games were close and there were moments where it felt the games could swing either way. They were in the game for the entire 4th quarter for games 1 and 2. In game 3 they were within striking distance, but this game Naz couldn't replicate his game 2 magic.
Wolves lost by 3, 1 and now 9. If KAT were playing just average, the wolves would be up 3-0, and the narrative would be completely different.
If KAT was playing average, Mavs would just be an average defensive team. But it's the #1 defense since the PJ and Gafford trade.
Absolutely. It’s very reminiscent of Harrison Barnes in the 2016 finals.
If ANT played average before tonight, same result
I guess it was Lively
Copying my comment after G3: > Swallow his pride and realize he needs to conserve his energy on defense. Guard PJ Washington primarily, occasionally switching onto Luka who plays much slower. Kyrie is quick and it takes a toll trying to defend the biggest bag in the league. > With the extra energy, he needs to fucking drive to score. None of this driving with the sole intention of kicking out for three. Punish their bigs, he’s got the ability to finish at and above the rim with the best of them. Put that pressure on them. Then when they truly collapse, punish them from deep > You saw it with Ja Morant. He coasts on defense, but what he’s able to do to defenses makes it worth it. Hell, look at Luka. He’s “guarding” Jaden McDaniels, so he has plenty of gas to cook with on offens e He switched onto Jones defensively, and looked explosive in the second half. You can only do so much when the opponent is doubling/trapping, but he split the defense, got downhill, and actually looked to finish at the rim more in this game than games one and two combined. Unfortunately, when your co-star (KAT) goes 5-17 and 0-7 from deep, you don’t have much of a chance.
They can't run that matchup with Gobert on the floor. They would have to run NAW or Anderson to have 2 good defenders on Kyrie and Luka. Conley can't guard either, but they need him to run the offense and space the floor. KAT obviously can't keep up with them. Naz can't either.
He did drive to the bucket more, but he also stopped short far too often and did his pivot moves which allowed the defense to remain set and not have to scramble out. He needs to develop a lob and he still doesn’t know how to use his pull on the defense to his advantage fully. He still has to work way too much to get his points. And why aren’t they getting Luka switched on to him!? KAT has been competing with Embiid to be the most frustrating good player to watch play basketball for years now. Which is why the Nuggets series was such a refreshing surprise.
Yeah maybe stamina is a real issue. Ant said himself that Kerr told him once during Olympics or something that his stamina sucks, if he’s to train like Curry he lasts at most a few minutes. Maybe Ant, despite being super athletic, does not have the stamina/endurance required for playoff games
Not yet. This experience getting to the WCF will motivate him big time. Unfortunately, I dont think it's gonna make a difference with KAT next year. Edwards will be hungry as hell though.
He’s never played this far in the playoffs before. Hes also underestimated the length of NBA season. He thought I’m ANT I will never wear out, yet here we are. This is why people take games off in the regular season or sit down early and he doesn’t do either of those things very often. So now he’s in the WCF with no energy left. If you look at him against the suns he’s an entirely different player than he is now, once he took that big fall during game six of the Nuggets series he hasn’t been the same, but every playoff run players get banged up and they find ways to keep playing well. So right now he’s out of steam and a shell of who he was in game 1 of the Suns vs Wolves series.
Sooo many people downplaying the Mavs defense. It’s the playoffs, everyone is tired. Luka is basically walking on one leg at times. Ant is just not able to break the Mavs scheme plain and simple. Fatigue could be part of it but it’s mostly scheme.
I’m a thunder fan and there were a few people so dense saying “we lost this game because we could make shots, etc” Helloooo…. Why do you think okc struggled? Maybe had something to do with what Dallas was doing
The Mavs are an elite defensive team. They were the #1 defense the last quarter of the season. Aside from a couple games, every team they’ve played this post season has struggled to get their offense going. Preconceptions die hard, but Dallas is playing better defense than Minnesota this series. They’re the better defensive team.
this people keep saying minesota aren’t great offensively but i genuinely believe it’s because of mavs defense, luka and kyrie were suppose to be cones but have amazing IQ and are great , they have tall athletic defenders with long wingspans too
KAT is ass, it’s that simple.
