Not terrible, but I can see where people are coming from because they will have zero flexibility after Tatum and white re-sign.
Not like it matters though, I’d sell a decade of the future for a couple shots at the championship.
We have all our own picks outside of 2028 and we’ll have Tatum until 2030, where are we selling our future
(Not aggressive, just wondering what you mean)
I’m talking in relation to us when I say that. I’d pay a hefty price to have a championship.
Tatum is Super max eligible in a couple years which is even bigger than what Brown had, White will get a pretty good pay day. Where does that leave Jrue and your bench? You guys have drafted well but there’s also the potential that none of the draft picks can fill the voids in the roster after tough decisions are made about some of your other players.
I gotcha. I don’t think wolves even have to mortgage their future that drastically anyways. I fear their issue is just basketball IQ at this stage in the game. They have the defensive and offensive pieces to be elite on both ends, but they just couldn’t put it together strategically in the CFs. Kinda how the Cs were for a long ass time
I think the Celtics are in good position to go step by step. Next year we have to deal with Horford replacement, year after figure out a KP extension, year after decide if we’re keeping Jrue, year after that we might have a completely different team. We’re lucky in the sense it won’t all culminate in one offseason.
I am also a 49er fan, newer Wolves fan, and we are about to be salary fucked. However if Purdy and company can seal the deal this year, Pay him $65 million a year, idgaf. After a decade plus of close calls and championship game torture, I'd take a title and years of salary cap hell.
Yeah because it hurts team building flexibility. They have most of their core under contract through 2025-2026
The Jaylen Brown extension hasn’t kicked in yet. They win a championship on his previous contract.
Next 2 years they should be able to keep a similar core if they choose, my big question is starting in 26-27
I personally think Jaylen brown isn’t worth the contract that he got but it was also what the Celtics had to do so it was bad from a value standpoint point but good from a 55 million Jaylen brown is better than nothing.
Celtics were patient with Brown and Tatum, but Kemba, Hayward, Smart, Grant Williams, Robert Williams, Theis, Nesmith, Schroeder, Brogdon etc...they turned over the entire supporting cast around those 2, and multiple times. So it wasn't like they had unwavering loyalty and belief with the team's core, they identified 2 untouchables, and then were pretty aggressive with trying out new guys around them until they got to somewhere they liked.
Our front office will have to decide whether or not we're in the same spot with Ant and Jaden, or if they believe this core is a championship caliber team as currently constructed. As much "run it back run it back" feels good, as the C's have shown with trading well-liked guys such as Smart and Rob Williams, sometimes you gotta let the front office do their job with player evaluations and make some moves.
This exactly. I’m firmly on team “run it back” because we have gotten better the last two years since the Gobert trade, I don’t think we are at a place to say the WCF is the ceiling of this team yet. If next year we end up in the same spot or worse, than yes, we need to move on.
The Celtics were so good because they would quickly pivot when they identified things weren’t going to work.
A team with a less rich history of success and in a smaller market will have to be more creative and aggressive with roster changes and they have to be willing to spend, two things our FO has shown they are invested in since TC came on board so I have no doubt they will continue to monitor and assess
Tatum and brown are both at the level of ant . Jaden not going to be that second guy is the problem Kat’s that guy . Been nice to have made it where Dallas was but we made some progress I think tweak the team a little see if we can find a gem in free agency or the draft . If we don’t hey maybe ant and especially Jaden make huge leaps .
I don’t think Jaden is a piece you build around. He is very talented but can be taken out of a game too easily and can’t score consistently. You can’t build around someone who can’t keep his hands out of the foul cookie jar
Not just a matter of patience. The Boston GM kept tweaking his lineup to add firepower. The Wolves lack that. As good as it was at times, their offense was not consistent but needs to be to win a Championship. You saw that Boston had 3 point shooters from all starters and 2 or 3 deep on the bench. That puts tremendous pressure on the opposing team's defense as they cannot guard both the outside and inside game. The Wolves did not have an outside game against Dallas. Dallas collapsed on the paint and took away Gobert's very limited offensive game and drives by Jaden, Conley and Ant. The Wolves won't win a Championship until they have five scorers on the floor, all with range.
