Game 5 - Nuggets vs Timberwolves

[Calinks]

I think it's a lot more likely we trade KAT instead of Rudy if I had to put some rough percentages on it.

45 percent chance we run it back with tweaks
35 percent chance we trade KAT (When legally possible)
15 percent chance we trade Rudy
5 percent chance we trade both Rudy and KAT

[wolves_89]

Positive things from the series:
- Ant is going to be a top 10 player, quite possibly next season
- KAT played some pretty solid defense
- NAW is going to give this team great defensive depth once Jaden is back
- Conley provides a level of stability this team needs (I really wish he was even 2-3 years younger)

Negative things from the series:
- Finch needs to do a better job of limiting what Rudy does on offense, the talking point of expanding Rudy's game is truly dead
- The front office needs to find a PG who can be an upgrade to McLauglin (ideally someone who can take over for Mike long term)
- Nowell killed his offseason value
- Finch has to improve his coaching and add more structure to the offense

[jpatrick]

I think we’ll add a couple spare parts and run it back. We have few assets that have any value. But, if we do make a blockbuster, it’s much more likely KAT gets moved, not Gobert. Gobert is borderline a negative contract at this point. Any return would be minimal.

I could see a three-way deal with KAT going somewhere, a bunch of picks going to a team like Toronto, and Siakim and maybe another player coming to us.

[Calinks]

I don't ant to fire Finch. I think Finch does a lot of stupid stuff but I still think he's a really good coach. We need continuity. I don't know if we should run this back, the two bigs thing has been pretty bad, butt I think we need to keep the staff and key guys intact. Build around Ant and Jaden, do what is best for them. Keep the coach. Might have to part with Towns if it means brining in better value to help Ant.

[PharmD]

Running it back is only going to waste another year of Ant's development and possibly 3 or 4 if one or both of KAT/Gobert become untradeable next year because of their huge contracts.

I put it at 50/50 Gobert is not a negative contract summer of '24 going into his age 32 season.

Gobert already is a negative contract. Nobody is giving up assets to pay him 130M over the next 3 years as he continues to get older

[TimberKat]

Trade KAT, get a starter and build a bench, get draft capital. Find a real coach. Finch was Ants Doug Collins’s. Now we need to get him his Phil Jackson.

What exactly did Doug Collins do? MJ hit the shot when Collins was Coach. Maybe you confused Collins with Dean Smith

[Nick K]

Finch just said he needs to create an offense that makes it easier for his key players. Bingo! And for him to say it made me have more respect for him.

[younggunsmn]

Running it back is only going to waste another year of Ant's development and possibly 3 or 4 if one or both of KAT/Gobert become untradeable next year because of their huge contracts.

I put it at 50/50 Gobert is not a negative contract summer of '24 going into his age 32 season.

Give it a rest Connely is not trading Gobert.

I don't see how run it back is wasting Ant's development? You want to trade Gobert and Towns for picks and rebuild? That is way more detrimental to Ant's development. He will never learn how to win. Ant need to learn how to pass out of the trap DEN put on him in the second half. That is not on Gobert. We run with Gobert unless you get an offer that you can't refuse then use his salary slot to get another player in the last year of contract.

Because Gobert's presence on the court on the offensive end severely limits what Ant can do and will continue to limit him until Rudy is gone. There is a whole season of evidence to back that up. We went from a top tier offense to bottom of the league.

Ant doesn't need to learn how to win, he is the one guy who shines when the stoplight is brightest.
Ant did a pretty good job passing out of that trap and found shooters.
He'd have a lot more options if we didn't have an unskilled turnover prone oaf who does nothing but get in the way to trap off of.

[m2002brian]

Trade KAT, get a starter and build a bench, get draft capital. Find a real coach. Finch was Ants Doug Collins’s. Now we need to get him his Phil Jackson.

What exactly did Doug Collins do? MJ hit the shot when Collins was Coach. Maybe you confused Collins with Dean Smith

You maybe missed the point?

Doug was MJs starter coach, get him to the playoffs and get the experience to climb mountains.
Phil helped MJ make it all the way to the mountain top.

[Nick K]

Running it back is only going to waste another year of Ant's development and possibly 3 or 4 if one or both of KAT/Gobert become untradeable next year because of their huge contracts.

I put it at 50/50 Gobert is not a negative contract summer of '24 going into his age 32 season.

Gobert already is a negative contract. Nobody is giving up assets to pay him 130M over the next 3 years as he continues to get older

You'll get decent value for him. teams will match up money and we'll free up space. We aren't going to get what we gave for Rudy. We have to get over it and move on.

[younggunsmn]

Running it back is only going to waste another year of Ant's development and possibly 3 or 4 if one or both of KAT/Gobert become untradeable next year because of their huge contracts.

I put it at 50/50 Gobert is not a negative contract summer of '24 going into his age 32 season.

Gobert already is a negative contract. Nobody is giving up assets to pay him 130M over the next 3 years as he continues to get older

I hope you are wrong. IMHO he's already there, but all it takes is one stupid or desperate team.
He's still a useful player, but he's a 40+ million unskilled center who no longer blocks shots.
If we don't move him this summer we never will be able to.

