u/ae5wolfpack

Does anyone think we’ll see more Liv on ball pick and roll with Phee in the future? In my head, I was thinking Cheryl would spam that because you literally can’t guard either of them 1v1.

I think she was just figuring out what worked and what didn’t. There are a lot of options to go to with Phee back in the mix. I just don’t know how you would guard a Liv-Phee pick and roll or pick and pop with Kmac spotting up in the corner. 😂

We’ve seen this team be at the very lowest without her when they lost to the Sun almost twice.

Liv:

- Holds the highest +/- in the league this year

- Has 23 assists and 3 TO the last 3 games

- Shoots a ridiculous % for a guard

I hate to bring up Caitlin Clark, but they are probably the #1 and #2 pg in the league or at least compared as such. There are very few things Clark is better at than Liv.

Liv:

- Takes care of the ball better

- Shoots a higher percentage from 2pt, 3pt, and FT

- Lynx are objectively a much better team with her. It’s tough to say that the Fever are much better without Clark being they are 4-0 without her and seems like the offense flows almost as well without her

- Liv isn’t a media distraction like Clark and there seems to be better chemistry with Liv as the orchestrator

It’s funny how this offseason the analysts are leaning into the narrative that now the Timberwolves are in must win now mode because they’ve made a trade for a star. The claim is Anthony Edwards is itching to get out of Minnesota if they don’t win soon.

Well:

1. does Ant actually think he has it bad? He’s been in a great situation with a stable gm and coach. The media doesn’t see day to day stuff that we see, and Ant’s relationships he’s built with these guys.
2. Ant is lowkey and of the worst misconceptions is that since he’s an extrovert, he’s destined to want to play for the Lakers or Knicks soon if the wolves don’t bring a championship in the next couple years.

Of course there’s pressure to win, but I don’t think we need to worry that this front office hasn’t done enough to make Ant a believer in this team and management. Tim Connelly has been gunning for a championship caliber team since day 1.

On top of all of this, the wolves project to be around the 5th youngest team heading into the 2026-27 season.🤣

Heat: he’d be the only other creator other than Giannis on offense. They have no backcourt. He knows that won’t end in a championship.

Cavs: old man Harden will hijack the offense and slow the game down. Harden can’t play off ball and LeBron doesn’t want to be a decoy. They also don’t have a lot of any youth on the team to run and gun. Mitchell is your only lethal scorer but he’s undersized and already 30.

Sixers: a ton of creators on this team. He’ll be behind Jaylen, Embiid, Maxey in the pecking order. I don’t see LeBron wanting to be a 4th option on a championship team. Also can’t trust Embiid to stay healthy. Without Embiid they have little defense to cover up the deficiencies on defense with that team.

***Wolves: obvious best fit. Young 24 year old superstar in Ant. A primary creator in LaMelo who he can share duties with. LeBron would be the de facto 2nd best player on the team without having to take on a ton of the offensive scoring load. Has two elite defenders behind and alongside him in Rudy and Jaden. Young studs in Ayo, TJ, Beringer off the bench who want to play fast. To me, it’s a no brainer situation for LeBron.

Every gm will miss in drafts, and the biggest miss was probably Rob just because of what we had to give up to move up plus needing a pg at the time.

What you cannot deny is TC’s process of drafting each player. There hasn’t been a time where I’m like, “where did that pick come from?” Which I obviously felt a lot of times from previous gm’s in this organization. It’s harder to draft guys when you already have a developed roster, and I feel like Connelly has found a way to pick up enough guys to fill out the rotation for a playoff team.

You also have to look at where we’ve drafted at, and what he’s turned some of the picks into.

-Beringer (17th overall pick) showed even last year that he will contribute soon and has grown leaps and bounds physically since he’s arrived here last year. Defensive tools are limitless, and showing huge offensive upside. Incredible footwork, ability to get downhill off the dribbled, touch, and athleticism already at 19 years old. He’s a more talented and bigger Diabaté (2nd rd pick), which is insane given the way LaMelo was able to level Diabaté up.

-Shannon (late 1st rd pick) has proven to at least be a functional rotational piece even in the playoffs with the immense scoring upside off the bench. He’s an automatic 15-20 points if he’s the number one creator with Ant or LaMelo on the bench.