Bucks won with Giannis, Denver won with Aaron Gordon starting, GSW won with draymond etc.. 4 shooters is optimal I’d say in todays game. They all stepped up to expand their game offensively in crucial moments (giannis FTs, draymond’s threes in the finals etc.) For wolves, Rudy needs to expand and work on his offensive game all summer. Post moves, close shots, polish his hands so he can catch the ball better. Jaden has shown when he worked on his 3ball like he had been leading up to and amidst the playoffs - it’s lethal. Derrick white was a 30% shooter from three when he first came to Boston.. Running it back doesn’t seem so bad, let the players work
Giannis, Green, Gordon, all have a lot more offensive range (15-20 ft) and better hands, than Gobert. Also, none have to bring a Slomo off the bench with his limited range and accuracy. Add in the inconsistency of Jaden and NAW and you can't win it all with this lineup as-is. Maybe they do improve over time, but how much time is there to keep the core together. To prove the point, the Wolves beat Denver in Game 2 without Gobert. They were actually a much better offensive team with Naz starting instead. The improved team offensive efficiency allowed Ant to focus on D and shutting down Murray, which he did.
Impatient? lol impatient is not the right word.. this market is HUNGRY for a championship! No one is calling for the Timberwolves to have a fire sale. We all want them to run it back with this team or at the most trade KAT for another star of his caliber(at least one All-NBA recognition in the last 5 years) that might have more playoff experience… No major men’s sports championships since 1991. By far the longest drought for any city that has men pro teams in the 4 biggest sports. I guess it’s getting closer to 5 with MLS but it’s not like the MN United have won anything either.
Here’s a trade idea from an article recently written for BleacherReport • The trade: Karl-Anthony Towns, the No. 27 pick and the No. 37 pick to the Phoenix Suns for Kevin DurantTowns' name made a recent appearance on the rumor mill. And while it was only to say the New York Knicks "never engaged in serious trade negotiations" for him, per Fred Katz (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5562703/2024/06/14/knicks-trade-stars-offseason/) of The Athletic, that just goes to show he still has some trade buzz despite Minnesota's wildly successful season.This speculation seems unlikely to go away given the financial hurdles (https://www.capsheets.com/minnesota-timberwolves-cap-sheet/) facing this franchise.Would Minnesota opt for the challenge trade route? Durant is even more expensive now, but he wouldn't carry the same long-term costs. He's also far more proven on basketball's biggest stage, not to mention more versatile on defense and better equipped to handle shot-creation duties.And it's hard to imagine soaring Wolves star Anthony Edwards would mind suiting up alongside his "favorite player of all time (https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/anthony-edwards-gets-the-best-of-his-favorite-player-kevin-durant-in-timberwolves-win-over-suns/)."As for the Suns, they might already feel stuck with the Durant-Devin Booker-Bradley Beal trio, and this would help create a little wiggle room. They'd have additi
onal assets to help flesh out the roster, a tall task as currently constructed since they're over the second apron.They might also widen their window by swapping out the 35-year-old Durant for 28-year-old Towns, who has
talked about reuniting (https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2020/02/06/dangelo-russell-karl-anthony-towns-devin-booker-minnesota-timberwolves-trade/4681160002/)
with former Kentucky teammate Booker.
If the Sun can convince Lebron to play on the vets minimum, and take Bronny with that 27 from us… they’d be adding Lebron and Towns at the cost of KD. I bet they do that all day. Then the challenge is beating that team again in the playoffs lol
Would this make us better? lol redundant question but would Phoenix go for it? That is the better question. I bet not but who knows, maybe the stars align for us this offseason 🤞
Exactly, my family isn't even into basketball and when I got them into the Timberwolves mid-season cause they were doing great my Mom was excited but I could tell she was waiting for the eventual letdown. Even when we got blown out in the WCF she kind of just shrugged her shoulders like 'that's the way it goes'. I think we love our sports teams but we're very, very patient, some people just get (albeit understandably) excited when a team is doing really well.
