me 31: Minnesota Timberwolves @ Boston Celtics

[Loaf_of_bread]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

Inflated ego. Hears on whatever platform these kids look at this day and age how great his potential is...

No leadership qualities whatsoever, and Finch being lackadaisical with the mindset that our identity will find itself is a joke.

We are lost. So much talent, yet no one capable of bringing it together.

[Baseline81]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

This was such an obvious result to see coming.

Think about how close Edwards and Towns were last season, especially during those post-game media scrums in the playoffs. I still struggle to understand why Connelly would make such a trade? The only thing that keeps coming back is he was forced to reduce salary. It certainly wasn't for Randle. Neither DDV. And not the Detroit first.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

Maybe ANT is just not ready yet as he is young. Or maybe his IQ is not high enough to be a number one and he will be a great number 2. I give him the benefit of doubt because of his age but he has been long enough in the NBA to know that times fly... i make a parallel with JA at Grizz. He came very promising then lost himself outside of the court.... but then he regroup and Grizz are a top team right now leading by JA.
We can also not rule out that ANT is just very tired after playing not stop 2 seasons in a row without much break.

[Klomp]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

[Klomp]

I still struggle to understand why Connelly would make such a trade? The only thing that keeps coming back is he was forced to reduce salary.

It's not about reducing salary but finding more tradable salary. It is much more difficult to trade a $49 million player than it is a $33 million player.

[Baseline81]

It's not about reducing salary but finding more tradable salary. It is much more difficult to trade a $49 million player than it is a $33 million player.

What about when said $33M player doesn't have much value to begin with? What do you honestly expect to get in return?

[Loaf_of_bread]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

Oh boy. Bad take, very bad.

[shrink]

The Celtics only had three turnovers? That’s impressive.

[TimberKat]

I am frustrated by some things tonight, but gotta ask. If I told you that Ant, Rudy, and Mike would all have really bad games by their standards, and it came down to a semi open buzzer beater, would you have believed me?

Two of their best seven didn’t play while our team was at full strength on paper.

I normally would say that but Celtics other guys stepped up - Hauser had 15, Tatum was great, White played like an all star and got his prayer answered. They didn't need their other players today.

[Note30]

I hate edwards already man. Stop shooting 3s because clearly thats not your forté. We all know that his 3 point shooting is a fluke. Attack the **** basket and stop complaining

Down 3 with 4 seconds left is not the appropriate time to attack the basket.

That was a super clean look. It was a good shot. He needed to hit that.

[Klomp]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

Oh boy. Bad take, very bad.

And what would be a better take in your mind?

[Note30]

We have taken several steps back as a team this season, we will be battling for the play-in or maybe a 4-6 seed if we start to figure things out better. Top 3 seems wholly out of reach.

The No. 5 seed in the West made the Finals last year...

I get what you are saying. But still, I'm not sure any teams really scare me outside of Oklahoma City when it comes to a playoff series. We are not playing our best right now, but it is Jan. 2.

So not the team we beat in game 7 last year when we were significantly better or the team that beat us in the WCF? Or the team that has beat us repeatedly in the playoffs?

Wild.

[Note30]

I posted a couple weeks ago in the Ant thread, and yeah, everyone takes me as a weirdo, but, dude needs to keep his mouth shut, play bb, and lead.

He isn't capable of this.

Always having horrible takes, not super surprised.

[TimberKat]

I still struggle to understand why Connelly would make such a trade? The only thing that keeps coming back is he was forced to reduce salary.

It's not about reducing salary but finding more tradable salary. It is much more difficult to trade a $49 million player than it is a $33 million player.

We gone over this a few times and I struggled with any reasoning that is not salary reduction. If it's not Ownership, than it's Connelly at fault. Clearly the Towns trade hasn't worked. Maybe it will later in the season. Maybe it's Finch who can't figure it out. If the Towns trade is step one, I can't see how a less valuable player will get us better return. The DLo trade isn't a good example as all teams see DLo has more value than Conley.

[Klomp]

We have taken several steps back as a team this season, we will be battling for the play-in or maybe a 4-6 seed if we start to figure things out better. Top 3 seems wholly out of reach.

The No. 5 seed in the West made the Finals last year...

I get what you are saying. But still, I'm not sure any teams really scare me outside of Oklahoma City when it comes to a playoff series. We are not playing our best right now, but it is Jan. 2.

