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Wanted to create a thread dedicated to this.

Quotes from last night include:

"Wake-up call for sure. Lock in. Lock the **** in. Everybody coming in here thinking it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. Whooped our ass. Now our back’s on the wall again. We got to wake up."

"We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball. There’s no “I” in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people."

"I’m gonna start talking more as far as, ‘you need to lock in, bruh. Pass the ball. Four people on you, pass the ball, know what I’m sayin?’ I’m finna start talking a lot more. It’ll be better coming from me."

I wanted to highlight in part because Ant's postgame was not included in the Wolves Radio postgame soundcloud, suggesting Ant may have been speaking some truths that made some people uncomfortable.

Not going to lie, I didn't think it would be the first loss of the year that Ant would try to take the reigns from KAT and D'Lo..

But you know what... I am Team Ant.

KAT is playing well. He did the work this offseason to get into better shape. But I am not sure he will ever overcome the mental element. (And this has nothing to do with his off court problems, which are truly tough -- I have never lost a parent so can't imagine what he's been through.) He's been this way since his Sophomore season and nothing has changed. He lets players and refs get into his head. He fights his own teammates for rebounds. He is trapped in his own head and he can't get out.

The reason I am being hard on KAT is because he really does have the talent and skill to be MVP in this league and be the No. 1 option on a title contender. But he just doesn't seem to have the head for it. For all that talk last year about how his All-NBA snubs were due to the fact that the team wasn't winning and that his accolades would come if the Wolves were competitive, he hasn't done a whole lot these past two games to contribute to winning basketball.

All of this talk about culture after game 1 and 2 and yet he just cannot live up to it on the court. Culture is a collective concept. If you are stuck in your own head, and are all about you, then you can't participate in culture.

Ant.. You can tell he knows how to turn his ego on and off. Ant can be mad at a ref for a minute and then completely forget about the matter the next. KAT can't do that. It sticks with him. It gnaws at him, reducing KAT to worst kind of NBA Super Star: A glorified stat whore.

I call all this out because KAT's teammates see it. And if you have noticed I have not mentioned D'Lo until right now, it's because no one on the Wolves gives a crap about D'Lo. Sure, they probably like him as a teammate and they want him to succeed. But they have not rested the fate of their season on D'Lo. Not the case with KAT. Everyone on the Wolves roster looks at KAT as the face of the franchise, and in the past two games, KAT has shown nothing to his teammates to suggest that he can lead this team to title contention.

Ant.. The kid is 20 years old and he seems to have the presence of a 10-year vet. I think Ant's comments last night only proved that Ant becoming the face of this franchise is only a matter of when, not if. And by the sounds of things last night, it might come sooner than any of us really imagined.

Dane Moore did his entire postgame podcast based on these comments. Did seem to be directed at KAT, maybe DLo to a lesser extent. Stressed that they are not sharing the ball. They have to trust Okogie, McDaniels, etc, and they are not doing it.

MPLSWolves I just posted the exact same thing about KAT on another thread.

beezy wrote:MPLSWolves I just posted the exact same thing about KAT on another thread.

yeah, what we are saying is not exactly illuminating. Everyone sees it.

The funny thing is that I think that a KAT and Ant duo can work.

I think ideally KAT plays with a Steph Curry type who is capable of leading a title contender and yet doesn't create drama and gives space for other personalities on the team to shine.

The thing is, I think Ant can be that type of Super Star. He seems to have a high EQ. And this is pure speculation, but I do think he views KAT as an older brother figure. He sees a guy who is older and bigger and more talented, but also recognizes that KAT is flawed and imperfect and that he may never live up to his full potential. I think Ant is willing to go to battle with KAT for the next 5 years. But KAT will have to adapt and figure out how to be a #2 if this will ever work.

It's weird. KAT is having a great start. He has clearly put in work this offseason. I do not think he has been a negative bball wise. It's not about that. It's about his inability to focus on what's best for the team even 90% of the time he is on the floor. No one is asking him to be perfect. And I want to be clear I am not questioning KAT's intentions. I think he wants to do good for the franchise. I think he can't control his bad habits. That's what he is dealing with. Bad habits. It takes a lot to overcome bad habits. It wasn't going to happen overnight for KAT. But Ant's comments last night tell me that he and the team knows that KAT isn't going to change by himself. He needs to be policed until he does so. Ant's the new sheriff in town.

MPLSwolves wrote:Ant's the new sheriff in town.

Free headline for the media folk lurking these boards

Give this man the keys to the franchise. He is the one who should set the tone from here on out.

KAT is KAT. He is a selfish albeit talented player. He cherry picks his spots to shine but you ain't ever going to build a top team around him as first option. Neither does he have the competitive fire, defensive versatility that Garnett had nor does he have the basketball IQ.

With regards to D'Lo just honestly ask yourself...is this guy any better than Wiggins?

Nope dlo sucks and kat being a needy crybaby is the only reason he is here.

KAT is KAT. He is a selfish albeit talented player. He cherry picks his spots to shine but you ain't ever going to build a top team around him as first option. Neither does he have the competitive fire, defensive versatility that Garnett had nor does he have the basketball IQ.

Best concise KAT summary I've seen.

Ant is all talk. He is way too content to sit back and let KAT do the heavy lifting and Ant is very ineffective without KAT on the floor. He scored 2 points the entire first half and only 5 in the 4th. He had one good quarter against Houston, and in the 2nd game he was streaky. Ant is not a leader until he can do it consistently and he can share the burden while KAT is on the bench.

winforlose wrote:Ant is all talk. He is way too content to sit back and let KAT do the heavy lifting and Ant is very ineffective without KAT on the floor. He scored 2 points the entire first half and only 5 in the 4th. He had one good quarter against Houston, and in the 2nd game he was streaky. Ant is not a leader until he can do it consistently and he can share the burden while KAT is on the bench.