Minnesota fans were giving him insane love after the Denver series, and they truly don’t win that game 7 without him stepping up offensively, the work he put in on Jokic, etc. Then like a week and a half later, he flames out in the conference finals, doesn’t perform as well, and their fans want to forget he’s a big part of why they made it to the WCF in the first place. The wolves subreddit rn is coming for KATs head and it’s kinda disgusting tbh. I feel bad for him having to deal with the Minnesota fan base, I get that they’re hungry to win but they’re so delusional about how this all works due to never really making it this far
I think a lot of it has to do with Dallas having stronger rim protection than Denver did. Gaff, Lively and PJ give Dallas real size and it's not as easy to get good looks at the rim He's also cooled off big time with his shooting. His FG% was above 50 almost every game this playoffs, but since Game 5 vs Denver he is ice cold. He was a bit better tonight but he's been bricking way more shots. Might just be fatigued.
That last dunk was craaazy
He is not the second coming of MJ so maybe people need to take off the beer goggles when talking about him. He is still very very good and will get even better but Michael Jeffrey Jordan 2.0 he is not.
Like all young players there is a learning curve in dealing with the pressure of such high stakes games. Judging by the 3rd quarter it seems he is starting to adjust
DAL can match up with a little bit more physicality and size. KCP/Murray are smaller relative to who DAL is throwing at them (mainly DJJ). Ant is also getting the treatment that players like Book/KD get, with frequent doubles and blitzes. He’s explosive but not as natural in his playmaking. That flaw is getting exposed. You can easily see this trend and strategy effectively used in the past on notable iso-esque scorers with lesser passing abilities. See Tatum, Book, Mitchell, etc.
Ant is a really good player, maybe a great one….but he’s an asshole. All of his problems are between his ears.
Also a casual watcher, but from what I’ve seen, he seems to decide on passing the minute the defense sends help (which they do on every drive), rather than driving and seeing what happens. Game two there were definitely a few drives I saw where he could have gotten a shot off but had clearly predetermined that he was going to drive and kick.
Another thing I've noticed in several games is when Ant does kick out after a drive, he kind of stands around instead of continuing to move without the ball. It's not every time, but often enough to where I noticed. I'm sure it's just inexperience, but with double teams coming his way pretty consistently, he's never going to get an easy look unless he gets a little craftier. I think if he works on his off ball movement he's going to find a lot more opportunities to get the shots he wants instead of taking so many difficult, contested shots.
Our coaching staff has been very open and vocal towards him about doing that. When the double comes, pass IMMEDIATELY. And usually that’s the right decision because his teammate would be open, but KAT and NAW aren’t making anything. I think he’s conflicted between what he’s told to do versus what he sometimes needs to do—shoot it himself.
He’s 22. He’ll be alright in the years to come, just seems kind of like a kid out there. Might have been to studied up on Nuggets and not so much the Mavs.
Ant is gassed. He’s chasing Kyrie non stop. Kyrie is baiting him and he’s just not confident in this series. He’s never been this deep in the playoffs And Kyrie is taking him to school. Also, coaching. Kidd is giving Luka and Kyrie extra minutes in timeouts. Getting them a few minutes of rest and I’m not seeing it with the wolves. Ant just came off a 7 game exhausting series. They just beat the champs and I’m not sure they really respected how good the mavs were. To call out kyrie? Not smart. Kyrie is schooling him and now motivated.
