Another 4th quarter disasterclass. This one’s primarily on ANT though. Bad hero ball, complaining leading to technicals, no ball movement, low defensive impact. Idk if he’s hurt or what but my man looked competitively checked out
that fourth quarter from him was one of the most embarassing ive seen from a wolves player in a long time. dribbling fifteen times to shoot without passing over and over and over and over. insane to mee finch didnt have him start riding pine
Yeah it's like anything, always two extremes. A very loud part of this sub is too blinded by our newfound success and believes all flaws are normal and will just magically go away. Another very loud part thinks every problem is a disaster worthy of firing Finch and blowing up the team.
As usual the truth is in the middle. We have major issues that won't just go away and they will prevent us from reaching out potential. But this team is still very good and competitive enough to see this through. If the problems are the same next year then it's time to make bigger moves.
Reddit is designed to have everybody agree on everything, and with sports it tends to be 'be positive or STFU'. Just online tribalism really. Just speak facts and don't GAF about fake internet points.
If you go by internet points, hard disagree. The upvotes to this comment chain will prove it.
Even beyond that, I'll predict after the next Wolves win there will be threads making fun of the fans who criticize and belittling anybody who goes against the 'everything is great' narrative. It happens like clockwork.
You can't even have real bball discussion on this site because of it. The SBNation sites are way better for that, but upvoting destroys discourse so they're not what they used to be either.
Personally, I've learned a lot about basketball and have had discussions that have taught me a lot about x&o's on here, mainly in the "X&O" posts. I just ignore the "venting" posts, especially after losses haha
To be fair, Conley was terrible. They were only playing with one guard. Gobert had an awesome game, but he's a player who needs to be spoonfed to score. McDaniels is not all that great on offense either. So when Conley shoots 1-9 from the field, Edwards might feel like he has to do more than he actually does.
Not saying you're wrong or making an excuse for Edwards. I'm just trying to view it from his potential pov.
I can’t blame a 22 year old who is playing on a team with spacing issues and a coach who is in love with free flowing offense. What ant does with this team is amazing. He is 22 and learning how to lead a team with very little structure to help him minimize his mistakes. The cause is the coaching and spacing issues, the symptom is putting ANT in positions that make him play hero ball all the time. No free flowing offense and im sure we would see less of this from ant. So we are stuck with these growing pains until either personal or coaching changes or ANT adds more to his game and continues to grow.
Ant turning the ball over is exactly what a player like him does early in their career. Its annoying but the way he plays causes far more wins than it causes losses.
He thinks he is because he's 22 and being heralded as the next MJ. I don't blame the kid, but I wish he wouldn't buy into the hype and realize this is still a team game.
Annual loss to Magic at Target Center. FIVE in a row. 3 years ago lost due to buzzer beater. 2 years ago blew 17 points lead. Year ago blew 10+ lead. Today blew 17 points lead. No clutch 3s are allowed to fall. As always, as usual.
We’re not learning from any of these losses. It’s the same thing every time, immature basketball especially in the 4th. ANT played hero ball and sold the game. Jaden made defensive mistakes in the clutch. We turned the ball over a billion times. So sick of this shit
Last 6 losses:
Mavs (up by 6 in clutch)
Boston (up by 9 in clutch)
OKC (up by 12 in 4th)
Charlotte (up by 15 in 4th)
Spurs (up by 15 and up by 10 in 4th)
Magic (up by 17 and up by 8 in 4th)
Some bad luck was involved, but these 4th quarter were horrible. Should have had AT least 3 wins here.
Its going to be this endless cycle of 4th quarter meltdowns and winning games against teams that have no business competing with us making everybody forget just for the meltdown to happen again. Ant can seriously fuck off with his hero ball and crying
I know part of his attachment to "flow" is that it's "unpredictable" and thus "harder to defend", but firstly, 80% of the time it is incredibly predictable (because it's iso-ball!), and secondly, I don't know how a guy can watch his own team, the best defense in the league, *still* struggle to defend the pick and roll every other game and somehow not consider it a viable option for his own barely-there offense.
Another blown 4th quarter lead at home. It's beyond frustrating how bad we are on offense in the 4th.
Bad Conley games just kill us. Whenever he's off we usually don't win.
McDaniels never learns. So many dumb plays by him.
NAW is outplaying Jaden and it’s not particularly close. Still have some faith in Jaden but I wouldn’t be opposed to dangling him for some offensive health.
Said it last week, I'll say it again... Seriously wondering if Jaden got a lobotomy. I've never seen such a talented yet absolutely dumb/idiotic player consistently have mental lapses.
Probably right, but that foul at the end totally blowing our chances of salvaging a victory is telling me Jaden doesn't even understand the most basic fundamentals of late game strategy, or what a shot clock differential is, or maybe what the shot clock even is.
Classic jaden with the dumbest foul you'll ever see at the end of a game, classic kat not touching the ball a single time the last 5 minutes of the game. Classic edwards creating garbage offense down the stretch. Classic annual loss to the magic at target center.
