Ant-Man is it

[TGW]

He’s awful. He had no game in college, and now he just can’t bully smaller players.

[The411]

4th to last in PER (6.5)
2nd to last in TS (43.4%)
Last in WS/48 (-0.102)
Last in BPM (-9.4)
Last in VORP (-0.7)

[brutalitops]

Did Wolves not learn their lessons from JR Rider & Wiggins fam? This dude is a legit bum, no cap. Should be lit in the dunk contest tho.

I give this thread a 0.5/10, nowhere you've said why he's a bum, Why it was a bad pick, Your performance is worse then Edwards lazily chucking flat footed 3's

For Edwards, Ild still take him pick 1, He has had a horrific shooting stretch, Where his form is getting lazy, which tells me he's not engaged

Which is correct, He's currently a 19 year old, 6'3" rookie playing the PF spot at times

His shot when he's engaged is good, His physicality is amazing for a young player, Rookie's get stuff all contact calls, Put him on the line for obvious fouls he see's the ball though the hoop. Im really suprised Sanders hasnt blown up to get the ref's attention at this.

Still raw, handles looks good in flashes which is more then JR Rider/Wiggins ever showed, As he can at least get to his spot


Im happy with him, Unfortunately our team's a mess, Throw Lamelo in our team where we have D'lo/Rubio/Malik who need the ball, Jordan McLaughlan whos funnily enough one of our best 5 players who also needs the ball, Where the hell does Ant man get to learn with ball in hand? Hes being a spot up shooter in offense, and guarding guys who he's giving up about 20 pounds and 6 inches of height

Assuming there were no trade out options, Wiseman should have been the pick.

for now? Or later, Right now we should of picked up Tillman. Future? Happy with Edwards

[Lalouie]

the thing i can't figure out is the dude is an +80% free thrower

where'd that come from

[LesGrossman]

He's way worse than Wiggins, probably Rider too, no cap.

no cap?

[jaemulla]

Jumping the gun a little bit here. First he's stuck on a team with D-Lo, Malik Beasley, Okogi, and Culver. All young wings looking to make a name for themselves in the league (apart from D-lo). Secondly he's a ROOKIE meaning guys aren't going out of there way to get him involved. He'll start to break out once the team realizes there not making the playoffs. I see him having a rookie season like Trae young where he starts to pour it on late in the season.

[brutalitops]

Watch on YouTube

For the majority here that doesn't watch him but comments that he's a bust here based on stats.

5/14 fg% 2/7 for 3, 6/6 FTs, Wolves were +9 when he was in. Yeah, not efficient, but a lot of the things he does look good and promising.

The only thing he doesn't do well right now is hit shots, but his form looks good, fis ft% looks good, his decisions look good, he just can't make a lot of shots that I'm sure he's gonna make in half a year or a year, or year and a half, at some point not that far in the future I'm sure.

Picked up basketball late, is 19. Stop making these dumb threads about 19 year olds with a month and a half of nba career.

I'll say this much, he has been driving it to the hoop often. The refs almost never gave him a foul call (2 trips to the line over the previous 6 games before last night). Last night they finally gave him some justice.

They dont give Physical rookies any love. You can complain its right or wrong, but he should get more but he wont, If he was an 8 year vet he would be getting 6 ft's a game and would really open up his game.

[Wolf of Ball St]

In no way am I comparing Ant to Kobe, but Bean’s first fifteen games (and whole first season for that matter) were even more lousy than Ant’s. So maybe best not to make these claims after fifteen games of a rookie’s career.

[Quentin]

His past 4 games:

15 - 56 fg in only 97 minutes... but only 4 assists in those 97 minutes... and 9 rebounds and 8 TOs.

You know when you play pickup with guys who are fairly new to the game and don't know how to play hoops... so they end up shooting it almost every time because that's really the only option that's open for them and the rim is the only thing not moving on them?

That's sorta like the Anthony Edwards Experience right now.

Yeah but if you watch the games you see he makes some excellent passes. He had a nice drive and dish for an open 3 to McDaniels...who missed the wide open shot. Many of those type plays have been happening. You can't be making it look like he's not a team player by saying only 4 assists.

[Ambrose]

He had horrible efficiency in college and has horrible efficiency in NBA. IF you can't even perform better against inferior competition, you're just unable to score efficiently at the next level. Was a bust from the start.

Yeah and we know this because a player has never improved their offensive efficiency before. It is truly an impossible task and cannot be done. This is why drafting players is so easy because if they can shoot in college it translates to the NBA and if they can't then they will never learn how. There are no exceptions to this rule. Also I'm smarter than most NBA GMs.

/s

Guys that are as inefficient as he was in college rarely turn into efficient NBA players.

[John Murdoch]

He reminds me of Kansas version Ben Mclemore

[Harry Garris]

He had horrible efficiency in college and has horrible efficiency in NBA. IF you can't even perform better against inferior competition, you're just unable to score efficiently at the next level. Was a bust from the start.

