2025 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #6 Minnesota Timberwolves (OKC leads 3-1)

Post #1001 » by **MoneyTalks41890** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:48 am

Ant sounding very mature in this interview.

He could stand to sound like this more often tbh.

sikma42 · Post #1002 » by **sikma42** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:48 am

Special_Puppy wrote:
sikma42 wrote:Ant might just not have it.

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Hate how every game is a referendum on a player

Been saying this consistently for the last year.

There is a big gap in his skill set and his athletic profile. He’s the perfect example of someone who just doesn’t understand angles or think the game. Not sure if you can learn that to the level needed at this stage of development. I’ve never seen it done.

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Wingy · Post #1003 » by **Wingy** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:49 am

LethalRangee wrote:
MoneyTalks41890 wrote:
CobraCommander wrote:Man Randle and ant sucked and sga and williams were great and it was close - wow

Minny’s bench was great, OKC’s was just ok

And Caruso gets away with Murder and SGA gets whatever he wants despite every other superstar getting no whistles comparable at all in the league. Congrats, you'll get your league-endorsed chip this year.

Yeah, the league wants small market Okla-freaking-homa City with its Canadian star. Team it can’t even put into its Xmas day schedule that contains 1/3rd of the league.

RamonSessions7 · Post #1004 » by **RamonSessions7** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:49 am

Edwards is unfortunately “mid”

AFM · Post #1005 » by **AFM** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:50 am

Edwards was not shnasty tonight

RandomRaptorfan · Post #1006 » by **RandomRaptorfan** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:50 am

Ant was playing scared out there but he'll learn. He's only 23. If he plays like this at 26-27 I'll be worried for him. OKC is the better team plain and simple. With or without the refs they are executing better and making less mistakes (besides the game 3 blowout obviously).

levon · Post #1007 » by **levon** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:52 am

tmorgan wrote:
MoneyTalks41890 wrote:SGA up to 103 assists with 34 turnovers in the playoffs this season

I realize he’s a combo guard and shares primary distribution duties with Jalen Williams, but that’s one of the two things that makes SGA special and the MVP this year. The first one is obvious, he’s the shiftiest dude in the league. But the second is his ability to get up that many shots off the dribble and pass some and still only average 2.4 turnovers a game. That’s seriously elite.

The late passes to Holmgren and JDubb was elite stuff. But to be fair that ratio is helped by the fact that he makes the simple bounce one pass away. Doesn't take many risks. On one hand it's great, on the other hand I feel it puts a bit of a cap on OKC's halfcourt offense because the ball can sort of trickle down to a mid shooter taking a contested shot.

LethalRangee · Post #1008 » by **LethalRangee** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:52 am

crows2 wrote:
LethalRangee wrote:
MoneyTalks41890 wrote:
Minny’s bench was great, OKC’s was just ok

And Caruso gets away with Murder and SGA gets whatever he wants despite every other superstar getting no whistles comparable at all in the league. Congrats, you'll get your league-endorsed chip this year.

Lol at thinking the league wants anyone but the Knicks to win this year.

Do we even watch the same games? Lmfao. Towns gets mauled every drive + Brunson gets fouled over and over again without a call. If either of them got SGA's whistle it would be 3-0 NY easily. NY is the last market the NBA wants to win for who knows why, let's see how the rest of these games play out.

DrModesty · Post #1009 » by **DrModesty** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:54 am

levon wrote:
bluemj32 wrote:
Ursusamericanus wrote:Ant just isn't ready yet. He's 23. Needs another couple seasons and playoff runs before he makes that leap. Too streaky, seems to drift a bit during games and lose focus.
Scary thing is the road for him to get back here is going to get harder.

The West has some young teams that are coming

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He started playing basketball late if I'm not mistaken, and boy does it show. The good news his only problem is decisionmaking, the bad news is your athleticism doesn't wait around for you to figure out the game.

Wolves have had an extremely strong supporting cast around him these past 3 years. You compare them to OKC right now and it is a quite narrow talent gap. Last year the Wolves were the closest rival to Boston when it came to depth of talent, and they should have put Dallas away. The year before they dealt with injuries and weren't a mature team but still had a ton of talent on the roster.

But I feel like this run of the past few years is going to represent the most talent the Wolves can fit around Antman. They really built him a very strong squad. It is going to be extremely expensive to retain all of this talent going beyond this year (which is a big part of why they traded KAT).

durden_tyler · Post #1010 » by **durden_tyler** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:55 am

Ari_Emanuel wrote:Listening to JDubb speak...he's so mature and well spoken.

So basically OKC is more talented, deeper, smarter, and more poised than any other team.

The league is cooked.

They could very well win in this year but not dynastic enough methinks, more because of the parity in the league. We've seen the same reactions when the Bucks and Nuggets won their titles. IT IS difficult to win back to back titles and even moreso, establish a dynasty.