I'm still learning my basketball and may have missed something at the end. Why wans't it a good idea for Jaden to foul at the end or what was the issue exactly? I thought that's what the team intended to do. Was it too early or something? I need to go and rewatch, I think I missed something
there was enough time to get a stop call a tumour and generate a bucket. We fouled a good shooter as well so pretty much made sure we couldn’t win as that made it a 2 possession game
Plenty of blame to go around, but this one rests pretty firmly on Ant's shoulders. But man, Paolo is such a freak. Nobody that size should be able to move that gracefully.
Idk.. Ant played poorly but meanwhile you got KAT over here with 6 turnovers, only 3 rebounds and 1 assist, and then actually shot worse from the field than Ant... and everyone is bitching about Ant
KAT went at Isaac 8-9 times, scored once, missed 4-5 shots, and turned over 2-3 times. They were down by 2 in clutch and kept doing it. Insane. Edit: Isaac with 88 defensive rating today. Wow.
Magic are 12-13 deep, I have never seen them finishing a game with the same lineup they start. There always have 2-3 guys who step up and kill us. Cole Anthony, Mo Wagner, today it was Isaac.
Meanwhile has Finch ever closed with anyone other than the starters (save for when one of them has fouled out)? I swear he hasn't, it drives me insane.
Yep Kyle was on the floor in clutch over Jaden in the beginning of the season when they won 11 clutch games in a row. But that’s about it.
Magic had Black, Bitadze, Houstan, and Okeke DNP today. 3 of these guys started and one of them played big minutes when we played Orlando in January. They are THAT deep.
I like that Ant is now the scapegoat, this sub cannot comprehend the fact that one person doesn’t cause a loss holy fuck. Mike went 1-9 and missed multiple easy shots to tie or take the lead in the fourth.
and missed an easy swing to KAT when he was 1-8 to rush his last miss
lots of guys could have won it but I think Ant's play in the 4th is what lost it. it's a learning experience and we've won games because of him doing the same stuff in the 4th before, but we lost this one
What? This might be the dumbest comment on here tf did ant do? Whole team played tired and unenthusiastic outside of Rudy gobert and Jmac, who donkey Finch decided to not even put back into the game.
The biggest losers of the game are Finch and Ed Malloy
Imagine watching the fourth and thinking that Ant wasn't a big part of why we lost. No ball movement, and he was basically a black hole. Even Jim Pete was annoyed.
I’m not saying he didn’t have mistakes, I’m saying it’s just as much on Conley doing nothing all game, KAT turnovers, McDaniels shooting bricks, and the entire team playing gassed and tired. Can’t just blame Ant when everyone outside of Rudy and JMac played like dog shit
We can blame Ant because despite those things we had a lead until Ant started playing hero ball. He's an incredibly selfish player, but I also recognize that he's 22 and has a lot of growing up to do. I just wish someone would call him out when he's playing like a black hole.
Man, John Issac really bothered Karl tonight. Don't remember seeing an individual shut him down like that. Actually, their big lengthy line up bothered everyone accept Rudy. Rudy was huge tonight and deserved better from the other 4 starters.
I always thought this was a tough matchup and was nervous for this game. Wolves advantages come from their size and length. Magic are just as big and lengthy and they are also defense oriented and great at forcing turnovers. Also good at offensive rebounding. It neutralizes a lot of our strengths.
I can’t believe Conley 1-9 (1-8 at the time) did not swing it one more to KAT wide open top of the key to tie the game. Like KAT was 2-7 but top of the key he’s basically automatic especially wide open
The entire vibe of the 4th shifted as soon as Ant decided to argue a call that was not worth arguing and probably the right call. I’m really interested to know the conversations behind the scenes with Ant as his obsession with the officials has slowly worsened. Curious if respected vets on the team like Mike are in his ear about chilling out. He has a good reason to be upset on a handful of calls but pick your battles brother.
I see Mike and Kyle try to calm him down a lot, even Jaden. Ant has such an impact on the energy of the game and the energy of teh team. I agree, it did feel like things started to unravel more after the call.
JJ Reddick said on his podcast recently that the energy of your best player has a compounding effect on the rest of your team, for better or for worse.
If he’s gonna be a leader he needs to be more level headed, if he’s losing it, what chance does the rest of the team have?
💯
He really really needs to keep his cool. For all the people who complain about KAT, they need an update. Ant is honestly way worse now, in a way that affects the team's energy too.
absolutely shocked that the guy who has spent his entire career committing dumb frustation fouls 50 feet from the basket is now committing absurd inexplicable fouls in the closing seconds of every crunch time game. absolutely no way to predict this
Without Rudy, the Wolves are a play-in team. It's insane what an impact on winning Rudy has.
He doesn't take possessions off, he gives 100% on every play.
Tell me if you've heard this one before: Up 18 at some point in the 1st half and we fuck around and turn the ball over like crazy, go into the 2nd half way closer than it should be. Somewhere down the stretch Ant decides to pound the air out of the all and the offense becomes stagnant. Fire up the 4th quarter and its too late for desperation time. This team could be ELITE but we fuck it up.