Yeah and we know this because a player has never improved their offensive efficiency before. It is truly an impossible task and cannot be done. This is why drafting players is so easy because if they can shoot in college it translates to the NBA and if they can't then they will never learn how. There are no exceptions to this rule. Also I'm smarter than most NBA GMs.

/s

Guys that are as inefficient as he was in college rarely turn into efficient NBA players.

I'm well aware. I don't necessarily think he'll be a star NBA player, I'm just making fun of this idea of thinking that it's so easy to evaluate NBA prospects and it can be broken down into this formula.

It's really not that easy, and you can find exceptions for any "rule" that you want to give me about what you can evaluate in a guy's college game.

[Ambrose]

Yeah and we know this because a player has never improved their offensive efficiency before. It is truly an impossible task and cannot be done. This is why drafting players is so easy because if they can shoot in college it translates to the NBA and if they can't then they will never learn how. There are no exceptions to this rule. Also I'm smarter than most NBA GMs.

/s

Guys that are as inefficient as he was in college rarely turn into efficient NBA players.

I'm well aware. I don't necessarily think he'll be a star NBA player, I'm just making fun of this idea of thinking that it's so easy to evaluate NBA prospects and it can be broken down into this formula.

It's really not that easy, and you can find exceptions for any "rule" that you want to give me about what you can evaluate in a guy's college game.

For sure. I don't think he'll always be this bad either but I don't think he's ever going to be worthy of being the #1 pick.

[Harry Garris]

Guys that are as inefficient as he was in college rarely turn into efficient NBA players.

I'm well aware. I don't necessarily think he'll be a star NBA player, I'm just making fun of this idea of thinking that it's so easy to evaluate NBA prospects and it can be broken down into this formula.

It's really not that easy, and you can find exceptions for any "rule" that you want to give me about what you can evaluate in a guy's college game.

For sure. I don't think he'll always be this bad either but I don't think he's ever going to be worthy of being the #1 pick.

No probably not but LaMelo and Wiseman were such huge question marks I don't really blame the wolves for going with the safer pick. Especially because Wiseman refused to even meet with them or do a workout and had no interest in going there.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm well aware. I don't necessarily think he'll be a star NBA player, I'm just making fun of this idea of thinking that it's so easy to evaluate NBA prospects and it can be broken down into this formula.

It's really not that easy, and you can find exceptions for any "rule" that you want to give me about what you can evaluate in a guy's college game.

For sure. I don't think he'll always be this bad either but I don't think he's ever going to be worthy of being the #1 pick.

No probably not but LaMelo and Wiseman were such huge question marks I don't really blame the wolves for going with the safer pick. Especially because Wiseman refused to even meet with them or do a workout and had no interest in going there.

Here's the rub. The Wolves had the #1 pick. It doesn't appear that they took the right guy. The Wolves traded up for the #6 guy last year. It doesn't appear they took the right guy.

It's been very rare (only 3 times in 32 years) that the Wolves have taken the right guy (Garnett, Love, Towns). When a team with as bad of a track record gets the #1 pick... it's a very bad thing when 15 games in (1) we're already conceding they made the wrong choice (2) absolving them of blame for this.

-------------

If any organization deserves scorn, ridicule and insults hurled their way over a botched pick or botched trade... it's the Timberwolves. Here's the sort of disjointed thinking that has put the Wolves in this position once again... and the type of thing that happens repeatedly, regardless of coaches or executive regimes...

1) Leak to the press that they were very impressed with Anthony Edwards' knowledge of the team's analytical system that focuses on three pointers and rim shots... by avoiding mid-range shots entirely. Using it as an example that this kid "gets it."

2) Trading for DeAngelo Russell as a foundational piece (and giving up a ligthly protected #1) even though he plays a mid-range game... and takes more than 2x as many long two pointers than anybody else on the team.

It's that sort of inconsistency that continues to plague this team. It's been decades.

[boomershadow]

Surely I'm not the only one who saw the thread and thought "Who the **** is Ant Man?"

Paul Rudd

[Harry Garris]

For sure. I don't think he'll always be this bad either but I don't think he's ever going to be worthy of being the #1 pick.

No probably not but LaMelo and Wiseman were such huge question marks I don't really blame the wolves for going with the safer pick. Especially because Wiseman refused to even meet with them or do a workout and had no interest in going there.

Here's the rub. The Wolves had the #1 pick. It doesn't appear that they took the right guy. The Wolves traded up for the #6 guy last year. It doesn't appear they took the right guy.

It's been very rare (only 3 times in 32 years) that the Wolves have taken the right guy (Garnett, Love, Towns). When a team with as bad of a track record gets the #1 pick... it's a very bad thing when 15 games in (1) we're already conceding they made the wrong choice (2) absolving them of blame for this.

-------------

If any organization deserves scorn, ridicule and insults hurled their way over a botched pick or botched trade... it's the Timberwolves. Here's the sort of disjointed thinking that has put the Wolves in this position once again... and the type of thing that happens repeatedly, regardless of coaches or executive regimes...