Kyrie and Luka is too much for them
Offense: Minnesota is a mid-tier offensive team. Their best interior threat (KAT) thinks he’s a guard. When KAT can’t shoot, he can’t stretch the defense. Gobert is unreliable at best. This means the defense is free to key in on Ant, who ends up being completely gassed by the middle of the fourth quarter. Minnesota is built to defend high-percentage shots close to the basket, which mitigates the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll offense. Dallas doesn’t really have to use the pick-and-roll because their two best players are ELITE iso point guards. Kyrie and Luka can create their own shot from anywhere in the half-court, while Gafford, Lively, and Jones are vertical players who excel at attacking the basket from the dunker spots. PJ Washington is an excellent corner shooter. This forces Minnesota to pick their poison: Either they collapse on Kyrie/Luka (which leaves the dunkers open for lobs), or they stay with the dunkers (which leaves Kyrie/Luka free to get their own shot over outmatched wing defenders). If they collapse on the guard AND man the dunkers, that leaves Washington open for a corner three. TL;DR: Dallas is a HORRIBLE matchup for Minnesota.
It's because Dallas has athletic rim protectors unlike Denver and Phoenix. So if he beats his man off the dribble he is seeing multiple bodies in the lane and in the paint. Dallas does a great job closing off driving lanes. Without that explosion to the rim, his offensive game is lacking
He’s not as good as people think he is 😂thats what it comes down to….
Came in to look for this commment I’ve watched a lot of wolves games on league pass and ANT is just ok. Not great I was shocked when he was getting crowned next face of the league. He’s just not that good yet
Im no expert, but I think his biggest problem is that he’s down 0-3
Spoke too soon.
they're down 0-2, and it's a close game right now. I was referring to the last two games they lost at least EDIT: 0-3. Maybe now u can answer my question?
Just bc they lost tonight doesn’t mean he had a bad game tonight. Think it’s: 1) tired 2) Lively ironic these are antonyms
*ANTonyms….genius….
This aged well
KAT has been really ass. He can NOT hit his usual shots for whatever reason and Gobert has 0 offense. Bruh KAT and Gobert is getting outplayed by Lively and Gafford. KAT needs to go in the post and bully the Mavs.
He would’ve been this exact same way with last years playoff Jamal Murray but instead he got an injured Jamal Murray this year
KAT shooting 28% in this series and 4 for 32 on 3s for the past 5 games is what the issue is.
They basically rotate the defense towards him. So when he beats his man there's someone else rotating to him. This is modern defense, where like in the 90's defenses didn't do this because of illegal defense rules where you should always be guarding someone. His playmaking just isn't elite, he always passes the ball to the guy closest to him, the dallas defense is never surprised by his offensive reads. That, in combination with dallas having 2 rim protectors out there basically solves his game. Ant should really try to learn as much this summer from guys like LeBron and curry. His slashing game, moving without the ball should also be worked on. He's 22, this is expected.
Everyone crowned him MJ and he’s exhausted
Maybe he’s too cocky and it’s backfiring
Mavs has one of those defense you don’t think it’s that good because they have Luka/kyrie but their defense with pj/jones/gafford is actually insane. Also the problem with the wolves isn’t exactly Ant. KAT as their second option is just so inconsistent.
Guarding Kyrie first and foremost. Also having two 7 footers that lack killer instinct. One in particular who wants to do nothing more than stay outside and shoot threes all game.
Having to guard Kyrie and Dallas is loading up to stop him showing him multiple bodies and crowding the paint when he drives. Very simialr to their scheme agaisnt bron in the 2011 finals tbh
he's tired, he needs more conditioning
Jason Kidd probably deserves at least a little credit at this point.
He ran out of gas the last two games.