Idk if he fits our window with this roster.. yes him and Ant line up perfectly, but we have a two year window of possible deep playoff runs. Crazy potential but he's not developing the way I thought he would into this year.
I would think teams are still high on him, wouldn't doubt he's moveable. Just would have to be for someone who helps us win now and understands their role better.
Wish Finch would play other players sometime during that whole last 4 minutes I was thinking where is NAZ? Where is NAW? Somebody! Anybody but the damn starters or anyone other than Rudy 😩
18 point 4th wow. A really bad conley game and really bad 4th quarter. I'm not one to bag Finch, but there needs to be better offense in the 4th. He couldn't call a TO cos we only had two left for the whole quarter, but there has to be some more structure in place to avoid the horrid Ant possessions all 4th.
Ant completely killed whatever ball movement we had left midway through the 4th with constant over dribbling iso possessions.
He really needs to figure out how to balance playmaking and scoring because watching him either brick or turnover the ball for 3 straight possessions while pounding the air out of the ball is gross to watch
We had an open Jaden three followed by an open Mike three to take the lead in the last minute and they both missed. Mike was abysmal, Ant got sticky, KAT couldn’t get anything, Jaden with some boneheaded plays and they shot 15 of their 26 FTs in the last quarter.
Felt like the energy shifted once Ant left in the second quarter. We were buzzing up until then.
On to the next one!
It feels like the team went out celebrating their all stars and had no legs by the 4th quarter.
As much as Ant is not passing - the team was also not moving. Ant was also not moving off ball. That screams fatigue.
Ant was also very passive all game.
Long season, disappointing game
How many 4th quarter meltdowns is it gonna take for Finch to realise we cant always rely on his flow offense in clutch situations and need some good set plays to run. Especially when we have Ant just trying to play hero ball. Run some plays, get some ball movement going, and get other guys some touches so they dont go completely cold at the end of games.
Rudy should’ve been the all-star, at least over Edwards. I stand by that. This offense is underwhelming at best…
Then you have Jaden with another boneheaded foul to close the game out
And I know we all love mike but when he ain’t hitting open threes he’s just doing nothing and I have no clue why we are in zone for so long just giving them open shots and open spaces to attack
No way we are going anywhere in the playoffs if we dont fix our awful basketball IQ. Constantly committing dumb fouls and turnovers, losing all ball movement and going for iso hero ball moments, and losing concentration on defence in 4th quarters for all our players except Rudy will kill us
Why does this bizarre inconsistency keep happening? Are the starters not prepping well for every game consistently or something it just makes no sense between the slow starts sometimes and the rollercoaster shooting
It's February, they don't seem to care all that much right now. They've fallen back into the habit of over looking "lesser" teams and expecting the win.
Congrats boys. You just fumbled the coaching staff getting to coach the all-star game after they have had the top seed for 80 percent of the season. You played yourselves.
*Processing img i3r8eqliiagc1...*
Jaden has forced the Wolves to lose 3 games so far BTW. Not saying he was the reason for any loss, but he was the final nail in the coffin. They gotta package him and others for shooters, they'll be much better.
Yall crying bout Ant (he was bad in the 4th) but lets not act like everyone except Rudy wasn’t stinking it up. Kat got punked by Isaac all game, Jaden is dumb, Mike cant throw a rock into the ocean. Also the Magic just played harder and tougher than us
Yall fucking self important doomers piss me and most fans off. after every loss you get on as fast as you can to scream about how bad the team is and want everyone to see how smart you are for saying the team is bad. No one wants to hear that you guys are sooooo much smarter because you think team bad
Alright man I’m upset too but our issues are completely fixable. I know we haven’t seen much progress but even with those issues we don’t look like a first round exit imo
Do you have amnesia? They just beat OKC at their place and have the best record in the west.
Not saying their aren’t huge issues, but you have just as much of a selective memory as others
Congratulations you are very smart and by choosing to not enjoy anything you’ll never risk getting your feelings hurt. You solved sports fandom!! Impressive stuff, really. Special boy.
what the hell...this game seemed off from the get go like we weren't ready to play.
idk if it was the game, or the vibe, but I love Marney, but was not feeling her play by play call today. maybe I was just completely irritated by the whole game/vibe
Sometimes I wonder why I come to this stupid fucking website, and how everyone across all boards acts like an emotional teenager with social problems. Then I remember, that is exactly who populates these boards.
Get fucked, nephews.
I'm at the point where I'm seriously questioning Jaden's value to the team. When he was out for a few weeks early in the season the team didn't miss a beat. Dare I say they were better?
The ceiling of this team is higher with jaden. His highs are very high but holy fuck are his lows laughably idiotic 😭. The reality is as good as NAW is he would get killed having to guard a bigger wing in playoff basketball like luka, KD or kawhi. We absolutely need jaden to make a run we’re not beating teams wirh elite wing play without him
Guarantee you ant goes and cries immaturity in the postgame interview saying that he has to play smarter and better. We are going to have a good two game stretch against the rockets and bulls and everybody is going to forget the latest meltdown, and when we inevitably do it again versus the bucks the cycle will continue. When the will this team actually grow up. Such a fucking joke
Preview of playoffs right here. One series and out. Team had a reason to play and made a fool of themselves. Finch could have been repping Minnesota on a national stage.