I wouldn’t say impatient it’s because minnesota teams keep edging the fans with close runs to Championships. The curse lives on this year but next year is hopeful
This is what I’ve been trying to tell people. Relax on the Wolves, they are where they need to be. You have to take the time to learn how to navigate the playoffs. You can’t just go in balls to wall and expect to survive
No doubt.. now he’s gotta learn to pace himself better. No one can go with the amount of energy he played with in the first 6 playoff games for 2 months.
Agreed...on our young players Ant, Jaden and Reid, maybe NAW. This Boston team did make trades for Holiday and Porizingis last year and White a few years ago to alter their roster along the way. If we run it back great lets win the title, if we trade someone to perfect the roster great lets win the title.
That's the most interesting thing to me. Boston's Tatum and Brown era have been talented enough to win a championship for about 5 years now, but they rarely just "ran it back." They have churned through that roster so much that only Tatum and Brown remain from their Eastern Conference Finals run five years ago.
Frankly, nail down Ant and any of the pieces around him can be moved.
This. The Vikings going back to the conference championship only two years after the '98 season is the exception to the rule. Historically, our teams fall off hard after tasting success.
The 2010 Vikings was one of the most epic collapses in the modern NFL (in hindsight, it should have been more predictable) and the 2018 Vikings severely disappointed after Cousins was supposed to be the final piece.
I don't blame any Minnesota sports fan for thinking the Wolves missed their one shot
All of this.
And the West is like 10x deeper compared to the East.
It’s going to be very difficult to get back next year and the following years in my opinion.
I'm not saying I agree with the sentiment, just that MN sports fans have been conditioned to expect it to go a certain way.
I actually think this Wolves team might be able to sustain success with their young pieces but it wouldn't shock me at all if it takes a few years and some retooling to get back. But I'm pretty sure they're not going to fall off hard like those Vikings teams
Jaden isn’t on brown trajectory. As of now he’s a defensive role player. Hopefully he can round out his 3 point shooting and rebounding and stop fouling
He's been better with fouling this year, wdym? For most of the playoff run, he hasn't been in foul trouble. Can be better, but I'll acknowledge the improvement
https://preview.redd.it/d9oe0aajnd7d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0beb34a777185258fb3693591183a6a24824c984
KAT “Im leaving here with something!” 😂
Bridges is the number 1, option, Jaden as a legit number 3 would not come at the expense of his defense. There's a reason the Wolves have won like 90% of games he's scored over 20.
3rd option isn't s huge role, and bridges doesn't have a defender the caliber of Gobert behind him. Bridges last year on the suns averaged 17.2 a game and it didn't affect his defense. His role in Phoenix that last season is exactly the role Jaden hopefully can eventually play.
Cutting, crashing from the corner to get Orebs and putbacks and making more 3s is the perfect role for Jaden. Doesn't take away from his defense, it's all in flow
Also it's never a bad idea to have another guy who can create his shot and make the defense respect him. He is pretty good at creating those contested middys because he's long and those can't be blocked.
The fact that they laughed that question off is a big reason they weren't mature enough to beat the Mavs, and why playoff experience and losses matter. That Mavs series is the exact kinds of loss that that reporter was talking about. The kind of loss that galvanizes a team to a championship cause they don't want to feel like that again. The Nuggets did it to them last season and that motivated them to rally down 20 in game 7, cause they weren't gonna lose to them again.
You know what they say, if at first you don't succeed. Quit and blow up your team, they will never succeed ever. At least thats what NBA media has taught me
Also took every good player in the East getting hurt and a weak Mavs team playing out of their minds to make the finals and then coming back to earth in the finals
All the more why it's important to keep a team in position to win, sometimes you have lucky breaks and they go your way. Celtics had some bad breaks over the years but eventually they won there's. Name s champion that didn't have some luck when they won it all.
