Training Camp thread

[Rookie-Mistake]

Its really discouraging to hear all the whinging from Debbie Downer Anthony Towns.
Of course we all have empathy for him losing his mom, and he gets a pass for having a subpar season and playing last season out of shape because its heartbreaking to lose a parent young like that, and it's all fine and good to open up about that.

But your franchise player whinging about former teammates saying mean things?
Puffing up your chest about being professional during the Butler fiasco when Butler carried a new set of teammates to the finals and your team fell off a cliff after he left?
Your old coach who yelled too much riding Julius Randle and a bunch of nobodies to the playoffs?
Whether he likes it or not KAT has a reputation around the league as
1. Soft
2. A whiner.
If he thinks Jimmy Butler was bad, he would have been in tears after every single practice with Michael Jordan.
He's already had half a dozen teammates more talented than anyone KG played with here, and KG made the playoffs 8 straight years with a much worse supporting cast.
You want to change your rep, you have to change yourself.
That starts with ending the whinging and not living in the past.

There's a lot that happened for him to be positive about. We've added a lot of talent with Ant and McDaniels.
Bolmaro coming over, Naz and Nowell have made strides and have a couple of years under their belts.
Full Season with Russell and Beasley.
New Coach, New Ownership, new GM in Gupta who we keep hearing great things about.
Can you imagine a 25 year old KG surrounded with this much young talent and shooting?
So many better things to talk about than poor put-upon Holden Caulfield Anthony Towns.
As Ricky famously said, "Change your face".
Leaders will always say "I need to be better" after a loss before talking about anyone or anything else.

I'm discouraged because I don't think we can win with KAT until he learns to be positive and just make the next play, whatever comes.
It's one of the things I'm so encouraged about with 19 year old Anthony Edwards who already seems to get that.

Ant does look like a beast, looks like he's not only added height but muscle too.
He has that top 1% of 1% size/strength/athleticism profile thats super rare like Adrian Peterson.
If he keeps improving he has a top 5 player ceiling, especially if he is really 6'6 with muscle, and it changes the game for us offensively if he can play a big wing game versus just being a scoring guard.
I really feel this will be his team by the all-star break and we'll be speaking of the rest of the team as supporting players.
Almost makes me want to pump the brakes on the SImmons train a little bit.

Finally some facts on this board. Thank you.

If we dont have any major injuries this year and we dont make the playoffs, I can see us moving KAT and DLO and looking to build around ANT.

I get it though, he was asked a question. He answered it honestly. So you cant critique him if he answers it or he doesn't.

[Note30]

Its really discouraging to hear all the whinging from Debbie Downer Anthony Towns.
Of course we all have empathy for him losing his mom, and he gets a pass for having a subpar season and playing last season out of shape because its heartbreaking to lose a parent young like that, and it's all fine and good to open up about that.

But your franchise player whinging about former teammates saying mean things?
Puffing up your chest about being professional during the Butler fiasco when Butler carried a new set of teammates to the finals and your team fell off a cliff after he left?
Your old coach who yelled too much riding Julius Randle and a bunch of nobodies to the playoffs?
Whether he likes it or not KAT has a reputation around the league as
1. Soft
2. A whiner.
If he thinks Jimmy Butler was bad, he would have been in tears after every single practice with Michael Jordan.
He's already had half a dozen teammates more talented than anyone KG played with here, and KG made the playoffs 8 straight years with a much worse supporting cast.
You want to change your rep, you have to change yourself.
That starts with ending the whinging and not living in the past.

There's a lot that happened for him to be positive about. We've added a lot of talent with Ant and McDaniels.
Bolmaro coming over, Naz and Nowell have made strides and have a couple of years under their belts.
Full Season with Russell and Beasley.
New Coach, New Ownership, new GM in Gupta who we keep hearing great things about.
Can you imagine a 25 year old KG surrounded with this much young talent and shooting?
So many better things to talk about than poor put-upon Holden Caulfield Anthony Towns.
As Ricky famously said, "Change your face".
Leaders will always say "I need to be better" after a loss before talking about anyone or anything else.

I'm discouraged because I don't think we can win with KAT until he learns to be positive and just make the next play, whatever comes.
It's one of the things I'm so encouraged about with 19 year old Anthony Edwards who already seems to get that.

Ant does look like a beast, looks like he's not only added height but muscle too.
He has that top 1% of 1% size/strength/athleticism profile thats super rare like Adrian Peterson.
If he keeps improving he has a top 5 player ceiling, especially if he is really 6'6 with muscle, and it changes the game for us offensively if he can play a big wing game versus just being a scoring guard.
I really feel this will be his team by the all-star break and we'll be speaking of the rest of the team as supporting players.
Almost makes me want to pump the brakes on the SImmons train a little bit.

