KGdaBom wrote:Note30 wrote:KGdaBom wrote:You didn't say everyone else sucks, but you are not giving nearly enough credit to our other talent. KAT can easily average 25 points a game so we do have another big time scorer on the roster other than Ant. IMO you need to back off on your we can win a title with Ant being great and everybody else being the Pips to Ant's Gladys Knight. It will not happen. If KAT, Gobert and Jaden don't shine in their own rights no title. Our title will be won by everybody (Ant included) merging into one beautiful, cohesive, well oiled machine.
Good luck with that. There's no question that every player is important in a championship but there is a hierarchy.
Take the last Finals, the Nuggets are Jokics team. Without him that team is pretty whatever, yes all pieces needed to be there to win the chip but he is unquestionably the main piece.
If you think this gonna be a Spurs 2012-2014 like effort where every starting player is almost equally valuable you are wrong.
This team lives and dies by Ants growth.
We have loads of talent and everybody needs to do their part. Will Ant's part be the most significant? Probably, but he's just one player and we won't win or lose solely based on what he does.
It's easy to look at your team in a vacuum and say wow they are talented.
We don't play in a vacuum, we play against 29 other teams who are also very talented and have guys who can score 25 PPG.
All those wolves lottery teams in the mid 2010's had a lot of talent.
What is the separator that elevates teams from teams with talent to potential title contenders?
1. Superstars. Particularly superstars who are also very good 2-way players.
It's not easy to stick out among the most talented athletes in the world and clearly be a tier above everyone else.
2. Teams that are rock solid on both sides of the ball.
Ant is continuing to progress along the pathway to being a 2-way superstar.
Point blank, his ceiling is our ceiling.
KAT had that potential at one time, those days are long gone.
Denver won because their entire rotation was rock solid on both sides of the ball, same for those Warriors teams, guys who had been weaker defenders like Curry and Thompson stepped up to the plate and shored up their weakness.
Murray did the same thing last year for the Nuggets not only playing good D but being disruptive.
Who is going to step up like that for us? Is Kat going to stop the whining and start moving his feet on D and putting more effort into keeping his hands from flying all over the place hooking and fouling>
Is Gobert going to accept his limitations and concentrate on keeping good spacing and setting good picks on offense instead of lob chasing all the time, and actually create some lanes for one of the most gifted rim attackers in the world instead of getting in his way all the damn time?
Is Jaden going to take that next step offensively?
Great players don't win championships by themselves.
But when they do, their teammates are all rowing in the same direction, and they understand who is steering the boat.
I don't know that that is the case with the Wolves, it certainly wasn't last year.