So not the team we beat in game 7 last year when we were significantly better or the team that beat us in the WCF? Or the team that has beat us repeatedly in the playoffs?

Wild.

Correct. I did not say that there is no way we can lose to them. I said they don't scare me. I feel fairly confident we can be competitive in any series outside of Oklahoma City right now.

[TimberKat]

The No. 5 seed in the West made the Finals last year...

I get what you are saying. But still, I'm not sure any teams really scare me outside of Oklahoma City when it comes to a playoff series. We are not playing our best right now, but it is Jan. 2.

So not the team we beat in game 7 last year when we were significantly better or the team that beat us in the WCF? Or the team that has beat us repeatedly in the playoffs?

Wild.

Correct. I did not say that there is no way we can lose to them. I said they don't scare me. I feel fairly confident we can be competitive in any series outside of Oklahoma City right now.

At this point, I am more worry that we don't have a chance to play any of those teams in a seven game series.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

The question then is, are the others starters struggle because of Randle, ANT keeping the ball way too long and not passing well or did they just don't improved or regress? I go for point 1..

[Klomp]

To be fair, this is what happens when you trade your second best player with the hope that your third less player improves and they don’t.

Big bummer, but Anthony Edwards sucks this year and has a **** attitude about the fact that opposing teams have figured him out. Doing some mind reading, I think that he fully buys into the belief that he needs more spacing to be successful, but the truth is that he needs to not be a one-dimensional ballhog.

Great players (generally) make their teammates better without becoming passive, and unfortunately Anthony Edwards sucks the life out of his teammates on the court. I’m honestly pretty disappointed, I was hoping he would develop into a team player.

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

The question then is, are the others starters struggle because of Randle, ANT keeping the ball way too long and not passing well or did they just don't improved or regress? I go for point 1..

Ant feels like he is better as a play finisher rather than a play starter. As a play starter, he gets trapped, which bogs down the entire offense. If he is playing as a finisher, the defense is already on tilt and he can take advantage.

Randle can be a play starter, but he often defaults to his backdowns and gets tunnel vision so he doesn't always see the simple play.

Conley and Gobert PnR used to be an automatic bucket, but Conley's floater issues and Gobert's struggles finishing just don't allow it to be a regular option.

[Note30]

The No. 5 seed in the West made the Finals last year...

I get what you are saying. But still, I'm not sure any teams really scare me outside of Oklahoma City when it comes to a playoff series. We are not playing our best right now, but it is Jan. 2.

So not the team we beat in game 7 last year when we were significantly better or the team that beat us in the WCF? Or the team that has beat us repeatedly in the playoffs?

Wild.

Correct. I did not say that there is no way we can lose to them. I said they don't scare me. I feel fairly confident we can be competitive in any series outside of Oklahoma City right now.

Then you have wildly overestimated this teams abilities.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

This is a bigger factor than people are letting on.

Ant and Julius have had their struggles, but the rest of the starting lineup is the biggest issue to our struggles so far. I would add that Naz is struggling to find his place as well.

I don't know that Ant is ever going to be the kind of player who "makes his teammates better". They need to come to his level, or he will try to do it all himself. And if something is limiting him physically or mentally, it becomes even more difficult for him.

The question then is, are the others starters struggle because of Randle, ANT keeping the ball way too long and not passing well or did they just don't improved or regress? I go for point 1..

Ant feels like he is better as a play finisher rather than a play starter. As a play starter, he gets trapped, which bogs down the entire offense. If he is playing as a finisher, the defense is already on tilt and he can take advantage.

Randle can be a play starter, but he often defaults to his backdowns and gets tunnel vision so he doesn't always see the simple play.

Conley and Gobert PnR used to be an automatic bucket, but Conley's floater issues and Gobert's struggles finishing just don't allow it to be a regular option.

I agree with you but on my opinion, this is also a coaching issue. Mike get some issues with his floater, due to not being at 100% and Rudy is Rudy.....All his career, Rudy never score a lot and will never as his Mike. But Mike is our best ball handler by far ( see ratio Ass-TO) so the option is for me to let Mike run the show and give ANT more freedom to be focus on scoring and find good spots.
Ant complain about being double team but it's mostly on him. When you keep the ball too long, defense have plenty of times to double you.. when he improve on catch and shoot it will make a big difference.

And if it doesn't work, then we have to trade a starter PG and move Mike to the bench.