He's had more regime changes and teammates leave than a journeyman in the NBA.
Stop comparing KAT to KG - its not fair to KAT or KG.
Which teammates are those btw? The one year of Butler?
Cause outside of that the closest thing we had was Zach. He's played under 40 games with Dlo and Ant.
**** Butler and Thibs and everyone who sympathizes with them.

KAT is about as positive as we can expect him to be.
He's been let down by this org over and over.
We're more dysfunctional than the Kings.

[moonpie]

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[Krapinsky]

Outside of KG-Sam-Spree days, love this roster as much as any roster we ever had except when I was drinking the Kahn koolaid.

[Nick K]

Outside of KG-Sam-Spree days, love this roster as much as any roster we ever had except when I was drinking the Kahn koolaid.

I was thinking the exact same thing. We might have even more depth today. So many good things are coming together.

It's all about staying healthy.

[minimus]

Its really discouraging to hear all the whinging from Debbie Downer Anthony Towns.
Of course we all have empathy for him losing his mom, and he gets a pass for having a subpar season and playing last season out of shape because its heartbreaking to lose a parent young like that, and it's all fine and good to open up about that.

But your franchise player whinging about former teammates saying mean things?
Puffing up your chest about being professional during the Butler fiasco when Butler carried a new set of teammates to the finals and your team fell off a cliff after he left?
Your old coach who yelled too much riding Julius Randle and a bunch of nobodies to the playoffs?
Whether he likes it or not KAT has a reputation around the league as
1. Soft
2. A whiner.
If he thinks Jimmy Butler was bad, he would have been in tears after every single practice with Michael Jordan.
He's already had half a dozen teammates more talented than anyone KG played with here, and KG made the playoffs 8 straight years with a much worse supporting cast.
You want to change your rep, you have to change yourself.
That starts with ending the whinging and not living in the past.

There's a lot that happened for him to be positive about. We've added a lot of talent with Ant and McDaniels.
Bolmaro coming over, Naz and Nowell have made strides and have a couple of years under their belts.
Full Season with Russell and Beasley.
New Coach, New Ownership, new GM in Gupta who we keep hearing great things about.
Can you imagine a 25 year old KG surrounded with this much young talent and shooting?
So many better things to talk about than poor put-upon Holden Caulfield Anthony Towns.
As Ricky famously said, "Change your face".
Leaders will always say "I need to be better" after a loss before talking about anyone or anything else.

I'm discouraged because I don't think we can win with KAT until he learns to be positive and just make the next play, whatever comes.
It's one of the things I'm so encouraged about with 19 year old Anthony Edwards who already seems to get that.

Ant does look like a beast, looks like he's not only added height but muscle too.
He has that top 1% of 1% size/strength/athleticism profile thats super rare like Adrian Peterson.
If he keeps improving he has a top 5 player ceiling, especially if he is really 6'6 with muscle, and it changes the game for us offensively if he can play a big wing game versus just being a scoring guard.
I really feel this will be his team by the all-star break and we'll be speaking of the rest of the team as supporting players.
Almost makes me want to pump the brakes on the SImmons train a little bit.

Finally some facts on this board. Thank you.

The only fact I can see is that you attach your name to every negative thing about this team, to every hateful discussion. I think you are better than this.

[KGdaBom]

Its really discouraging to hear all the whinging from Debbie Downer Anthony Towns.
Of course we all have empathy for him losing his mom, and he gets a pass for having a subpar season and playing last season out of shape because its heartbreaking to lose a parent young like that, and it's all fine and good to open up about that.

But your franchise player whinging about former teammates saying mean things?
Puffing up your chest about being professional during the Butler fiasco when Butler carried a new set of teammates to the finals and your team fell off a cliff after he left?
Your old coach who yelled too much riding Julius Randle and a bunch of nobodies to the playoffs?
Whether he likes it or not KAT has a reputation around the league as
1. Soft
2. A whiner.
If he thinks Jimmy Butler was bad, he would have been in tears after every single practice with Michael Jordan.
He's already had half a dozen teammates more talented than anyone KG played with here, and KG made the playoffs 8 straight years with a much worse supporting cast.
You want to change your rep, you have to change yourself.
That starts with ending the whinging and not living in the past.

There's a lot that happened for him to be positive about. We've added a lot of talent with Ant and McDaniels.
Bolmaro coming over, Naz and Nowell have made strides and have a couple of years under their belts.
Full Season with Russell and Beasley.
New Coach, New Ownership, new GM in Gupta who we keep hearing great things about.
Can you imagine a 25 year old KG surrounded with this much young talent and shooting?
So many better things to talk about than poor put-upon Holden Caulfield Anthony Towns.
As Ricky famously said, "Change your face".
Leaders will always say "I need to be better" after a loss before talking about anyone or anything else.