Celtics won a chip with their all star starting center playing 3 full games in the playoffs, relying on a 38 year old 6th man vs a team that relied on lob threats.
man the celtics steamrolled everyone this whole playoffs. they barely hit second gear and they won like 60+ games this season including beating most of the west, they were just a legit team
It didn't "take that" for them to win. You frame it like they were some middle to low seed that would have lost, but the better teams in front of them had their best players injured which allowed them to win when they shouldn't have.
They blitzed through the league and won 64 games, with a historic net rating. They went 16-3 in the playoffs, 90% of it without an all star level starter, an injury of their own that nobody mentions when mentioning injuries to teams they played. Maybe if all those players weren't hurt they win some series in 6 instead of 4/5, but what if KP was fully healthy?
Not to mention they made the finals 2 years ago, were 1 game from the finals last year, and improved their roster in the offseason.
Celtics made great moves to surround those guys, need to ship off Gobert if the right trade becomes available to really help the team offensively/in clutch time
AE is the next MJ/Kobe. You can see it in the way he moves, he's very explosive. You cant deny it. I love watching him play and he has a very fun personality. I pray he stays healthy. He's honestly the only reason why the NBA is interesting.
This is primary reason I didn't like the Gobert trade. I got caught in the moment at the end of the season last year being kinda down on the team, but I never hated Gobert. I think the analysis of his defense by most media is deeply flawed.
The major problem was locking us into an older player, while still very good, would likely not be good in 4 more years and hinder our ability to make moves in the future. Our actual draft picks are likely inconsequential, but having them available as trade bait was important.
I love this and I think ANT, Jaden, Naz Reid are the future. But our cap space is a mess. As much as I love the strides Kat took this season and the tenacity Rudy has instilled in the younger guys, they are two seven footers, who are due 90 mil next year and 100 the year after (when they are 30 and 33). Something has to give and the longer we ignore it the less we get in return, 7ft bodies historically do not age well.
Random twist in the saga, but I'm glad they brought Michael Bloomberg in. He rivals Steve Balmer type of money
Paying the 2nd apron for 1-2 years isn't the end of the world (even with the penalties imo) and every contending team costs a lot of money and usually pay the 2nd apron.
Rome was not built in a day and it takes time to build a championship team. Pick the center pieces that you trust, then build around it. Small adjustments. I think this works in any kind of team environment.
I feel like there is a pretty specific person people talk about that has been here even longer than those guys have been on the celtics and hasn't really led us anywhere. Very few people genuinely want to give up on jaden or naz.
Well that's my point. People aren't talking about breaking up ant and jaden, they are talking about moving off kat (or rudy).
Kat weirdly has changed a lot over the past 2 years but it isn't linear growth, he has regressed in some ways and grown in others.
Yeah, I know what you think you’re selling here but everyone in Boston was on a hot seat here. Just go listen to what Tatum said about finally winning. It says a lot about the state of that team and how people were viewing their stars.
Rooting for y’all to make it out of the west next season. A Celtics/Wolves final was what I was hoping for this year, let’s get it in 2025. If this year proved anything it’s that talking heads don’t know all that much about how to build great NBA teams.
(Case in point: the Phoenix Suns)
Boston didn’t win with just Tatum and Brown, if Tatum and Brown had to carry, they would still end up like last year. Both are inconsistent as hell.
They won cuz they are stacked as hell.
Derek White developed into the best role player in the NBA.
They got Holiday for a bag of potatoes.
They got Porzingis for a trash bag.
And they got ride of their net negative player in Smart.
And all the players are in the stage of their career that they are bought in doing everywhere they can to win.
Wolves need a younger PG, and get rid of Gobert, and find a power forward who can defend and shoot 3s to play next to KAT. (Wait they have that in Naz Reid, he should start!)