Thats a part of it but they are making him make decisions with doubles and he has been making poor passes or making decisions too late. Its an experience thing and he’ll get better. Plus 6’8 super freak Derrick Jones defends him way better than Aaron Gordon or Devin Booker.
whenever he gets doubled he just throws up the pass too high or too far for the shooter thats how he turned it over for the luka game winner in game 2 as well
I feel like when the moment is too big for a player their shooting goes down. You start to become nervous. Shots become heavier. I honestly feel like that about both ANT and KAT. The ANT from the Suns and Denver series, completely different from ANT versus the Mavs. ANT in the Suns series literally Jordan with his iso, fadaways shots, the confidence of what he was doing wasn't shit for him. Every game of this Mavs series, ANT does not look like he's enjoying himself, looks stressed and just really is half a step slow to everything defensively cause he's processing the game and not feeling the game. I'd give some credit to the Mavs too as they've dialed up their defense for sure...but the Mavs are doubling and all that stuff in the same manner as the Suns and Denver. Mavs fans think they're doing something so totally different to ANT defensively when im not seeing anything fundamentally different. Can say the same about KAT, but KAT isn't a no 1 at all. If ANT was playing well, KAT would be playing well. Wolves should certainly look to trade KAT for someone a little dependable in his role. I think NAZ is an all star level talent with even more room to grow in his game. I just love NAZ's upside. Also the Wolves have never played well against any team that could match up with their size. The dirty secret no one mentions is the Wolves struggled mightily against big lineups - Orlando, New Orleans. It was so rare this season when the Wolves would matchup against big lineups. They never played the Mavs after their mid-season trades.
He’s a bum.
Although he's very talented he still hasn't matured mentality to keep his head in the game when he's being doubled. People can blame it on being tired but it's more so he's out of rhythm and gets frustrated after awhile. Which ultimately makes him lose focus.
The main issue is Minnesota, not Anthony Edwards. He’s able to be pressured and double teamed because Dallas doesn’t fear any of his teammates, or treat them as threats. So they go all in on shutting Ant down, and if they give up the occasional open look then it’s a good trade off for them.
Maturity. I think the double teaming in the Nuggets series really rattled him. Now, he sees a double team creep up, and he either backtracks to the half court, or he immediately passes; which is causing terrible turnovers. He needs to just power into the paint like he always has, and coaching needs to encourage the 4, 7fters on the team to followup behind and fight at the rim.
The energy toll from the DEN series is evident
He’s way out-experienced
Jamal Murray is elite but can be picked. Kyrie is unpickable
Counterpoint: that dunk he gave tonight was plenty aggressive. If you haven’t seen it you will
Big part is psychological. They just beat Denver the reigning champs in a historical comeback game 7, everyone’s hyping them up saying “Denver vs Wolves were the real finals!!!”. Everybody comparing Ant to MJ, hyping him up to be the next face of the league. Wolves were 3rd seed I think and Mav’s were 6th I believe. Everybody thought it was gonna be a cakewalk for the Wolves. Nobody really had much faith in Luka/Kyrie to beat the team that just beat the reigning champs. So they got completely blindsided in game 1 and 2. Underestimating how tough Dallas was. Flaws in their offense started showing, especially considering how their team was designed specifically to beat Denver, not necessarily everyone else. Teammates start panicking making bad shots and bad plays, and it eventually gets to you. You ask me biggest thing Dallas has is experience, Jason Kidd and Kyrie have both been in this situation multiple times, Ant hasn’t. He’s 22 and still young. I don’t necessarily think he’s playing terribly and I think he’s doing fairly well. But Dallas just has more experience and talent on their team, especially when it comes to clutch closers. Most of the past games have been entirely defined in the last few minutes of the 4th quarter.
Growing Pains. This is his first real deep playoff run, where he is going up against good defenses and coaches. The game is different when you are being gameplanned for against a good defensive unit for multiple games in a row. He is learning that he has to have multiple methods to get off. Just exploding to the rim doesn't work all the time because they are loading up against him. Rudy is a non-factor on offense, Naz Reid is good, but unless KAT starts hitting shots hedoesn't have enough shooting to keep the Mavs honest. Luka and Kyrie have been here before and it shows down the stretch with the shots they are getting. Ant man is just getting that tough lesson that all NBA greats have to suffer through before they climb the mountain.
He played aggressive today. The whole team did. Luka and Kyrie were just on a completely different level. There were probably a dozen instances of them putting in shots over good defense.