I'm discouraged because I don't think we can win with KAT until he learns to be positive and just make the next play, whatever comes.
It's one of the things I'm so encouraged about with 19 year old Anthony Edwards who already seems to get that.

Ant does look like a beast, looks like he's not only added height but muscle too.
He has that top 1% of 1% size/strength/athleticism profile thats super rare like Adrian Peterson.
If he keeps improving he has a top 5 player ceiling, especially if he is really 6'6 with muscle, and it changes the game for us offensively if he can play a big wing game versus just being a scoring guard.
I really feel this will be his team by the all-star break and we'll be speaking of the rest of the team as supporting players.
Almost makes me want to pump the brakes on the SImmons train a little bit.

Finally some facts on this board. Thank you.

The only fact I can see is that you attach your name to every negative thing about this team, to every hateful discussion. I think you are better than this.

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

[Nick K]

Outside of KG-Sam-Spree days, love this roster as much as any roster we ever had except when I was drinking the Kahn koolaid.

I'll add this to my previous post. Don't feel bad we all drank a little of the Kahn kool-aid. I love this roster too.

When you think about it. Good things have been happening with our rebuild for two years now. Even the bad things like injuries and losing last year made us a better team going forward because of the minutes McD, Reid, Vando etc. received. Plus, we have a new coach forced by bad play. In two years we've changed our entire team except for Towns and Okogie. That is really extraordinary. And we now have new ownership. Things just keep getting better.

In life things often move in cycles and we appear to be on the big upswing. Could we be like PHX was last season the surprise NBA team of the year? Why not?

[Nick K]

Finally some facts on this board. Thank you.

The only fact I can see is that you attach your name to every negative thing about this team, to every hateful discussion. I think you are better than this.

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

[Folklore]

Its really discouraging to hear all the whinging from Debbie Downer Anthony Towns.
Of course we all have empathy for him losing his mom, and he gets a pass for having a subpar season and playing last season out of shape because its heartbreaking to lose a parent young like that, and it's all fine and good to open up about that.

But your franchise player whinging about former teammates saying mean things?
Puffing up your chest about being professional during the Butler fiasco when Butler carried a new set of teammates to the finals and your team fell off a cliff after he left?
Your old coach who yelled too much riding Julius Randle and a bunch of nobodies to the playoffs?
Whether he likes it or not KAT has a reputation around the league as
1. Soft
2. A whiner.
If he thinks Jimmy Butler was bad, he would have been in tears after every single practice with Michael Jordan.
He's already had half a dozen teammates more talented than anyone KG played with here, and KG made the playoffs 8 straight years with a much worse supporting cast.
You want to change your rep, you have to change yourself.
That starts with ending the whinging and not living in the past.

There's a lot that happened for him to be positive about. We've added a lot of talent with Ant and McDaniels.
Bolmaro coming over, Naz and Nowell have made strides and have a couple of years under their belts.
Full Season with Russell and Beasley.
New Coach, New Ownership, new GM in Gupta who we keep hearing great things about.
Can you imagine a 25 year old KG surrounded with this much young talent and shooting?
So many better things to talk about than poor put-upon Holden Caulfield Anthony Towns.
As Ricky famously said, "Change your face".
Leaders will always say "I need to be better" after a loss before talking about anyone or anything else.

I'm discouraged because I don't think we can win with KAT until he learns to be positive and just make the next play, whatever comes.
It's one of the things I'm so encouraged about with 19 year old Anthony Edwards who already seems to get that.

Ant does look like a beast, looks like he's not only added height but muscle too.
He has that top 1% of 1% size/strength/athleticism profile thats super rare like Adrian Peterson.
If he keeps improving he has a top 5 player ceiling, especially if he is really 6'6 with muscle, and it changes the game for us offensively if he can play a big wing game versus just being a scoring guard.
I really feel this will be his team by the all-star break and we'll be speaking of the rest of the team as supporting players.
Almost makes me want to pump the brakes on the SImmons train a little bit.

Finally some facts on this board. Thank you.

If we dont have any major injuries this year and we dont make the playoffs, I can see us moving KAT and DLO and looking to build around ANT.

I get it though, he was asked a question. He answered it honestly. So you cant critique him if he answers it or he doesn't.

Not true. look at Doc Rivers.

[Folklore]

The only fact I can see is that you attach your name to every negative thing about this team, to every hateful discussion. I think you are better than this.

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

[Domejandro]

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

What antics? Karl-Anthony Towns was asked a question about how difficult things have been, and he answered honestly. This rhetoric is so unbelievably bizarre, to me.

[Note30]

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

There hasn't been a single star player who's dealt with more regime and teammate changes than Towns. Not on one team anyway.

What complaining? Outside of complaining to the refs constantly, I haven't seen anything he's said that isn't warranted.