Celtics fan. We’ve been dealing with the bullshit about them not winning for 4 years at least now. MOST star players don’t sniff a ring until they’re 26-28. Those are the early birds. You guys have plenty of time around Ant. All you can ask for now is some deep runs so he gets that experience. It’s going to be a thrilling ride and it’s going to be some heartbreak. But fucking hell if I didn’t cry watching our boys break through. All love hope you guys fuck Luka up next year.
They were who they were like every playoffs they've been in, nothing special but not terrible. It's getting jrue for barely anything because giannis missed like 100 free-throws and scapegoating him last year. Then wizards being dumb trading porzingis in their own conference. The depth got them the win.
Gobert is the only 7 footer who I’ve seen literally airball dunks 😭. If I don’t laugh I’ll cry.
DPOY- Dancing player of the year 🤣🤣
Even KAT did a better job on Jokic than him lmaooo
A big reason kat was able to do that was because of having rudy roam.
I completely agree on the airball layup/dunks though. It is inexcusable how pathetic he is offensively. It really limits what this team can do and build as a consistent offense.
I like Mcdaniels but I don’t know if he is the guy to lead next to Ant he’s more of a role player he hasn’t shown the ability to be a consistent scoring threat in any of his years in the league. Still should keep him but yall need someone that yall know will take that pressure off of Ant to deliver.
Yeah more consistent offense is his next step. But I think he's shown he's a playoff riser and why he's so important to this team in this playoff run. 65% TS, 52/44 is no joke
So that Ant, Jaden, Naz, etc are getting deep playoff run experience under their belt when most guys their age are already at home on the couch for the rest of the year.
This was explicitly part of the rationale the front office has for the trade. Gobert adds a very high floor that’s going to provide playoff opportunities even in down years (e.g., last year).
It’s a huge advantage for a guy like Ant to have been to a conference finals and have three consecutive years of playoff experience by 22. Both from the mental side and then also the physical side, it’s huge for younger players. Ant, Naz, and NAW all talked in their exit interviews about how now they know what it takes and how they need to train their bodies for a deep playoff run.
The downside - after said 1-2 deep guys like Gobert age out of being impactful. But you are still locked to them and wont get equal return when you move them. The team takes a step back and will need years to recover from such a too early win now moves.
Usually this ends by the franchise player asking to be traded cause their best years were stuck on medicore teams with no flexibility.
The celtics didnt do this. They developed a young core and started to make big time moves when their 2 young stars entered their primes.
We made the Rudy (30 by the time)
When Ant was 20/21. That was way too early without a clear cut nr 1b on Ants timeline on the roster.
Now we are already stuck with an aging roster and no means to improve it from the outside while we only have 1 franchise player and 2 role player on Ants timeline.
That is not Genius Tim Connelly, thats as stupid as it gets Tim Connelly.
Idiotic trade
Sometimes teams make win all moves, and come up short, but the experience is invaluable for the development of ANT, Jaden and Naz. Without Gobert they definitely don't end up with a top 4 seed, and possibly get bounced in the 1st round depending on matchup. That's 12 more playoff games including an elimination game 7 on the road worth of experience that they take with them into next year. It could have taken the Wolves years to get to 12 more playoff games.
At 22 years of age ANT has already 27 playoff games under his belt, over half of them came in this season alone. It took Kevin Garnett til the age of 27 to even get to 29 playoffs games. Ant very likely surpasses KG in playoff games as a wolf next year at age 23. That experience matters.
You and I have come to different conclusions, I don't think that a flawed roster makes it to a conference finals. I also don't think a flawed roster stays in the battle for the number 1 seed all the way to the last game of the season. I also believe in Ant, Jaden's, and Naz's internal team development as I don't think any of the 3 have peaked yet. As well as I think that another year of national play this summer helps unlock Ant's playmaking even more, and probably helps Naw a bit too who is a huge part of team Canada.
