Who is Ant really

[winforlose]

I keep seeing blow it up but build around Ant and it is driving me nuts. The people who hold this opinion know who they are and they seem to be ignoring some serious elephants in the room. For example Ant is 20 of 65 from 3 in 7 games. That means Ant is a 30.7% 3 point shooter so far this season. Last season Ant was 171 of 520 for 32.9% from 3. Does anyone really not see at this point that Ant is quite simply below average at 3 point shooting. Yet KAT who was 50% before this game and is currently 22 of 46 which is 47.8% from 3. How is this okay with any of you. The man took 19 more 3s and hit 2 less.

Another thing that people don’t seem to talk about enough is Ant’s natural slashing ability. Ant with his amazing body control and hang time is one of the most naturally gifted slashers of the past decade (or more.) Yet Ant often settle for pull up jumpers and spot up non paint 2s. I didn’t check the shot map for this year but his percentage from outside the paint is terrible relative to his percentage in the paint and at the rim. You can argue opponents are crowding the paint and forcing this outcome but you can also look at other slashers and see them go in and force the issue getting to the line and helping the team with a healthy dose of and 1s.


Let me end by saying I get that he is 20, and I get that some of you see the support staff as the real issue, but you are kidding yourself if you think Ant is not a major factor in our losing. Not only is he not producing as much as he could/should he is wasting possessions with his insistence to shoot such high volume 3s. He has shot on average 5 or more shots than KAT per game. To blow it up and bet on Ant eventually living up to his potential is to risk another futile rebuild. What has he done to earn your faith?

[Neeva]

This board needs an ignore user function.

[winforlose]

This board needs an ignore user function.

All you do is complain about the poster and never address the issue. If you have something to contribute say so otherwise find the door and use it.

[Borke]

This board needs an ignore user function.

Click on the username and then "Add Foe".
That's what i've done with you.

[Neeva]

Well this board needs a dislike post option the opposite of +1.

[winforlose]

Ignoring Neeva who seems to want to ignore me, I wanted to add one data point. I looked at total shots by both KAT and Ant in all 7 games. Both players have scored exactly 167. However, KAT did this with 116 shots where Ant took 152. That means per shot KAT scores 1.44 points rounded, whereas Ant scores 1.10 points rounded. Every time KAT shoots using this model we score .34 points more than when Ant shoots. This same math works with any player simply by taking the total points divided by the total shots. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

[packforfreedom]

Ant is one of the only bright spots so far. yeah he isn't as efficant as KAT as a scorer, but he much more present on the court. He passes, he rebounds, he defends. That exactly the improvment I wanted to see. He tends to shoot two many threes, I agree but I am not concerned at all and i am certain his scoring will come along eventually.

And let's not forget. Everybody's shooting more threes now. That's the side effect of the new way fouls are called . Players think twice about driving to the basket now

[winforlose]

Ant is one of the only bright spots so far. yeah he isn't as efficant as KAT as a scorer, but he much more present on the court. He passes, he rebounds, he defends. That exactly the improvment I wanted to see. He tends to shoot two many threes, I agree but I am not concerned at all and i am certain his scoring will come along eventually.

And let's not forget. Everybody's shooting more threes now. That's the side effect of the new way fouls are called . Players think twice about driving to the basket now

This goes beyond not being as efficient as KAT. He is less efficient than most traditional stars. Also his shot volume is consistently the highest on the team. Which suggests a willingness to take low percentage shots at a high volume. In the first game Ant hit 6 of 12 from deep. A great number to be sure, but if you remove it from the sample size Ant is 14 of 53 which is 26.4%. That is JO type numbers and you would be going berserk if JO took 6 in a game much less 10. Ant’s jump shooting inside the arc is also concerning when outside the paint. I would need to examine the numbers more closely to prove it, but I would estimate around or below 30% from there as well. That is not to say he will never improve, but he is also not a superstar to build around yet. Again, I am not saying he doesn’t have potential, but so does Wiggins and we saw how that turned out.

[_AIJ_]

Im sorry but you have been an Ant hater since his first day

[winforlose]

Im sorry but you have been an Ant hater since his first day

1. Anytime someone focuses on the poster instead of the post it damages credibility. Do you have thoughts about my numbers or my observations, or are you simply so stumped the only thing you can do is attack the person pointing out the facts.

2. What part of my talking about his slashing sounds like hate? Just because I am not sold on him doesn’t mean I don’t see the potential. But to plan a rebuild around a guy with these kinds of problems goes beyond dangerous, it could be the thing that kills basketball in Minnesota. Are you really so sure that Ant is a superstar you would risk dedicating the next 5-10 years around him? If so why?

3. How does my opinion of Ant in any affect this conversation?