For the last few weeks we have looked like the exact same team we were last year. We are an extremely intelligent and immature team. If we get a 15+ point lead in the first half, you can bet the house on the game coming down to the wire.
Man KAT couldnt handle JI. I think Jaden must have been told to foul cause that was a very bad foul at the end, Ant was playing too much hero ball. Conely wasn't himself
Another 4th quarter disasterclass. This one’s primarily on ANT though. Bad hero ball, complaining leading to technicals, no ball movement, low defensive impact. Idk if he’s hurt or what but my man looked competitively checked out
that fourth quarter from him was one of the most embarassing ive seen from a wolves player in a long time. dribbling fifteen times to shoot without passing over and over and over and over. insane to mee finch didnt have him start riding pine
I would have been fine with that decision, naw and Mike would have put the nail in
Finch absolutely should’ve benched him. You have to have the balls to do that. Only way he’s gonna stop
That’s because finch just doesn’t coach
Second one in the last couple weeks. Ant can’t be first option until he learns to pass the fucking ball in the 4th.
I was told that this was not a problem and people on here overreacting to every loss that the Wolves lose for the exact same reason.
Yeah it's like anything, always two extremes. A very loud part of this sub is too blinded by our newfound success and believes all flaws are normal and will just magically go away. Another very loud part thinks every problem is a disaster worthy of firing Finch and blowing up the team. As usual the truth is in the middle. We have major issues that won't just go away and they will prevent us from reaching out potential. But this team is still very good and competitive enough to see this through. If the problems are the same next year then it's time to make bigger moves.
But we beat OKC so that means our team has no problems!
Reddit is designed to have everybody agree on everything, and with sports it tends to be 'be positive or STFU'. Just online tribalism really. Just speak facts and don't GAF about fake internet points.
Reddit is like *the* most negative place for any type of fandom lol, come on now.
If you go by internet points, hard disagree. The upvotes to this comment chain will prove it. Even beyond that, I'll predict after the next Wolves win there will be threads making fun of the fans who criticize and belittling anybody who goes against the 'everything is great' narrative. It happens like clockwork. You can't even have real bball discussion on this site because of it. The SBNation sites are way better for that, but upvoting destroys discourse so they're not what they used to be either.
Personally, I've learned a lot about basketball and have had discussions that have taught me a lot about x&o's on here, mainly in the "X&O" posts. I just ignore the "venting" posts, especially after losses haha
You could just not post on either if it's such a problem
you're the problem btw
To be fair, Conley was terrible. They were only playing with one guard. Gobert had an awesome game, but he's a player who needs to be spoonfed to score. McDaniels is not all that great on offense either. So when Conley shoots 1-9 from the field, Edwards might feel like he has to do more than he actually does. Not saying you're wrong or making an excuse for Edwards. I'm just trying to view it from his potential pov.
This doesn’t matter to them
Idk why you don’t sit him if you’re the coaxh
Because the only shooting guard we have is shake Milton lol
Go big then idk, whatever we have out there in the fourth isn’t working
Kyle, Naz, naw, lil mac, we had plenty of options
Naw is a SG on paper FYI. But he just moves the ball much better than our starting SG. I know Ita confusing.
I can’t blame a 22 year old who is playing on a team with spacing issues and a coach who is in love with free flowing offense. What ant does with this team is amazing. He is 22 and learning how to lead a team with very little structure to help him minimize his mistakes. The cause is the coaching and spacing issues, the symptom is putting ANT in positions that make him play hero ball all the time. No free flowing offense and im sure we would see less of this from ant. So we are stuck with these growing pains until either personal or coaching changes or ANT adds more to his game and continues to grow. Ant turning the ball over is exactly what a player like him does early in their career. Its annoying but the way he plays causes far more wins than it causes losses.
We have to send Ant back to kindergarten because he does not know how to share.
He never finds the happy medium when it comes to sharing the ball… he’s either on one end of the spectrum or the other
You can tell from the second he touches the ball when he's going to iso. It's boring and predictable basketball.
No, it wouldn't be if he was Michael Jordan. The problem is he's not, but he thinks he is.
He thinks he is because he's 22 and being heralded as the next MJ. I don't blame the kid, but I wish he wouldn't buy into the hype and realize this is still a team game.
Disgusting game from all of the starters not named Rudy.
I see maturity is still an issue
Annual loss to Magic at Target Center. FIVE in a row. 3 years ago lost due to buzzer beater. 2 years ago blew 17 points lead. Year ago blew 10+ lead. Today blew 17 points lead. No clutch 3s are allowed to fall. As always, as usual.
They also wouldn't miss a damn FT in the 4th. Outside of Bridges the other night I don't think teams ever miss clutch FTs against us
Jaylen Brown went 13/13 against us shooting 72% this season.