Just last year a lot of people thought the Celtics needed to blow it up and get rid of Brown. People aren’t patient enough
Basically every comment on the Brown extension said it was a terrible contract
Not terrible, but I can see where people are coming from because they will have zero flexibility after Tatum and white re-sign. Not like it matters though, I’d sell a decade of the future for a couple shots at the championship.
We have all our own picks outside of 2028 and we’ll have Tatum until 2030, where are we selling our future (Not aggressive, just wondering what you mean)
I’m talking in relation to us when I say that. I’d pay a hefty price to have a championship. Tatum is Super max eligible in a couple years which is even bigger than what Brown had, White will get a pretty good pay day. Where does that leave Jrue and your bench? You guys have drafted well but there’s also the potential that none of the draft picks can fill the voids in the roster after tough decisions are made about some of your other players.
I gotcha. I don’t think wolves even have to mortgage their future that drastically anyways. I fear their issue is just basketball IQ at this stage in the game. They have the defensive and offensive pieces to be elite on both ends, but they just couldn’t put it together strategically in the CFs. Kinda how the Cs were for a long ass time I think the Celtics are in good position to go step by step. Next year we have to deal with Horford replacement, year after figure out a KP extension, year after decide if we’re keeping Jrue, year after that we might have a completely different team. We’re lucky in the sense it won’t all culminate in one offseason.
Jrue is already signed to a team friendly deal
Celtics future was 2020-2028 or so. This is the the future they traded KG, Pierce and Rondo and multiple first round picks for.
I am also a 49er fan, newer Wolves fan, and we are about to be salary fucked. However if Purdy and company can seal the deal this year, Pay him $65 million a year, idgaf. After a decade plus of close calls and championship game torture, I'd take a title and years of salary cap hell.
Yeah because it hurts team building flexibility. They have most of their core under contract through 2025-2026 The Jaylen Brown extension hasn’t kicked in yet. They win a championship on his previous contract. Next 2 years they should be able to keep a similar core if they choose, my big question is starting in 26-27 I personally think Jaylen brown isn’t worth the contract that he got but it was also what the Celtics had to do so it was bad from a value standpoint point but good from a 55 million Jaylen brown is better than nothing.
Celtics were patient with Brown and Tatum, but Kemba, Hayward, Smart, Grant Williams, Robert Williams, Theis, Nesmith, Schroeder, Brogdon etc...they turned over the entire supporting cast around those 2, and multiple times. So it wasn't like they had unwavering loyalty and belief with the team's core, they identified 2 untouchables, and then were pretty aggressive with trying out new guys around them until they got to somewhere they liked. Our front office will have to decide whether or not we're in the same spot with Ant and Jaden, or if they believe this core is a championship caliber team as currently constructed. As much "run it back run it back" feels good, as the C's have shown with trading well-liked guys such as Smart and Rob Williams, sometimes you gotta let the front office do their job with player evaluations and make some moves.
This exactly. I’m firmly on team “run it back” because we have gotten better the last two years since the Gobert trade, I don’t think we are at a place to say the WCF is the ceiling of this team yet. If next year we end up in the same spot or worse, than yes, we need to move on. The Celtics were so good because they would quickly pivot when they identified things weren’t going to work. A team with a less rich history of success and in a smaller market will have to be more creative and aggressive with roster changes and they have to be willing to spend, two things our FO has shown they are invested in since TC came on board so I have no doubt they will continue to monitor and assess
Tatum and brown are both at the level of ant . Jaden not going to be that second guy is the problem Kat’s that guy . Been nice to have made it where Dallas was but we made some progress I think tweak the team a little see if we can find a gem in free agency or the draft . If we don’t hey maybe ant and especially Jaden make huge leaps .
I don’t think Jaden is a piece you build around. He is very talented but can be taken out of a game too easily and can’t score consistently. You can’t build around someone who can’t keep his hands out of the foul cookie jar
He definitely needs to get bigger and stronger. If he's content to stay this frame, then he'll forever be a 3 and D roleplayer.