-Clark County (late 2nd rd pick) is plug and play because of his defensive intelligence and shut down ability. A steal (pun intended) to get a piece in the late 2nd round that can contribute when you need an on ball stopper and someone that plays harder than anyone.

-Zikarsky is another 2nd round guy that is a giant (7’4) and even though he has a lot of development required to crack a rotation, we saw flashes with some skill last year when he got minutes and was solid with the Iowa Wolves. Wasn’t great today with the physicality but I saw enough last year where I think it was just a one game fluke.

-Evans (early 2nd rd pick) was the best player available and now doesn’t seem like we took a huge risk moving back in the draft to salary dump Randle. Rangy, really good shooter, and another intriguing backcourt plug and play guy from Duke to pair with Ant, LaMelo, Ayo for our future.

Connelly’s superpower is trading and signing FA’s to fit this roster, but he also has brought enough intriguing pieces to make me content enough with how he’s drafted.

Beringer is the crown jewel, with the chance to become a star next to Ant.

🐺🌲

I’m trying to be as objective as possible as an outsider. I have no horse in the race.

I believe Caitlin Clark is a top 15 player right now. Her best attributes are scoring, making defenders guard her from the logo and making plays for others.

She’s electric with the ball but she is definitely very careless and consistently holds close to a 8:5 turnover ratio which cancels out some of the good with her playmaking.

I hear a lot of Steph Curry comps. From raw percentages it’s not even a comparison because she’s never shot over 35%. She’s league average in 3pt %. I know she shoots mostly off the dribble threes which holds more weight because she tilts the defense, but Steph Curry also shoots a ton of off dribble threes.

She’s also a minus defender.

I think if fans properly rated her, there wouldn’t be so much backlash toward her. And I hear a lot of the victim card being played as well.

I do think she would thrive more in a system which totally highlights her and lets her kind of run the whole show. I don’t know that she has the talent to lead a heliocentric offense and she also has an injury history that suggests this would take a toll on her. She would also need great defenders around her to be a solid defensive team.

Stephanie White wants to win and she’s proven to win without CC as well. But I just don’t think there system fits with how she wants to play.

Am I fair or too harsh?

After watching how good Ant was on zero good knees vs the spurs makes me believe in the longevity of his career. He had unbelievable touch and craftiness despite not being able to elevate. His footwork is top 5 in the game, which gives him so many more ways to score. It’s smooth and you can tell he grinds in the gym because it’s so refined, and he comes out every year with different skills he shows off. He has so many counters to his moves if defenses cut off his first move.

It’s absurd that he can shoot 40% from 3 on volume and a lot of it off his own creation, while developing an elite mid range and back to the basket game. And he still has 7 or 8 years left of peak peak athleticism. This is all said with not even mentioning he’s a 1% athlete in a league full of top tier athletes, without having reached his peak yet.

Ant - I think it’s no brainer that he’d have either his most efficient or 2nd most efficient season alongside LeBron and LaMelo. He’d still get the most shots but would average anywhere from 27-30 ppg, with the obvious upside of 30+ since he is the De facto scorer on the team. Last year his splits were remarkable (49/40/80) without a great pg on the roster. The cross court vision and overall playmaking ability of LeBron and LaMelo would no doubt make this an MVP type year for Ant if they win 55+ games. My prediction is 30/6/5 on 50/40/82 splits for Ant with a 3 ppg variance either way.

LeBron - just behind Kevin Durant, he’s the most plug and play guy offensively. This roster is ready-made with elite shooting and elite defenders in the starting lineup. While he doesn’t have the elite 3pt shooting, he still has shown he can light it up in any given season. What makes him most special is his ability to still get to the rim with his strength and power, while having the court vision to be able to find open shooters. He won’t have the ball in his hands as much with this team, but that will be ok given his age and now he can pick and choose when to be aggressive. I see him putting up 22/7/7 on 50/34/77 splits. With his great efficiency every year, he only needs around 15 shots to put up ~22 ppg.

LaMelo - he’d bring the ball up the most, but I believe he will have to sacrifice scoring if LeBron signs here with LeBron being the #2 option still. LaMelo will dictate the pace when we have lineups without LeBron, and he will ultimately be the engine to the offense while taking advantage of young legs like Ant, Jaden, Ayo, TJ running with him in the open court. He will most certainly unlock the lob threat with Gobert and Beringer as well. His stats may not show his true impact but can still avg 20/6/8 on the best efficiency of his career (44/39/85 splits).