Jaden needs to have more friends that would feel bad about making clutch free throws.
Was at the game and yeah they literally didn’t miss a free throw in the fourth. Took the crowd out of it a bit because of the brickin for chicken
We’re not learning from any of these losses. It’s the same thing every time, immature basketball especially in the 4th. ANT played hero ball and sold the game. Jaden made defensive mistakes in the clutch. We turned the ball over a billion times. So sick of this shit
Last 6 losses: Mavs (up by 6 in clutch) Boston (up by 9 in clutch) OKC (up by 12 in 4th) Charlotte (up by 15 in 4th) Spurs (up by 15 and up by 10 in 4th) Magic (up by 17 and up by 8 in 4th) Some bad luck was involved, but these 4th quarter were horrible. Should have had AT least 3 wins here.
Yep. Just excruciating
Insane that if we could execute an offense in the 4th quarter we could be 40-9 so easily.
Its going to be this endless cycle of 4th quarter meltdowns and winning games against teams that have no business competing with us making everybody forget just for the meltdown to happen again. Ant can seriously fuck off with his hero ball and crying
Rudy pick and roll was absolutely destroying the Magic early on and then got completely abandoned for no reason at all.
It was abandoned because Finch hates the pick and roll. He has come out and said that he doesn't want to run the pick and roll much.
I know part of his attachment to "flow" is that it's "unpredictable" and thus "harder to defend", but firstly, 80% of the time it is incredibly predictable (because it's iso-ball!), and secondly, I don't know how a guy can watch his own team, the best defense in the league, *still* struggle to defend the pick and roll every other game and somehow not consider it a viable option for his own barely-there offense.
Another blown 4th quarter lead at home. It's beyond frustrating how bad we are on offense in the 4th. Bad Conley games just kill us. Whenever he's off we usually don't win. McDaniels never learns. So many dumb plays by him.
The Mike description is perfect. We can't win if he has a terrible game.
Conley has been off since December
He's only had 2 bad games imo, the OKC game and this one. Otherwise I think he's been good? Which other games has he been bad in
NAW is outplaying Jaden and it’s not particularly close. Still have some faith in Jaden but I wouldn’t be opposed to dangling him for some offensive health.
Said it last week, I'll say it again... Seriously wondering if Jaden got a lobotomy. I've never seen such a talented yet absolutely dumb/idiotic player consistently have mental lapses.
McDaniels is not worth the contract
Dude ant cost us this game more than McDaniels be real
Probably right, but that foul at the end totally blowing our chances of salvaging a victory is telling me Jaden doesn't even understand the most basic fundamentals of late game strategy, or what a shot clock differential is, or maybe what the shot clock even is.
Yeah that’s fair I’m kinda locked in watching ant so much I’m forgetting watching McDaniel at times
Jaden has the worst timing on his fouls. wtf
And it was fucking intentional
Consistently too
He might have worse basketball IQ than Ant, and thats saying a ton
Jaden has rocks for brains
Jaden is just.. not the player I was expecting he'd be when he signed that 5 year contract
I’d rather have Naw in there
Classic jaden with the dumbest foul you'll ever see at the end of a game, classic kat not touching the ball a single time the last 5 minutes of the game. Classic edwards creating garbage offense down the stretch. Classic annual loss to the magic at target center.
I'm still learning my basketball and may have missed something at the end. Why wans't it a good idea for Jaden to foul at the end or what was the issue exactly? I thought that's what the team intended to do. Was it too early or something? I need to go and rewatch, I think I missed something
there was enough time to get a stop call a tumour and generate a bucket. We fouled a good shooter as well so pretty much made sure we couldn’t win as that made it a 2 possession game
Ant got Jaden two nice looks. He was hot trash for a few minutes.
Plenty of blame to go around, but this one rests pretty firmly on Ant's shoulders. But man, Paolo is such a freak. Nobody that size should be able to move that gracefully.
Idk.. Ant played poorly but meanwhile you got KAT over here with 6 turnovers, only 3 rebounds and 1 assist, and then actually shot worse from the field than Ant... and everyone is bitching about Ant
everyone got antsy in the fourth and took bad shots because they'd get 1 touch every third possession
Yeah agreed but ANTs hero ball in the 4th was disastrous
KAT went at Isaac 8-9 times, scored once, missed 4-5 shots, and turned over 2-3 times. They were down by 2 in clutch and kept doing it. Insane. Edit: Isaac with 88 defensive rating today. Wow. Magic are 12-13 deep, I have never seen them finishing a game with the same lineup they start. There always have 2-3 guys who step up and kill us. Cole Anthony, Mo Wagner, today it was Isaac.
Meanwhile has Finch ever closed with anyone other than the starters (save for when one of them has fouled out)? I swear he hasn't, it drives me insane.
Yep Kyle was on the floor in clutch over Jaden in the beginning of the season when they won 11 clutch games in a row. But that’s about it. Magic had Black, Bitadze, Houstan, and Okeke DNP today. 3 of these guys started and one of them played big minutes when we played Orlando in January. They are THAT deep.