Did you watch the game? This seems to be the opposite of what happened. Ant struggled with the starters in the first half. I seem to recall both D-Lo and Kat being on the bench during a good chunk of Ant's scoring flurry.

winforlose wrote:Ant is all talk. He is way too content to sit back and let KAT do the heavy lifting and Ant is very ineffective without KAT on the floor. He scored 2 points the entire first half and only 5 in the 4th. He had one good quarter against Houston, and in the 2nd game he was streaky. Ant is not a leader until he can do it consistently and he can share the burden while KAT is on the bench.

Ant just took step one in raising the bar in this team. Kat needs to know his role as a number two, start playing like a big, and keep his mouth shut and play.

game 3 and our chemistry is already imploding lol

Funny. I’ve been saying for YEARS that KAT isn’t a leader or even a #1 option. Happy Ant has opened your eyes.

Ant is the future. KAT can keep adding those stats and we can walk away with a very good trade. Addition by subtraction. If we could get a good defensive center who can average 17+ And at least stretch out for long 2s, that would be ideal.

DLo is more glaringly selfish than KAT or Ant generally, without the performances to back it up. We suffer much more from DLo's bone-headed selfish plays than KAT's or Ant's. Plus DLo is playing the PG position which is what makes it a disaster. The guy should play 6th man, been saying it for years, he should never be tasked with running a starting unit.

m2002brian wrote:Funny. I’ve been saying for YEARS that KAT isn’t a leader or even a #1 option. Happy Ant has opened your eyes.

Ant is the future. KAT can keep adding those stats and we can walk away with a very good trade. Addition by subtraction. If we could get a good defensive center who can average 17+ And at least stretch out for long 2s, that would be ideal.

I've been critical of KAT today but I am not there yet. I think KAT can figure out his role on this team.

The team dynamic that was forming in the preseason was going to change once the games started to matter and mean something. I think the guys can recalibrate and figure this out. It just requires our Big 3 to figure out what our regular season dynamic is going to look like.

Krapinsky wrote:

winforlose wrote:Ant is all talk. He is way too content to sit back and let KAT do the heavy lifting and Ant is very ineffective without KAT on the floor. He scored 2 points the entire first half and only 5 in the 4th. He had one good quarter against Houston, and in the 2nd game he was streaky. Ant is not a leader until he can do it consistently and he can share the burden while KAT is on the bench.

Did you watch the game? This seems to be the opposite of what happened. Ant struggled with the starters in the first half. I seem to recall both D-Lo and Kat being on the bench during a good chunk of Ant's scoring flurry.

KAT played the entire 3rd quarter.

FinnTheHuman wrote:DLo is more glaringly selfish than KAT or Ant generally, without the performances to back it up. We suffer much more from DLo's bone-headed selfish plays than KAT's or Ant's. Plus DLo is playing the PG position which is what makes it a disaster. The guy should play 6th man, been saying it for years, he should never be tasked with running a starting unit.

I don’t know if he’s selfish. He’s just not good. He’s a poor athlete. Can’t get past his man. Turns it over. Is a bad defender. He’s a streaky shooter that lives off contested shots. When that shot isn’t going down, he’s a hugely negative player on the court.

Thanks for this post MPLS.. I haven’t heard Dane’s pod yet, but I think this is going to be a recurring theme this season.

I think I mentioned after the first game how different DLo and Ant were in interviews. DLo always talks about the superstars (and he considers himself one). Ant always talks about team-oriented players, like Rubio last year and Josh Okogie after Game 1.

I haven’t seen Game 3 or the analysis yet, but personally I haven’t seen KAT have that “superstar over other teammates” characteristic, other than he is a superstar and often talks about taking personal responsibility for team losses. I think he willing to share the ball to everyone - I recall him being third in FGA’s to Butler and Wiggins, even when his own eFG% was through the roof. Russell though has seemed like an issue.

Finally, people forget that Jordan was leading the NBA in scoring for several seasons before the Bulls started winning. The knock on him was “sure he’s great, but he can’t elevate the other players on his team to win games.” And I imagine with such a big talent gap, it was hard for him to do that, since Jordan taking on two players at the hoop might have been a more effective shot than an open Bill Wennington. But Jordan learned how to use, and trust, his teammates. I think KAT does it, and ANT really seems to embrace it. This is going to be critical, since we have several players on the team who can only succeed in a limited role offensively, set up by our “stars.”

Foye wrote:KAT is KAT. He is a selfish albeit talented player. He cherry picks his spots to shine but you ain't ever going to build a top team around him as first option. Neither does he have the competitive fire, defensive versatility that Garnett had nor does he have the basketball IQ.

I don’t think it’s fair to compare KAT, or any player, to Garnett.

Standards vary, but I’ve seen ones where defense is included, where KG listed as one of the ten greatest players in NBA history.

MPLSwolves wrote:KAT is playing well. He did the work this offseason to get into better shape. But I am not sure he will ever overcome the mental element. (And this has nothing to do with his off court problems, which are truly tough -- I have never lost a parent so can't imagine what he's been through.) He's been this way since his Sophomore season and nothing has changed. He lets players and refs get into his head. He fights his own teammates for rebounds. He is trapped in his own head and he can't get out.

I don't care that Towns complains about bad foul calls. All NBA players do it.

Where I begin to take issue is when it consumes him. I think it was on Mackey and Judd today, they were talking about this. Elite players have a next play mentality. It's not just about talking to the refs. It affects his in-game decision-making. Passes are affected, shots are affected, everything. That's why it's a problem.