[guest81]

Running it back is only going to waste another year of Ant's development and possibly 3 or 4 if one or both of KAT/Gobert become untradeable next year because of their huge contracts.

I put it at 50/50 Gobert is not a negative contract summer of '24 going into his age 32 season.

Gobert already is a negative contract. Nobody is giving up assets to pay him 130M over the next 3 years as he continues to get older

You'll get decent value for him. teams will match up money and we'll free up space. We aren't going to get what we gave for Rudy. We have to get over it and move on.

Problem is two fold. First is ant just has no chemistry with Rudy at all. In the other hand, you can't go with just kat and or Naz as your bigs. They are just too terrible on D

[TwolvesFanRome]

We missed too many open 3s...and every time we lost a defensive rebound they punished us.

The reality is that we wrapped up on our own last summer: it was understood very well that Gobert was not needed to remedy certain deficiencies in the team (as it happens, tonight we lost precisely because of their offensive rebounds) and you don't have a suitable coach to enhance him ( Finch hate PnR and never managed to really trigger Gobert in attack even when we unfortunately missed KAT). In my opinion, now you have to decide whether to take a step back and find the amateur who agrees to take charge of Gobert ... and receive what happens ... or hire a coach able to lead this team (also mentally and psychological ... because sometimes we make embarrassing mistakes) which in my opinion is much better than what unfortunately Finch showed us during the season.

[TimberKat]

Give it a rest Connely is not trading Gobert.

I don't see how run it back is wasting Ant's development? You want to trade Gobert and Towns for picks and rebuild? That is way more detrimental to Ant's development. He will never learn how to win. Ant need to learn how to pass out of the trap DEN put on him in the second half. That is not on Gobert. We run with Gobert unless you get an offer that you can't refuse then use his salary slot to get another player in the last year of contract.

Because Gobert's presence on the court on the offensive end severely limits what Ant can do and will continue to limit him until Rudy is gone. There is a whole season of evidence to back that up. We went from a top tier offense to bottom of the league.

Ant doesn't need to learn how to win, he is the one guy who shines when the stoplight is brightest.
Ant did a pretty good job passing out of that trap and found shooters.
He'd have a lot more options if we didn't have an unskilled turnover prone oaf who does nothing but get in the way to trap off of.

I think we just have to disagree on this point. Ant plays like he is the only guy on the floor. Same old stuff on his draft report card. If LaMelo's last name wasn't Ball, we should had get him instead. There is a lot of great development with Ant. He still needs to work on the team game, read where the double is coming from, make the right pass, not just attack the rim every single time. Teams know how to defend that.

[Guest84]

For our 21 year old rising star to average 31.6pt 5rb 5ast in only his second playoff appearance is wild. Especially considering he still has a lot of room for growth.

The front office can not mess this up.

[TimberKat]

Trade KAT, get a starter and build a bench, get draft capital. Find a real coach. Finch was Ants Doug Collins’s. Now we need to get him his Phil Jackson.

What exactly did Doug Collins do? MJ hit the shot when Collins was Coach. Maybe you confused Collins with Dean Smith

You maybe missed the point?

Doug was MJs starter coach, get him to the playoffs and get the experience to climb mountains.
Phil helped MJ make it all the way to the mountain top.

The Bulls players didn't like Collins was the main reason Collins was fired. If we could find a Phil, go for it. However, given the team's performance, is it more important for stability right now or a new direction again? The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the light, the future is.

[Note30]

For our 21 year old rising star to average 31.6pt 5rb 5ast in only his second playoff appearance is wild. Especially considering he still has a lot of room for growth.

The front office can not mess this up.

They already have.

[Domejandro]

I think people are way too down in the dumps. With only six competent players in the rotation tonight, Minnesota pushed the #1 seeded team in the Western Conference to the brink.

Running it back wouldn't be a horrible thing. Gives Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns a full off-season to get healthy, the team's young players should all continue to develop, and the team will now have more continuity. The despair over a solid (and undermanned) effort is really bizarre to me. Minnesota probably wins this series with Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels.

[bluethunder0005]

Outside of Game 1 the team was pretty competitive against the team that was basically the #1 seed all year, despite being significantly undermanned so I'm actually happy overall with their play.

The team either needs to trade KAT or create enough offensive plays that get him open looks from 3. Finch is obviously a superior coach to Ryan but 3 seasons ago KAT was taking nearly 8 3s a game. That needs to be a priority if we keep him for the spacing.

I don't want to hear about how Gobert clogs the paint as reasons for the teams lack of offense at times or causing Edwards to not want to drive. 15 years ago every team had a Center that strictly was around the painted area and it didn't prevent the greats from still attacking that spot. Edwards was amazing in this playoffs and I hope he keeps using this same mentality in regular season games. We need him to become a superstar.

[King Ken]

NAW is promising. His RAPTOR was through the roof and he was an impact. Like with Jaden, you got something in NAW.

Ant is your superstar. Figure out how to build a contender around him and go from there. That's a special kid.