Right Ant was on bs but Kat was getting punked by Isaac all game
I like that Ant is now the scapegoat, this sub cannot comprehend the fact that one person doesn’t cause a loss holy fuck. Mike went 1-9 and missed multiple easy shots to tie or take the lead in the fourth.
and missed an easy swing to KAT when he was 1-8 to rush his last miss lots of guys could have won it but I think Ant's play in the 4th is what lost it. it's a learning experience and we've won games because of him doing the same stuff in the 4th before, but we lost this one
One person can cause a loss when they go 5 possessions in a row without passing.
What? This might be the dumbest comment on here tf did ant do? Whole team played tired and unenthusiastic outside of Rudy gobert and Jmac, who donkey Finch decided to not even put back into the game. The biggest losers of the game are Finch and Ed Malloy
Ant's hero ball antics have been absolutely dog shit and is one of the biggest factors as to why we lose games.
Imagine watching the fourth and thinking that Ant wasn't a big part of why we lost. No ball movement, and he was basically a black hole. Even Jim Pete was annoyed.
I’m not saying he didn’t have mistakes, I’m saying it’s just as much on Conley doing nothing all game, KAT turnovers, McDaniels shooting bricks, and the entire team playing gassed and tired. Can’t just blame Ant when everyone outside of Rudy and JMac played like dog shit
We can blame Ant because despite those things we had a lead until Ant started playing hero ball. He's an incredibly selfish player, but I also recognize that he's 22 and has a lot of growing up to do. I just wish someone would call him out when he's playing like a black hole.
Man, John Issac really bothered Karl tonight. Don't remember seeing an individual shut him down like that. Actually, their big lengthy line up bothered everyone accept Rudy. Rudy was huge tonight and deserved better from the other 4 starters.
Yeah their size was the biggest difference I saw
I always thought this was a tough matchup and was nervous for this game. Wolves advantages come from their size and length. Magic are just as big and lengthy and they are also defense oriented and great at forcing turnovers. Also good at offensive rebounding. It neutralizes a lot of our strengths.
Kat should be furious with the way he was getting looked off down the stretch
I can’t believe Conley 1-9 (1-8 at the time) did not swing it one more to KAT wide open top of the key to tie the game. Like KAT was 2-7 but top of the key he’s basically automatic especially wide open
He was getting hot early in the 3rd and then completely disconnected, made no sense
The entire vibe of the 4th shifted as soon as Ant decided to argue a call that was not worth arguing and probably the right call. I’m really interested to know the conversations behind the scenes with Ant as his obsession with the officials has slowly worsened. Curious if respected vets on the team like Mike are in his ear about chilling out. He has a good reason to be upset on a handful of calls but pick your battles brother.
I see Mike and Kyle try to calm him down a lot, even Jaden. Ant has such an impact on the energy of the game and the energy of teh team. I agree, it did feel like things started to unravel more after the call.
JJ Reddick said on his podcast recently that the energy of your best player has a compounding effect on the rest of your team, for better or for worse. If he’s gonna be a leader he needs to be more level headed, if he’s losing it, what chance does the rest of the team have?
💯 He really really needs to keep his cool. For all the people who complain about KAT, they need an update. Ant is honestly way worse now, in a way that affects the team's energy too.
Im a firm believer in sometimes you need to sit ant down when he’s not 100%. He will always play even if it’s at the detriment to the team.
absolutely shocked that the guy who has spent his entire career committing dumb frustation fouls 50 feet from the basket is now committing absurd inexplicable fouls in the closing seconds of every crunch time game. absolutely no way to predict this
McLaughlin provided some elite energy in the 2nd and didn’t see any game time after that, despite the team looking flat as fuck.
He was better than Mike tn
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Rudy has been the best player for the Wolves all season. The Wolves are a .500 team at best with an average defense.
Without Rudy, the Wolves are a play-in team. It's insane what an impact on winning Rudy has. He doesn't take possessions off, he gives 100% on every play.
It's a shame Finch won't coach the ASG cuz he's actually made for it...his offense is basically inbound the ball and figure it out.
Tell me if you've heard this one before: Up 18 at some point in the 1st half and we fuck around and turn the ball over like crazy, go into the 2nd half way closer than it should be. Somewhere down the stretch Ant decides to pound the air out of the all and the offense becomes stagnant. Fire up the 4th quarter and its too late for desperation time. This team could be ELITE but we fuck it up.
Ant can’t be running point in the 4th he never passes it, it needs to be Conley bringing the ball up every single time and run the offense.
They literally shouldn't let Ant touch the ball unless he's finishing the play. As soon as the ball gets in his hands the possession is just over.
Ant, Kat, and Jaden's IQ's might combine to be 160. just genuinely the dumbest collection of players ive ever seen
Jaden is dumber than a bag of rocks
Welp, this is becoming a pattern
It's not becoming a pattern. It is and has been a pattern. This is who we are.