Jaden - he will benefit from all the gravity the other 3 guys have. He’ll get lobs, backdoors, open midranges and corner 3’s, 1 v 1 vs other team’s worst defenders. Jaden will cook this year offensively but most importantly continue to be our most versatile defender at 6’10. He will put up 16/6/3 on 50/38/83 and be the most unlocked version of himself alongside all of this offensive talent.

This team is ready-made for LeBron without too many cooks in the kitchen. Has Jaden & Rudy on the back end to allow him to roam and take some defensive possessions off physically. He still has a tremendous iq and size to be still solid on that end. Then has maybe the best backcourt in basketball to create offensively with, and elite 6th man in Ayo off the bench. I would safely project a top 3 offense this year.

Let’s hear your thoughts. 🐺🌲

I know we were without Miles and Phee, but I’m a bit worried about our late game execution. It stings losing to two inferior teams in the Sun and Mystics in the clutch. The one Mystics game was a total meltdown even with Liv. Team identity hasn’t been strong when it matters most but maybe those waning moments will totally change with our two best players back. Although, better to see this now than closer to playoffs.

A very winnable and frustrating loss still. Not worried, but just frustrated.

LaMelo created the 6th highest shot quality on potential assists last year. The Wolves were 28th in potential assists last year.

Anthony Edwards shot 49.6% on catch and shoot 3’s last year. Ant only took 139 out of 514 from off the catch, and still cashed in a whopping 40% from 3. With LaMelo, those catch and shoot opportunities will sky rocket.

The question is now:

With Ant mastering the midrange last year and sustaining his 3pt marksmanship, could this be a year where Ant averages well over 30+ ppg on 50/40/80 splits?

If you want a chance of beating the spurs and thunder your team building process must change and I think zigging while others are zagging is exactly what Tim Connelly did with pairing Rudy with KAT back when the Warriors won the championship. You didn’t really see two 7 footers starting in the league, which is why there were so many questions on how that pairing would work.

Now that we kind of reached our ceiling, the brilliance of Connelly to say..”well let’s make these teams with Wemby and Chet have to guard 30 ft out with 2 of the best pull up 3pt shooters in the league in Ant and LaMelo”. Now you can’t double Ant because the threat of LaMelo on the 2nd side action is too much.
LaMelo will pick the defense apart with a 4 on 3.

LaMelo will take some crazy threes but there’s a method to the madness. While he may not shoot a great percentage from the field, he is going to shoot over half of his shots from three at roughly a 37% clip. That is a recipe for success when you have to go out and guard a guy like that who can shoot from the logo while being one of the best passers in the league.

Having two elite pull up 3pt shooters will take guys like Wemby away from the rim. Now you’ll be able to get easier buckets for guys like Jaden and TSJ on the weak side with how good they are at getting to the rim.

Lamelo throws perfect lobs and he’ll have three elite 6’10”+ lob threats on the role or baseline in Jaden’s case. And Jaden in the open court with Lamelo will be must see tv.

Then on the perimeter we’ll have Ant and TJ that can catch lobs like no other guard tandem in the league. Lamelo is entering a situation that perfectly suits the needs of the team and vice versa.

On top of that, Ant is the best catch and shoot 3pt shooter (50%) with over 100 attempts in the league last year. Lamelo will have a field day with the amount options he can create for that he didn’t have in Charlotte.

Lamelo is one of the very best offensive creator’s in the nba. To pair him with Ant is well worth risking essentially Naz and 1 first rd pick with the rest being fluff.

Hornets had a 126 ORtg last year with Lamelo on the court and a 112.7 ORtg with him off the court. The ability for him to drive and kick, and create wide open shots for people is almost 2nd to none in the nba. That pairs perfectly when you have a guy in Anthony Edwards who shot a career best 49% on catch and shoot threes last year.

Connelly also doubled down on shooting this year by drafting Isaiah Evans, one of the best shooters in the draft.

Now if you double Ant, Lamelo will torch a 4 on 3. And vice versa if you double Lamelo. Lamelo was a main driver of offense last year for a team that had good but not great talent. Now he doesn’t have to be relied upon to be the only creator with Ant and Ayo’s ability to get into the teeth of the defense. Kon, Brandon Miller, etc just weren’t those type of players.

If we can replace Naz with a serviceable forward as good as PJ Washington, this team becomes instant top tier title contenders. Might have to give up Josh Green and Shannon Jr to make the money work though.

