Game 34: Timberwolves at Hawks, 2 pm (NYE matinee!)

[Klomp]

I will say, Anthony Edwards decided to not contact Kevin Durant as a recruiter. You have to wonder if he regrets being hands-off at this point, regardless of your opinion on Durant.

And most of the angry fan base here wanted to keep the status quo rather than pursue Durant.

[Note30]

I will say, Anthony Edwards decided to not contact Kevin Durant as a recruiter. You have to wonder if he regrets being hands-off at this point, regardless of your opinion on Durant.

And most of the angry fan base here wanted to keep the status quo rather than pursue Durant.

It's not one or the other. I didn't want him to keep status quo but I also didn't want him to pursue a 37 year old.

[winforlose]

I will say, Anthony Edwards decided to not contact Kevin Durant as a recruiter. You have to wonder if he regrets being hands-off at this point, regardless of your opinion on Durant.

And most of the angry fan base here wanted to keep the status quo rather than pursue Durant.

It's not one or the other. I didn't want him to keep status quo but I also didn't want him to pursue a 37 year old.

Klomp loves to argue this way. He finds it inconvenient to remember what people actually said, and just reduce it down to what they didn’t say. For example if you didn’t like the return on the KAT trade you obviously didn’t want to trade KAT. It couldn’t be that you were fine trading KAT, but for an established PGOF and capable backup C.

[KGdaBom]

And most of the angry fan base here wanted to keep the status quo rather than pursue Durant.

It's not one or the other. I didn't want him to keep status quo but I also didn't want him to pursue a 37 year old.

Klomp loves to argue this way. He finds it inconvenient to remember what people actually said, and just reduce it down to what they didn’t say. For example if you didn’t like the return on the KAT trade you obviously didn’t want to trade KAT. It couldn’t be that you were fine trading KAT, but for an established PGOF and capable backup C.

Sometimes Klomp goes to extreme comparisons, but most of his arguments are intelligent and respectful.

[winforlose]

It's not one or the other. I didn't want him to keep status quo but I also didn't want him to pursue a 37 year old.

Klomp loves to argue this way. He finds it inconvenient to remember what people actually said, and just reduce it down to what they didn’t say. For example if you didn’t like the return on the KAT trade you obviously didn’t want to trade KAT. It couldn’t be that you were fine trading KAT, but for an established PGOF and capable backup C.

Sometimes Klomp goes to extreme comparisons, but most of his arguments are intelligent and respectful.

Except for his habit of mischaracterizing other people’s arguments and then taking them to an extreme that was obviously never applicable. Or the times he tries to take an otherwise complex situation and tries to oversimplify it. For example if we don’t trade for Durant we are maintaining the status quo. It is not binary, there are other possible trades.

[KGdaBom]

Klomp loves to argue this way. He finds it inconvenient to remember what people actually said, and just reduce it down to what they didn’t say. For example if you didn’t like the return on the KAT trade you obviously didn’t want to trade KAT. It couldn’t be that you were fine trading KAT, but for an established PGOF and capable backup C.

Sometimes Klomp goes to extreme comparisons, but most of his arguments are intelligent and respectful.

Except for his habit of mischaracterizing other people’s arguments and then taking them to an extreme that was obviously never applicable. Or the times he tries to take an otherwise complex situation and tries to oversimplify it. For example if we don’t trade for Durant we are maintaining the status quo. It is not binary, there are other possible trades.

I track the times Klomp does this vs the times you do it and give a total in a couple weeks or a month. Starting now.

[younggunsmn]

I will say, Anthony Edwards decided to not contact Kevin Durant as a recruiter. You have to wonder if he regrets being hands-off at this point, regardless of your opinion on Durant.

And most of the angry fan base here wanted to keep the status quo rather than pursue Durant.

1. Anthony Edwards did not PUBLICLY recruit Kevin Durant because Kevin Durant absolutely did not want to be here.
It's very likely it was brought up between them PRIVATELY.

2. Most of the "Angry Fan Base" did not want to trade Rudy Gobert, Donte Divencenzo, Rob Dillingham and/or TJ Shannon, and the draft pick that became Joan Berenger for Kevin Durant as was put on the table by TC (and was necessary for cap purposes along with finding a 3rd team to facilitate) before Durant made it public he didn't want to be here.

The only real shot at a Durant trade involved Julius Randle opting in and extending so he could be included as salary matching and the Suns pulled the trigger before that was a possibility. And Randle didn't have great value coming off that disastrous OKC series performance.

So if you think the PG position, center depth, and bench are problems now, they would be magnitudes bigger problems had we executed a trade for Kevin Durant.

[younggunsmn]

It was interesting to watch a team with a roster full of pretty average 2-way players just absolutely tear the TImberwolves apart limb from limb.

We don't play smart, confident, or structured on either end and our roster is full of players who are mediocre to just plain bad on one side of the ball.

Jalen Johnson is quickly becoming a better passing version of Kawhaii Leonard.
Snyder has done a great job coaching up and utilizing some of the talented role players on the roster the past couple years like Okongwu, Daniels, and NAW. They are one good trade and the subtraction of Tre Young away from being a top 6 team in the East for the next few years.
Putting themselves in position to be a suitor for Ant in 2 1/2 years when he enters the final year of his contract.

[Biff Cooper]

The Hawks played hard and well. With Trae Young out, they are incredibly long and athletic.

Very poor shooting game by DDV, Naz, Bones, (and Clark and Conley). We don't have enough depth this year that all of them can be off in the same game and still compete. We were pretty lackadasical defensively in the first half to let the Hawks get an edge. It felt like they wanted to put in the effort to come back in the second half, but the poor shooting (and occasional poor shot selection) didn't give them any lift.

At the start of the fourth, I would have liked to have seen Finch try to mix a few of the deep bench guys into the game to try and inject something into the team. Not 5 deep bench guys together though. Maybe 2 or 3 of them with some combo of Ant, Randle, Jaden, and Rudy.

[Klomp]

It sounds weird because they are barely .500, but I think Atlanta is the next trend-setter in roster construction. They have a little of what OKC has in that they've built up a roster of athleticism and length on the perimeter.

If you look at 95% of the "targets" discussed here as PG solutions, they are mostly undersized. I think that is potentially dangerous. We are relatively undersized across the board as it is.