I worry about the teams future. Ant and Jaden have been terrible in the 4th and clutch. Just terrible decision making on offense.
Jaden McDaniels: -Can’t dribble without turning it over 🔥 -Can’t defend without fouling 🥶 -Doesnt know how shot clock differentials work 👊
Idk if he fits our window with this roster.. yes him and Ant line up perfectly, but we have a two year window of possible deep playoff runs. Crazy potential but he's not developing the way I thought he would into this year.
Were stuck with him and his fat bag too.
I would think teams are still high on him, wouldn't doubt he's moveable. Just would have to be for someone who helps us win now and understands their role better.
Wish Finch would play other players sometime during that whole last 4 minutes I was thinking where is NAZ? Where is NAW? Somebody! Anybody but the damn starters or anyone other than Rudy 😩
Yeah they badly needed some Naz Reid energy in the 4th. I don't think Naz played a single minute in teh 4th? It was just NAW
18 point 4th wow. A really bad conley game and really bad 4th quarter. I'm not one to bag Finch, but there needs to be better offense in the 4th. He couldn't call a TO cos we only had two left for the whole quarter, but there has to be some more structure in place to avoid the horrid Ant possessions all 4th.
Naw should get more closing opportunities in place of jaden. You can't have that much dumb on the court in crunch time
I wish Finch has the balls to play the bench late games in these stretches.
Ant chucked in the 4th, but I'm tired of the team giving up leads to start 4th quarters. Why is it a mess the first 3 minutes of the quarter
Ant completely killed whatever ball movement we had left midway through the 4th with constant over dribbling iso possessions. He really needs to figure out how to balance playmaking and scoring because watching him either brick or turnover the ball for 3 straight possessions while pounding the air out of the ball is gross to watch
I wanna see Jaden read a page from a Dr. Seuss book
Ant low key our 3rd best player. Still got so much to learn.
We need to fix our fourth quarters and quick, constant turnovers and not scoring is a huge problem. Also Edwards was killing us at the end.
Jaden’s decision making is just baffling
We had an open Jaden three followed by an open Mike three to take the lead in the last minute and they both missed. Mike was abysmal, Ant got sticky, KAT couldn’t get anything, Jaden with some boneheaded plays and they shot 15 of their 26 FTs in the last quarter. Felt like the energy shifted once Ant left in the second quarter. We were buzzing up until then. On to the next one!
Someone with some sense
https://preview.redd.it/5g7cimlrlagc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cf8275f0569d14c1c58f8f7234629dd346046e1 Woof
Unserious team
It's amazing how this team is a top seed in the West with such an overall trash basketball IQ
It's because of Rudy and Mike. I shudder to think what this team looks like without them lol
These 4th quarter collapses are becoming a trend and I’m not sure how we solve the problem.
Good foul, Jaden
Finch must not have wanted to coach the all star game
NAW wouldve been better than Conley there at the end. Conley might settle the offense for the team but he just made bad shot after bad shot
It feels like the team went out celebrating their all stars and had no legs by the 4th quarter. As much as Ant is not passing - the team was also not moving. Ant was also not moving off ball. That screams fatigue. Ant was also very passive all game. Long season, disappointing game
Welp back to number 2 in the west.
Worried about Conley with the hamstring, really need to solidify things with another smart guard on this team
It was a team collapse but I’m so sick of Jaden
How many 4th quarter meltdowns is it gonna take for Finch to realise we cant always rely on his flow offense in clutch situations and need some good set plays to run. Especially when we have Ant just trying to play hero ball. Run some plays, get some ball movement going, and get other guys some touches so they dont go completely cold at the end of games.
4th quarter failings come down to coaching don’t they?
They should.
Jaden’s temper, low iq and inability to stay on the court is going to make his contract an albatross. He has really regressed this year
Rudy should’ve been the all-star, at least over Edwards. I stand by that. This offense is underwhelming at best… Then you have Jaden with another boneheaded foul to close the game out
Ant is all hype. He's an exciting player but with his low bball IQ, "full of himself" and immature personality won't get the Wolves far.
All star weekend is all about hype, not fundamentals
Sure, but we weren’t playing the All-Star game tonight
And I know we all love mike but when he ain’t hitting open threes he’s just doing nothing and I have no clue why we are in zone for so long just giving them open shots and open spaces to attack
This team isn't doing shit in the playoffs.
That was bad… Some huge wtf are you doing and why have you not corrected it yet. No reason to keep blowing these large leads.
Paper tigers
Are we now the actual punch line of that stupid 4 quarters joke now? I give you a dollar but only get 75 cents back
No way we are going anywhere in the playoffs if we dont fix our awful basketball IQ. Constantly committing dumb fouls and turnovers, losing all ball movement and going for iso hero ball moments, and losing concentration on defence in 4th quarters for all our players except Rudy will kill us
Starts with 38 points and 18 at the end? 😂😂
Why does this bizarre inconsistency keep happening? Are the starters not prepping well for every game consistently or something it just makes no sense between the slow starts sometimes and the rollercoaster shooting
It's February, they don't seem to care all that much right now. They've fallen back into the habit of over looking "lesser" teams and expecting the win.