Isaiah Evans is both a nice catch and shoot guy and can create his own 3. That pairs nicely with Ant, and we won’t have a weak shooter 1-4 now that Randle is gone. If somehow we land Lamelo for Rudy, I’m telling you this ish will get scary. Lamelo, Ant, Jaden, Naz, Ayo, Isaiah are all very good shooters now.

The offense should be a top 5 offense mixed with a very opportunistic defense on paper. This reminds me of the ‘22 defense with Vando and Jaden, with how switchable we can be. Beringer will be a huge rotation piece and hopefully will grow into his own because we’ll need his energy and defense. We will have to get another nice bench big (maybe in a Lamelo deal) to pair with Beringer as insurance, but Rocco could also step in and get more spot minutes.

If Lamelo is traded here, the show in Minnesota would be insane. Ant can play off ball, Lamelo can facilitate and can take immense pressure off of Ant. We wouldn’t have Rudy clogging driving lanes. The fit with the Wolves would be perfect.

There’s not a pass Liv can’t make with her left and right hand or even making the simple pass, and she’s money with Natasha in the pick n roll. I can’t fathom how good the pick n roll will look with Phee back in the mix. She’s one of the best mid range shooters, and she can pick n pop for three. Liv will have even more space to operate with Phee as a monster threat. If teams sell out on Phee, it’ll be bbq 🍗 for her 1 on 1. Then you add two of the best 3pt shooters in Kmac and Coffey, along with a sniper from mid range in Court.

I don’t see this team averaging under 100 points once Phee is back especially if she’s 90-100% the Phee we know. And if we do avg under 100, it’s likely because we’ll just be blowing teams out with our bench unit playing the 4th.

Liv has the exact same flair on the court, from the extreme confidence to the ability to have the arena wrapped around her fingers. She doesn’t back down from anyone and isn’t afraid to take control of the game even with high level vets on the team.

She was meant to play basketball and, just like Ant, there’s a switch that she can flip to go into pure takeover mode with extreme style. And she becomes even more of a dawg when she feels slighted in any way. Ant has that same trait. You don’t want to poke the bear.

I’m so so so intrigued to see Phee come back. To me, the Phee-Olivia on court chemistry will seem pretty natural. Phee sort of has the KAT demeanor and Olivia is more like Ant, which is why I think they will work well together. I don’t really think they are both alphas, which bodes well. I also don’t think Phee will take away from Olivia’s production. It’s incredible that we will quite possibly have two of the top 3-5 players on the same team.

Can someone explain how Buck has a -0.1 dWAR when he’s played in the field in 44 games, has the best range factor in the mlb, hasn’t made an error, and has +3 outs above average. I think defensive WAR is somewhat a crock of sh*t if you ask me. Buck has been fantastic out there by every metric but WAR.

Even on baseball savant he’s in the 70th percentile for fielding.

1. Has never grounded into more than 3 double plays in a season.

2. He’s the all time stolen base % leader at 91.1% (but unqualified since he hasn’t reached 300 attempts).

3. He’s still top 10 in sprint speed at 32 years old (98th percentile).

4. Oh and he’s on pace for 50 home runs this year. 😅

Truly remarkable talent, and one of the best redemptive baseball stories of the last 25 years. Went from “what if he could play a full season” to “his injuries will be too much to overcome and already pushing 30” to “one of the 10 best players in the game at 32” for a guy that was once known for mostly just game breaking speed early in his career.

He’s also just a ridiculous athlete. Could’ve played football for UGA if he wanted to, and reached up to 99 mph as a pitcher in high school.

I just had this thought this morning. The reaction from fans make the Wolves feel a mile away from the Spurs or Thunder. But they aren’t…you take the regular season the past two years and we were one of the only teams to play both the spurs and thunder tough. The Wolves won two games in the Spurs series without a healthy star, backcourt mate, and bench guard.

You cannot tell me that a fully oiled Wolves team isn’t as similar as you can get to the Knicks. Have a better superstar when healthy, a worse 2nd option, but then could argue a better 3rd option. Down the line, the Wolves have the roster to compete.

While I think you absolutely have to trade Randle, I do not expect huge sweeping changes other than maybe one Randle + role player + picks for star swap. We are right there and I think Tim Connelly knows we are probably just a move away too.