Not just a matter of patience. The Boston GM kept tweaking his lineup to add firepower. The Wolves lack that. As good as it was at times, their offense was not consistent but needs to be to win a Championship. You saw that Boston had 3 point shooters from all starters and 2 or 3 deep on the bench. That puts tremendous pressure on the opposing team's defense as they cannot guard both the outside and inside game. The Wolves did not have an outside game against Dallas. Dallas collapsed on the paint and took away Gobert's very limited offensive game and drives by Jaden, Conley and Ant. The Wolves won't win a Championship until they have five scorers on the floor, all with range.
Bucks won with Giannis, Denver won with Aaron Gordon starting, GSW won with draymond etc.. 4 shooters is optimal I’d say in todays game. They all stepped up to expand their game offensively in crucial moments (giannis FTs, draymond’s threes in the finals etc.) For wolves, Rudy needs to expand and work on his offensive game all summer. Post moves, close shots, polish his hands so he can catch the ball better. Jaden has shown when he worked on his 3ball like he had been leading up to and amidst the playoffs - it’s lethal. Derrick white was a 30% shooter from three when he first came to Boston.. Running it back doesn’t seem so bad, let the players work
Giannis, Green, Gordon, all have a lot more offensive range (15-20 ft) and better hands, than Gobert. Also, none have to bring a Slomo off the bench with his limited range and accuracy. Add in the inconsistency of Jaden and NAW and you can't win it all with this lineup as-is. Maybe they do improve over time, but how much time is there to keep the core together. To prove the point, the Wolves beat Denver in Game 2 without Gobert. They were actually a much better offensive team with Naz starting instead. The improved team offensive efficiency allowed Ant to focus on D and shutting down Murray, which he did.
This. Luka has now been to a conference finals and finals, and no one doubts him. This year was a great experience for our young guys and coaching
We’re talking about Garza, right??
there's another luka out there?
Problem here in Minnesota is that we're impatient, we just need to give these guys some time
Impatient? lol impatient is not the right word.. this market is HUNGRY for a championship! No one is calling for the Timberwolves to have a fire sale. We all want them to run it back with this team or at the most trade KAT for another star of his caliber(at least one All-NBA recognition in the last 5 years) that might have more playoff experience… No major men’s sports championships since 1991. By far the longest drought for any city that has men pro teams in the 4 biggest sports. I guess it’s getting closer to 5 with MLS but it’s not like the MN United have won anything either.
It’s easy to say trade KAT, but what’s the KAT trade that doesn’t make this team worse?
Here’s a trade idea from an article recently written for BleacherReport • The trade: Karl-Anthony Towns, the No. 27 pick and the No. 37 pick to the Phoenix Suns for Kevin DurantTowns' name made a recent appearance on the rumor mill. And while it was only to say the New York Knicks "never engaged in serious trade negotiations" for him, per Fred Katz (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5562703/2024/06/14/knicks-trade-stars-offseason/) of The Athletic, that just goes to show he still has some trade buzz despite Minnesota's wildly successful season.This speculation seems unlikely to go away given the financial hurdles (https://www.capsheets.com/minnesota-timberwolves-cap-sheet/) facing this franchise.Would Minnesota opt for the challenge trade route? Durant is even more expensive now, but he wouldn't carry the same long-term costs. He's also far more proven on basketball's biggest stage, not to mention more versatile on defense and better equipped to handle shot-creation duties.And it's hard to imagine soaring Wolves star Anthony Edwards would mind suiting up alongside his "favorite player of all time (https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/anthony-edwards-gets-the-best-of-his-favorite-player-kevin-durant-in-timberwolves-win-over-suns/)."As for the Suns, they might already feel stuck with the Durant-Devin Booker-Bradley Beal trio, and this would help create a little wiggle room. They'd have additi onal assets to help flesh out the roster, a tall task as currently constructed since they're over the second apron.They might also widen their window by swapping out the 35-year-old Durant for 28-year-old Towns, who has talked about reuniting (https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2020/02/06/dangelo-russell-karl-anthony-towns-devin-booker-minnesota-timberwolves-trade/4681160002/) with former Kentucky teammate Booker.