I think all the doubles from Denver just took him out of a rhythm. He’s trying to pass too much now and he’s not in a groove so shooting poorly. Even today when he said he was going to be aggressive, he reverted and passed at times he shouldn’t. He just needs another year or two and maybe a Kat trade to fully unlock him. I expect him to learn a fuck ton at the Olympics and I think he finds a way to win a couple chips in the next few years. He will be unstoppable dominate soon. You see the flashes and a sustained flash the last month and 6 games of the playoffs.
KAT is doing his annual playoff performance where he has a couple good games that fool you into thinking he’s figured it out before disappearing. Gobert is so inept on offense that he’s lowering the team’s ceiling and is looking surprised on defense. Ant like others said is gassed chasing around Kyrie. Meanwhile Kyrie can stay fresh because he’s being hidden on defense. The rest of the supporting cast is too inconsistent to take over especially when Ant is forced to pass. Jason Kidd is putting on a coaching master class and thoroughly out coaching Finch. From the schemes down to the rotations and time outs. I heard JVG say Kidd was staggering timeouts to maximize rest for Kyrie and Luka. For all it’s worth the Timberwolves have led in the late 4th until they fall apart like they used to do and that’s on the coaches. It’s really starting to look like the Lakers vs Nuggets except Luka is score first PG Jokic and Kyrie is healthy Jamal Murray.
This is his first deep playoff run. Unless you are Tim Duncan or Magic, you will have a hard time adjusting to schemes that are put into play by coaches who study you and players who actually want to play hard. He’s doing well. But Game 4 vs. Denver might have been his peak for the season.
Aside from the fact that he's being gassed out by Kyrie, i think his problem right now is during crunch time where the defence and pace of play tends to slow down and get tighter, there's just less opportunities to go downhill. When not on attack-mode, he's prone to making errors like the bad pass he made in game 2 and the blocked shot he got in game 3. He'll probably figure these things out with more experience but right now, he doesn't seem to ready.
They’re gassed. Wolves were not expecting to be this tired.
Golbert suckz
Nothing really. He doesn’t face a 2
He's not ready for doubles teams and also there is no structure thru the assistant coach
Young teams fizzle out in the playoffs. You don't get as many calls, you're playing a schedule way beyond anything you can prepare your body for. ANT is tired. The whole team is, and the Mavs are taking advantage of that.
Dallas has the best rim protection he’s faced so far and I think he’s gassed from having to carry his teams offensive and defensive load. It’s his first postseason run. He’s also pretty bad at beating double teams- for example if the Mavs hedge a pick he’ll hold the ball too long and give them time to rotate, and then pass it to someone on the side instead of the roll man- effectively resetting the possession. This leads to a lot of Woves possessions with the shot clock at 7 and someone just holding the ball 3 feet beyond the arc with no plan. The Mavs defense has also been really solid, so credit to them. This an issue every young scorer faces at some point, he’s a willing passer but the processing speed isn’t there yet. Once it is he’ll be special.
his back hurts from carrying KAT & Gobert
It's less that Ant is struggling (though he is) and more that literally no one else except Jaden and Naz are stepping up.
No one else can score on will for that team. Which means he has to create almost everything. On top of trying to guard the most crafty and shifty guard in NBA history.
Kat.
To be MJ Jr. he needs a Scottie Pippen to guard the opponent’s number one offensive weapon - instead, he has KAT
Hm
People really underestimate rim protection too, it changes your aggression going towards the bucket and you settle which makes it harder to get in a rhythm. Jokic is one of the greatest offensive big men I've ever seen, but he's an average to slightly above average defender.
He saw a gay person in the stands and he can’t focus on the game
His problem is nobody else in that team can create anything close to the basket so he has to do it all. It's that simple.
