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If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:31 pm
by JustBuzzin
Say a team gets the #1 pick and Cooper Flagg is on the table.
Do you seriously consider trading Ant for Flagg/fillers/pick or two?
I'm thinking new ownership probably wants to start fresh and build around a low salary star. Minnesota is kind of screwed building around Ant with the Gobert and Randle contracts. They also not a a attractive market for stars. New ownership might tear it down imo.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:35 pm
by jasonxxx102
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:37 pm
by Wingy
Pretty pointless since the team drafting Flagg isn’t trading him for maxed out Ant.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:38 pm
by King4Day
I don't think Minny does it at the risk Flagg doesn't work out (and that they don't have many of their picks left in case they tank).
But given the team was cutting salary, it's possible they might consider it and blow it up.
I'd say they should do it if that was on the table.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:39 pm
by JustBuzzin
Wingy wrote:Pretty pointless since the team drafting Flagg isn’t trading him for maxed out Ant.
Damn Ant is chopped liver now?
Dude went from being the future face of the NBA to he's not worth Cooper Flagg.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:39 pm
by Dan33185
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:39 pm
by Bornstellar
Flagg isn't Wemby. No sane GM would make that trade. Especially after seeing how Mavs fans have reacted to them trading Luka for an actual established player. The fanbase would probably riot if they traded their young franchise superstar for an unknown hypothetical
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:40 pm
by bisme37
A day after the Luka trade went down I saw a few headlines about how Mavs contacted one other West team along with LAL. Sounds like that team was the Wolves and they decided Ant was not on the table for Luka.
https://sports.yahoo.com/report-mavs-engaged-timberwolves-luka-151821511.html
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:43 pm
by Bornstellar
Whoa, didn't know that. Assumed the other WC team they approached was the Spurs because Victor is one of the few players that you wouldn't trade for Luka. If Mavs actually wanted to trade Ant for Luka then the Wolves probably should have taken that offer. Luka is better than Ant will ever be imo
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:43 pm
by JustBuzzin
Can you move this to the trade board. I thought I posted it there my bad guys.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:45 pm
by JustBuzzin
Bornstellar wrote:Whoa, didn't know that. Assumed the other WC team they approached was the Spurs because Victor is one of the few players that you wouldn't trade for Luka. If Mavs actually wanted to trade Ant for Luka then the Wolves probably should have taken that offer. Luka is better than Ant will ever be imo
I don't know bro. Ant plays both sides. I think it's actually a hard decision. As great as Luka is he was equally as awful on defense in the Finals.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:45 pm
by AleksandarN
JustBuzzin wrote:Say a team gets the #1 pick and Cooper Flagg is on the table.
Do you seriously consider trading Ant for Flagg/fillers/pick or two?
I'm thinking new ownership probably wants to start fresh and build around a low salary star. Minnesota is kind of screwed building around Ant with the Gobert and Randle contracts. They also not a an attractive market for stars. New ownership might tear it down imo.
Give it up the Hornets are not getting ANT even if they were he would be bolting anyways when his contract is up lol
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:48 pm
by zero rings
I’ve seen enough of Ant to know he’s never going to be a true franchise player. Not dynamic enough, not mature enough.
I’d much rather roll the dice on Flagg. Even if he doesn’t reach MVP heights, you can be pretty certain he’s going to be a great two way wing.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:50 pm
by JustBuzzin
AleksandarN wrote:JustBuzzin wrote:Say a team gets the #1 pick and Cooper Flagg is on the table.
Do you seriously consider trading Ant for Flagg/fillers/pick or two?
I'm thinking new ownership probably wants to start fresh and build around a low salary star. Minnesota is kind of screwed building around Ant with the Gobert and Randle contracts. They also not a an attractive market for stars. New ownership might tear it down imo.
Give it up the Hornets are not getting ANT even if they were he would be bolting anyways when his contract is up lol
You got me!
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:54 pm
by Wingy
JustBuzzin wrote:Wingy wrote:Pretty pointless since the team drafting Flagg isn’t trading him for maxed out Ant.
Damn Ant is chopped liver now?
Dude went from being the future face of the NBA to he's not worth Cooper Flagg.
Most terrible teams shouldn’t be doing win now trades and eating up max cap. Then what? You have a high end star on a still terrible team and they want out sooner than later dragging down their value.