[Folklore]

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

What antics? Karl-Anthony Towns was asked a question about how difficult things have been, and he answered honestly. This rhetoric is so unbelievably bizarre, to me.

Alright. as someone who used to be left leaning my ultra conservative friend of mine couldn't see eye to eye once Bush got into office. He and another friend of ours even got into a fist fight. Now I'm in the middle and can see clearly or I can see each others points.

The problem with this board is most of us aren't doing that. Foye appreciated another's views but then doubted himself when he got his character questioned because of it. We all want the wolves to win and the infighting is what is bizarre to me. Is Ben Simmons the perfect player? no, so why cant both we be right and wrong and look at the benefits and disadvantages of him being on the team logically?

For those ruled by emotion I'll say this. Town is a great player..does he have flaws? yes. Does he have what it takes to lead men? no. is that alright? yes. can we call him out for showing more of why he's not a leader? yes. why? because we've lacked one since KG, and its fine that he's not KG.

The very short video of Pat speaking showed how much more of a leader he is over Kat. He spoke of not worrying about the past play and move the eff on. Now I know if we make a trade well most likely keep Pat if the coach has any say. I for one will not be looking for Kat to be a leader but I'd like for him to keep the negative comments to himself or just complain to his GF about it. You can be truthful and honest but it can also be a double edged sword. A wise man once said ..

[moonpie]

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[Nick K]

I use to think so too. I don't anymore.

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

You're entitled to your opinion Folklore. Leaders come in many types and styles. As long as Towns delivers on the court, Ant will follow him. Those guys get along great. The whole team does for that matter. The coach is the real leader. My only concern is Beverly going alpha but we'll see. I think your opinion is wholly misguided. It's specious. Plausible, but false. That's just my opinion that I'm entitled to. Cheers.

[Folklore]

Town has too much a martyr complex for me but maybe it motivates him. Plus, I really don't care because he's such an extraordinary player. There are so few that can do the multitude of things on the court so well. Take a good look at the numbers he puts up.

Blaming Towns for our past misfortunes is idiotic in my view. As is trading him any time soon. Towns will be the leader of this team and Ant won't have any problem with that. I don't think Ant even cares. Ant just wants to be one of the guys and kick azz. And he will!

Towns is NOT a leader.If Ant keeps developing the way he is Towns antics aren't going to fly with him. He'll start thinking "get this p@$$y a$4 boi outta here".I cant think of ANY other player who complains like he does. I've never heard Dame or Beal complain...shyt, even Rubio, and I think hes been screwed over more than towns.

I'd like to know of who supports Towns complaining, who supports not tanking, and who supported the whole "there's no positions anymore" stance.

You're entitled to your opinion Folklore. Leaders come in many types and styles. As long as Towns delivers on the court, Ant will follow him. Those guys get along great. The whole team does for that matter. The coach is the real leader. My only concern is Beverly going alpha but we'll see. I think your opinion is wholly misguided. It's specious. Plausible, but false. That's just my opinion that I'm entitled to. Cheers.

Appreciate the response.

Do you still think Towns is a leader? Just because he's a great scorer doesn't mean that he leads. I have yet to see him light a fire on any player while the game is on the line. All I've seen him do is celebrate dunks and blocks. Not a single arm around the rooks to give them pointers. Ricky did it but we traded him. He has more bad habits to rub off on the rooks than good ones. I don't even consider Kawhi a leader and I'm sure Pat would agree.

Why wouldn't you want Bev to go alpha?

[Dewey]

Towns couldn’t lead a horse to a bucket of oats … but that’s ok - he’s a terrific complimentary player. I hope Beverly’s character drives DLo and the others to grow some b@lls and build a tough gritty identity

[FinnTheHuman]

People have a pretty narrow understanding of what leadership is. Towns doing what he does isn't just caused by pure talent, it's caused by consistent hard work and willpower, and as long as you're about consistent hard work and willpower, you're leading by example. If Towns was throwing his teammates under the bus, **** talking the refs too much, giving up on plays, skipping workouts and generally acting immature, then I'd be down to put a 'lack of leadership' stamp on him, but he's not doing any of those things.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Towns is the highest paid and clearly the best player on the team, from a pure talent wise. When the team can’t come close to winning 30 games a season and gives up double digit leads on a game by game basis in the third quarter…absolutely you can begin to question if your best player is a good leader or not.

I don’t think KATs a bad team mate or worse a bad person. In fact it’s the opposite. It’s just we do see every year that “this is the year KAT proves the critiques wrong and he puts the team on his back” and we start the season 3-2 then boom, 8 game losing streak and the season is all but lost.

I mean players like Tim Duncan have stats where they lose 3 games in a row once every 5 years. Ridiculous **** like that. Kats definitely no TD but that’s where you see elite leaders lead