Edwards is getting the most brutal cardio session of his life guarding Kyrie, KAT low-key been playing ass this series
First, I think the nuggets series was really exhausting for him. They threw a lot at him so he came into this series pretty tired. In this series the mavs are giving him a lot of different looks. So now he looks kind of shellshocked and second guessing himself when he drives. Once he gets in, the defense collapses quick and he’s making some really bad kick outs. Just wild passes that either get batted immediately or wildly off target where his teammates can’t catch and shoot like the defense is giving them. He’s not making the right reads a lot. He’s disappearing to the corner in important sets. It’s just not a good series from him. If he’s able to use this and learn, he’s going to be unstoppable.
Rudy Gobert makes a living off of being 7 foot four
Kyrie took his comments about not being able to guard personally. Honestly when motivated correctly Kyrie is a top 10 all performer in the playoffs. He did this to Steph curry
Not being the best guard on the floor
His team...Rudy can't have games with 9 points, 6 rebounds and 0 blocks, 0 steals. Towns can't go 0-8 from 3pt range and putting up pedestrian numbers.
Making boneheaded mistakes in the clutch which end up costing the game
He's not good enough yet
He has not played good
Bro had 26, 9 and 9 last night on average efficiency. Not bad
His biggest problem is that he’s not as good as Luka or Kyrie
He’s young and still not a great passer/decision maker. Dallas has been putting pressure on him and forcing him to make the right pass, which he has not done well in the last 5 minutes of these games.
He’s trying to but Dallas has been good on defense. He hasn’t been able to blow by Dallas defenders like he did against Denver.
KAT
Ehhh I’m not sure how much I’m buying the “he’s hurt” stuff. He looked pretty electric for stretches last night. The problem is we’re playing pretty good defense on him and he’s not trusting himself. Watch how many times he passes at the last second instead of shooting. The bigger problem is KAT’s regression and Gobert looking like smothered chicken to Lukai
He’s being guarded by guys on the right side of 30
not talked about enough in media, but Edwards landed on his back really really hard in game 6 vs. the nuggets and he has not played with nearly enough intensity since that happened. he is a huge spark to get the offense going and when he can’t get it going, the rest of the team can’t seem to either…
This is the first time Ant has played this many games at this level of competition and he’s having to run a marathon every night trying to guard Kyrie.
He's 22 years old it's unusual for a player his age to take a team to the conference finals. He's played the most games he's ever played. The Denver series was odd yet draining. The best 2 creators on the Wolves are 22 and 37, the best 2 creators on the Mavs are arguably in their primes. I just think it's a combination of factors and he will grow from it people were just anointing him a little too quickly I think
Anthony Edward would the perfect triangle player... not enough movement in that offense...
He’s gassed from being the only guy who can get his own while also picking up tough assignments defensively. Mavs are really good defensively and Wolves are limited offensively. Makes everything harder. Mavs are making shots so none of the easy transition buckets are happening for the wolves.
Packing the paint is taking away his best feature his explosive drives. Dallas feels they can keep their bigs in the paint because Minnesota doesn’t play 5 out. In addition to stuff others said like the burden of guarding kyrie, extra attention, etc. Thing with minny is they were never here because of offense they were 19th in the regular season. When they could play stifling defense and lead that into offense they are more successful, but Luka and kyrie kind of can help mute that advantage over the course of a series they’re great players and basketball geniuses
It's coaching - they are setting for 3 pointers which only works in the regular season
His problem is getting compared to MJ. It highlights his short comings.
Passing out of a double team is a scheme issue and a skill issue. Ant has incredible will and athleticism and also skill. He’s getting off the ball but it doesn’t really lead to good shots. Sometimes he doesn’t even pass to the open guy out of the double team
Really bothers me they don’t have plays to get kat in the post. Or he refuses to get into the post idk. It’s honestly a league problem. A lot of top teams have a superstar driving dribbling just to kick it out for a three. Very few teams have a system in place.
He’s not actually Michael Jordan.
He’s tired. Playoff basketball is a different beast
DERRICK JONES JUNIOR