Sure, there are some niche teams that if they got lottery luck it could make sense. The Pelicans and Magic are examples.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:56 pm
by Mr. Perfect
JustBuzzin wrote:Wingy wrote:Pretty pointless since the team drafting Flagg isn’t trading him for maxed out Ant.
Damn Ant is chopped liver now?
Dude went from being the future face of the NBA to he's not worth Cooper Flagg.
No one credible would ever rank Ant in that echelon of players. It's just American casuals and media-heads that were desperately trying to stick one of their own guys in that tier.
To answer your question, judging by who's in the bottom 5-6 teams right now, I would say most would probably make that trade except Utah and Washington. Utah because he's not a fit for that market the way Cooper Flagg is, and Washington is probably looking at a long multi-year rebuild and having Ant on that roster isn't going to do anything for them.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 6:06 pm
by shrink
Bornstellar wrote:Whoa, didn't know that. Assumed the other WC team they approached was the Spurs because Victor is one of the few players that you wouldn't trade for Luka. If Mavs actually wanted to trade Ant for Luka then the Wolves probably should have taken that offer. Luka is better than Ant will ever be imo
I’m sure every fanbase had someone start a discussion whether they’d trade their best player for Luka. I wrote this:
shrink wrote:guest81 wrote:Little rumor out there that Mavs reached out to the Wolves about Luka. Would you have traded ant for luka? I think ultimately no but if they pulled the trigger i wouldn't be mad about it
I’ve given this some thought.
There are four players that are automatic “no’s”. Jokic, SGA, Giannis (probably) and Wemby.
But there is another small set of guys that are worse than Doncic, but the teams may still say no, and I think it includes Ant.
It isn’t just that Ant has tremendous upside, or that he is the beloved face of this franchise, and maybe someday, the NBA. The big issue is that
Ant wants to be in Minnesota. He signed his five year max extension without the typical player option on the final season. If he had asked, of course he would have gotten it. But it indicates he wants to be in Minnesota.
The risk with Doncic is that he wouldn’t re-sign here. He has no ties to this place. Then MIN has to run the dangerous gauntlet of whether to trade him again, or whether to hold onto their new franchise player and hope they can convince him to stay.
Btw, here’s some info on the Doncic trade you may not have heard. DAL initially asked for both LAL 1sts, and the Lakers said “Fine, but we want to talk to Luka first to make sure he will re-sign here.” DAL didn’t want to risk it getting out to Luka that they were looking to trade him, they said no, and LAL said if they were taking on this giant risk, they wanted to pay less, so DAL agreed not to ask for that second 1st!
If MIN couldn’t have talked to Luka to see if he wanted to stay in MIN, I doubt they could have agreed to a trade, which kills me.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 7:22 pm
by jayjaysee
No. You don’t trade Ant for Flagg..
But you should get really excited about Flagg/Miller/Ball.
I’m not using the Luka trade as any level of precedent as it’s just an embarrassment.
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 7:27 pm
by guest81
zero rings wrote:I’ve seen enough of Ant to know he’s never going to be a true franchise player. Not dynamic enough, not mature enough.
I’d much rather roll the dice on Flagg. Even if he doesn’t reach MVP heights, you can be pretty certain he’s going to be a great two way wing.
Ant is 23 and is coming off a conference finals run. Averages 27-6-6 on pretty much 50-40-90 sitting percentages while playing defense in the playoffs. But yea you've seen enough
Re: If you are the Timberwolves?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 7:35 pm
by zero rings
guest81 wrote:zero rings wrote:I’ve seen enough of Ant to know he’s never going to be a true franchise player. Not dynamic enough, not mature enough.
I’d much rather roll the dice on Flagg. Even if he doesn’t reach MVP heights, you can be pretty certain he’s going to be a great two way wing.
Ant is 23 and is coming off a conference finals run. Averages 27-6-6 on pretty much 50-40-90 sitting percentages while playing defense in the playoffs. But yea you've seen enough
I’m a Nuggets fan. We’re stuck paying Jamal Murray 50+ million over the next 4 years because of dumb analysis like this.
The regular season counts too, and the larger sample of games is more indicative of his actual talent level. Ant is a pretty good player who is never going to be a true superstar. I’ll take my chances with a cost controlled Flagg who is locked up for the next 8 years.