1) Leak to the press that they were very impressed with Anthony Edwards' knowledge of the team's analytical system that focuses on three pointers and rim shots... by avoiding mid-range shots entirely. Using it as an example that this kid "gets it."

2) Trading for DeAngelo Russell as a foundational piece (and giving up a ligthly protected #1) even though he plays a mid-range game... and takes more than 2x as many long two pointers than anybody else on the team.

It's that sort of inconsistency that continues to plague this team. It's been decades.

Yeah, maybe they should have gone with LaMelo. But at the same time the biggest issue with Edwards game, his horrifically bad shot selection, was also the biggest issue with LaMelo when he was playing in New Zealand. He seems to have bought in and plays better team basketball on the Hornets now that he's in the league, but we didn't know that before the draft.

I don't think the Wolves could have taken Wiseman. In the player empowerment era you really can't go with the guy who is doing everything in his power to not play for you. Drafting Wiseman and forcing him to play and pissing him off would have quickly turned the media and public opinion against the Wolves, who are already a financially struggling franchise.

And I'm always against criticizing a team for not drafting a guy outside of the "consensus" top mock draft guys. Yeah, Tyrese Haliburton would have been a way better fit on this Timberwolves roster than Edwards. But 99% of us thought Edwards was a better prospect than Haliburton too so if we're going to criticize the Wolves for not taking the guy who has proven to be the better player so far we were wrong about that too.

[thinktank]

Tbh Wiggins is showing stuff he never showed in Minnesota and is having his most efficient season ever in Golden State so really is it Ant Man or just the fact that the TWolves have now replaced the Clippers as the worst franchise in the history of the NBA

Wiggins efficiency is the same.

Google it.

Career .045 WS/48 now .061.

[JR Rider]

Did Wolves not learn their lessons from JR Rider & Wiggins fam? This dude is a legit bum, no cap. Should be lit in the dunk contest tho.

YOU DON'T KNOW ME

[AbeVigodaLive]

No probably not but LaMelo and Wiseman were such huge question marks I don't really blame the wolves for going with the safer pick. Especially because Wiseman refused to even meet with them or do a workout and had no interest in going there.

Here's the rub. The Wolves had the #1 pick. It doesn't appear that they took the right guy. The Wolves traded up for the #6 guy last year. It doesn't appear they took the right guy.

It's been very rare (only 3 times in 32 years) that the Wolves have taken the right guy (Garnett, Love, Towns). When a team with as bad of a track record gets the #1 pick... it's a very bad thing when 15 games in (1) we're already conceding they made the wrong choice (2) absolving them of blame for this.

-------------

If any organization deserves scorn, ridicule and insults hurled their way over a botched pick or botched trade... it's the Timberwolves. Here's the sort of disjointed thinking that has put the Wolves in this position once again... and the type of thing that happens repeatedly, regardless of coaches or executive regimes...

1) Leak to the press that they were very impressed with Anthony Edwards' knowledge of the team's analytical system that focuses on three pointers and rim shots... by avoiding mid-range shots entirely. Using it as an example that this kid "gets it."

2) Trading for DeAngelo Russell as a foundational piece (and giving up a ligthly protected #1) even though he plays a mid-range game... and takes more than 2x as many long two pointers than anybody else on the team.

It's that sort of inconsistency that continues to plague this team. It's been decades.

Yeah, maybe they should have gone with LaMelo. But at the same time the biggest issue with Edwards game, his horrifically bad shot selection, was also the biggest issue with LaMelo when he was playing in New Zealand. He seems to have bought in and plays better team basketball on the Hornets now that he's in the league, but we didn't know that before the draft.

I don't think the Wolves could have taken Wiseman. In the player empowerment era you really can't go with the guy who is doing everything in his power to not play for you. Drafting Wiseman and forcing him to play and pissing him off would have quickly turned the media and public opinion against the Wolves, who are already a financially struggling franchise.

And I'm always against criticizing a team for not drafting a guy outside of the "consensus" top mock draft guys. Yeah, Tyrese Haliburton would have been a way better fit on this Timberwolves roster than Edwards. But 99% of us thought Edwards was a better prospect than Haliburton too so if we're going to criticize the Wolves for not taking the guy who has proven to be the better player so far we were wrong about that too.

Here's the thing... there was another option. Just like there was another option in 2011 instead of taking Derrick Williams at #2 when he played the same position as the team's marquee player.

Just like there was when Cleveland traded the #6 pick to the Wolves in the 2019 draft.

The Wolves were not forced to stay at #1. We can only speculate on the available offers they had. But it's inconceivable that they couldn't find a way to land another asset from somebody to move down... at least once.

In a draft without a top-notch prospect... for a team with two alleged STARS already... it seemed like the Wolves didn't have to stick with the "Promise of Hope" prospect that's failed the organization repeatedly in the past.