Congrats to the Thunder for winning the title this year though. They deserve it.

tmorgan · Post #1011 » by **tmorgan** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:55 am

levon wrote:
tmorgan wrote:
MoneyTalks41890 wrote:SGA up to 103 assists with 34 turnovers in the playoffs this season

I realize he’s a combo guard and shares primary distribution duties with Jalen Williams, but that’s one of the two things that makes SGA special and the MVP this year. The first one is obvious, he’s the shiftiest dude in the league. But the second is his ability to get up that many shots off the dribble and pass some and still only average 2.4 turnovers a game. That’s seriously elite.

The late passes to Holmgren and JDubb was elite stuff. But to be fair that ratio is helped by the fact that he makes the simple bounce one pass away. Doesn't take many risks. On one hand it's great, on the other hand I feel it puts a bit of a cap on OKC's halfcourt offense because the ball can sort of trickle down to a mid shooter taking a contested shot.

Oh, I understand and agree with this. SGA is not an elite passer and generally pretty conservative. OKC’s half court offense struggles sometimes for sure. But getting up 22 shots, 8 free throw attempts, and 6.5 assists a game with only 2.4 turnovers is truly elite no matter how you do it.

bluemj32 · Post #1012 » by **bluemj32** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:56 am

sikma42 wrote:Ant might just not have it. Small hands and lack of agility and lack of skill.

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He'll be fine, he's young, he's very competitive and now has two WCF appearances under his belt at 23.

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lethalizer · Post #1013 » by **lethalizer** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:57 am

People are really coming up with weird excuses to hate on this OKC team.

Jalen had 34 on 68.3% TS
Chet had 21 on 70.6% TS with multiple elite defensive plays.

Yes Shai was great, but this game wasn't winnable without Jalen and Chet both showing up.

Of course they'll do the interview together, lol.

durden_tyler · Post #1014 » by **durden_tyler** » Tue May 27, 2025 3:59 am

bluemj32 wrote:
sikma42 wrote:Ant might just not have it. Small hands and lack of agility and lack of skill.

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He'll be fine, he's young, he's very competitive and now has two WCF appearances under his belt at 23.

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Yeah no pressure yet to win it all because he's very young. However, he has older teammates (Gobert and Conley) and that adds a different dynamic moving forward. You can say that this is the most complete team the Wolves have since he's been there so it's crucial that Minnesota find replacements for them (especially for Conley) and also, evaluate what to do with Randle and Reid's contracts...

LSWF · Post #1015 » by **LSWF** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:02 am

durden_tyler wrote:
bluemj32 wrote:
sikma42 wrote:Ant might just not have it. Small hands and lack of agility and lack of skill.

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums
He'll be fine, he's young, he's very competitive and now has two WCF appearances under his belt at 23.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using RealGM mobile app

Yeah no pressure yet to win it all because he's very young. However, he has older teammates (Gobert and Conley) and that adds a different dynamic moving forward. You can say that this is the most complete team the Wolves have since he's been there so it's crucial that Minnesota find replacements for them (especially for Conley) and also, evaluate what to do with Randle and Reid's contracts...

He also has a suspect second option.

Tnasty4l · Post #1016 » by **Tnasty4l** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:02 am

Ari_Emanuel wrote:Listening to JDubb speak...he's so mature and well spoken.

So basically OKC is more talented, deeper, smarter, and more poised than any other team.

The league is cooked.

J-Dub looks like a taller Emanuel "Webster"Lewis, lol.

Ari_Emanuel · Post #1017 » by **Ari_Emanuel** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:02 am

durden_tyler wrote:
Ari_Emanuel wrote:Listening to JDubb speak...he's so mature and well spoken.

So basically OKC is more talented, deeper, smarter, and more poised than any other team.

The league is cooked.

They could very well win in this year but not dynastic enough methinks, more because of the parity in the league. We've seen the same reactions when the Bucks and Nuggets won their titles. IT IS difficult to win back to back titles and even moreso, establish a dynasty.

Congrats to the Thunder for winning the title this year though. They deserve it.

True, the new CBA makes dynasties incredibly difficult to achieve. OKC is better positioned than any other to navigate those cap challenges with their war chest of assets tho.

California Gold · Post #1018 » by **California Gold** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:04 am

Read on Twitter

Randle and Edwards truly with an all-time fumble.

DudetheObscure · Post #1019 » by **DudetheObscure** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:04 am

LethalRangee wrote:SGA is lucky he has an all time great team, probably the most gifted MVP next to Embiid's pity one. Free throw merchants winning it over and over again is a sign for the league.

Take away his FTs and SGA still led the league in points. Also, have you not been watching the POs?

levon · Post #1020 » by **levon** » Tue May 27, 2025 4:05 am

lethalizer wrote:People are really coming up with weird excuses to hate on this OKC team.

Jalen had 34 on 68.3% TS
Chet had 21 on 70.6% TS with multiple elite defensive plays.

Yes Shai was great, but this game wasn't winnable without Jalen and Chet both showing up.

Of course they'll do the interview together, lol.

This was a classic champion team win. I've seen this game a hundred times before. They're doing the thing

Omg you guys who wins Game 4??