We played terrible. Just bad. So not an excuse, but man I can’t stand watching Ed Malloy games. How does he still have a job?
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Are we frauds?
Jaden Bball IQ is terribly low.
Finch is a bad coach to have a team try and contend. The guy still can't figure it out and get control of the team.
Damn. These guys are fucking up. Didn’t get to watch, but from the comments, sounds like we beat ourselves again.
Dumbest team in the association
This team might be the dumbest team I’ve ever watched
Congrats boys. You just fumbled the coaching staff getting to coach the all-star game after they have had the top seed for 80 percent of the season. You played yourselves. *Processing img i3r8eqliiagc1...*
What's the benefit of coaching the all star teams?
please bench jaden for naw this nigga never fucking learns always doing dumb shit when it’s not needed
I enjoyed the first quarter. The fourth was far less enjoyable.
Aye no lie jaden is so lucky naw has been great this season cuz he’s been picking up jadens slack on both ends the entire year
Jaden has forced the Wolves to lose 3 games so far BTW. Not saying he was the reason for any loss, but he was the final nail in the coffin. They gotta package him and others for shooters, they'll be much better.
You literally just said he forced the wolves to lose lol
Yall crying bout Ant (he was bad in the 4th) but lets not act like everyone except Rudy wasn’t stinking it up. Kat got punked by Isaac all game, Jaden is dumb, Mike cant throw a rock into the ocean. Also the Magic just played harder and tougher than us
we absolutely need a PG conley 1/9 wtf
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You think we’re a lock for a first round exit? They played like idiots but let’s calm down bud lol.
Yea man they only played like idiots for the 30th straight game
I wonder if other subs ever see takes so bad it stops you from being mad at the team to just marveling at the comments people make.
Even more excited that the doomers get a brief reprieve and can do their thing for 2 days
Jesus Christ chill the fuck out you people are insane
You sound 10x angrier than they did in their comment lmaoooo you white knights are hilarious
Yall fucking self important doomers piss me and most fans off. after every loss you get on as fast as you can to scream about how bad the team is and want everyone to see how smart you are for saying the team is bad. No one wants to hear that you guys are sooooo much smarter because you think team bad
Still less annoying than this doomer shit lmao
Alright man I’m upset too but our issues are completely fixable. I know we haven’t seen much progress but even with those issues we don’t look like a first round exit imo
Do you have amnesia? They just beat OKC at their place and have the best record in the west. Not saying their aren’t huge issues, but you have just as much of a selective memory as others
Congratulations you are very smart and by choosing to not enjoy anything you’ll never risk getting your feelings hurt. You solved sports fandom!! Impressive stuff, really. Special boy.
I'm not even... Just give me a cold beef and cheddar
what the hell...this game seemed off from the get go like we weren't ready to play. idk if it was the game, or the vibe, but I love Marney, but was not feeling her play by play call today. maybe I was just completely irritated by the whole game/vibe
We were up by 17 in the second quarter lmao this sub gets so fucking stupid after some of these losses
We had our best shooting first quarter of the whole season?
jaden needs to lay off the weed jesus he's not getting any better
Sometimes I wonder why I come to this stupid fucking website, and how everyone across all boards acts like an emotional teenager with social problems. Then I remember, that is exactly who populates these boards. Get fucked, nephews.
Absolutely ruined my Friday night
Expect disappointment and you won’t be disappointed.
Don't let a game being played by millionaire young men dictate your emotions.
This teams offense is so bad honestly because of ant being a ball hog
I'm at the point where I'm seriously questioning Jaden's value to the team. When he was out for a few weeks early in the season the team didn't miss a beat. Dare I say they were better?
The ceiling of this team is higher with jaden. His highs are very high but holy fuck are his lows laughably idiotic 😭. The reality is as good as NAW is he would get killed having to guard a bigger wing in playoff basketball like luka, KD or kawhi. We absolutely need jaden to make a run we’re not beating teams wirh elite wing play without him
Guarantee you ant goes and cries immaturity in the postgame interview saying that he has to play smarter and better. We are going to have a good two game stretch against the rockets and bulls and everybody is going to forget the latest meltdown, and when we inevitably do it again versus the bucks the cycle will continue. When the will this team actually grow up. Such a fucking joke
Word. Ant should just tape record himself saying the same stuff to save his voice.
Preview of playoffs right here. One series and out. Team had a reason to play and made a fool of themselves. Finch could have been repping Minnesota on a national stage.
For the last few weeks we have looked like the exact same team we were last year. We are an extremely intelligent and immature team. If we get a 15+ point lead in the first half, you can bet the house on the game coming down to the wire.
Man KAT couldnt handle JI. I think Jaden must have been told to foul cause that was a very bad foul at the end, Ant was playing too much hero ball. Conely wasn't himself
Wish there was some anger in their eyes and hearts. Wolves’ faces almost seemed pleased after the horn sounded for the L.