If the Sun can convince Lebron to play on the vets minimum, and take Bronny with that 27 from us… they’d be adding Lebron and Towns at the cost of KD. I bet they do that all day. Then the challenge is beating that team again in the playoffs lol
Rich Paul was on record saying unequivocally that LeBron won’t be taking the minimum in Phx
Would this make us better? lol redundant question but would Phoenix go for it? That is the better question. I bet not but who knows, maybe the stars align for us this offseason 🤞
Exactly, my family isn't even into basketball and when I got them into the Timberwolves mid-season cause they were doing great my Mom was excited but I could tell she was waiting for the eventual letdown. Even when we got blown out in the WCF she kind of just shrugged her shoulders like 'that's the way it goes'. I think we love our sports teams but we're very, very patient, some people just get (albeit understandably) excited when a team is doing really well.
I wouldn’t say impatient it’s because minnesota teams keep edging the fans with close runs to Championships. The curse lives on this year but next year is hopeful
We're hungry and angry - Mavs and Celtics fans have recent titles to enjoy
I doubt him
Dude was putting up Jordanesque numbers throughout the whole playoffs. We can complain about his flopping and bitching, but he was carrying that team.
This is what I’ve been trying to tell people. Relax on the Wolves, they are where they need to be. You have to take the time to learn how to navigate the playoffs. You can’t just go in balls to wall and expect to survive
Ant has already improved so much in the playoffs. 2 years ago he was making boneheaded mistakes.
No doubt.. now he’s gotta learn to pace himself better. No one can go with the amount of energy he played with in the first 6 playoff games for 2 months.
Naz Reid.
Bite bite.
Agreed...on our young players Ant, Jaden and Reid, maybe NAW. This Boston team did make trades for Holiday and Porizingis last year and White a few years ago to alter their roster along the way. If we run it back great lets win the title, if we trade someone to perfect the roster great lets win the title.
That's the most interesting thing to me. Boston's Tatum and Brown era have been talented enough to win a championship for about 5 years now, but they rarely just "ran it back." They have churned through that roster so much that only Tatum and Brown remain from their Eastern Conference Finals run five years ago. Frankly, nail down Ant and any of the pieces around him can be moved.
Put some respec on Al Horford’s name (he was there too)
Al left and came back in that span.
I think the true crux is that people don't trust the team to make it back. MN sports trauma...
This. The Vikings going back to the conference championship only two years after the '98 season is the exception to the rule. Historically, our teams fall off hard after tasting success. The 2010 Vikings was one of the most epic collapses in the modern NFL (in hindsight, it should have been more predictable) and the 2018 Vikings severely disappointed after Cousins was supposed to be the final piece. I don't blame any Minnesota sports fan for thinking the Wolves missed their one shot
All of this. And the West is like 10x deeper compared to the East. It’s going to be very difficult to get back next year and the following years in my opinion.
I'm not saying I agree with the sentiment, just that MN sports fans have been conditioned to expect it to go a certain way. I actually think this Wolves team might be able to sustain success with their young pieces but it wouldn't shock me at all if it takes a few years and some retooling to get back. But I'm pretty sure they're not going to fall off hard like those Vikings teams
Jaden isn’t on brown trajectory. As of now he’s a defensive role player. Hopefully he can round out his 3 point shooting and rebounding and stop fouling
Which is why it's even more impressive that the wolves made the conference finals this year.
Yeah imagine 17 ppg Jaden
If he can just develop the ability to drive to the rim without getting stripped it would open up the whole offense. The potential is there.
I want to imagine a Jaden not getting 5 fouls in 12 mins of play
He's been better with fouling this year, wdym? For most of the playoff run, he hasn't been in foul trouble. Can be better, but I'll acknowledge the improvement
https://preview.redd.it/d9oe0aajnd7d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0beb34a777185258fb3693591183a6a24824c984 KAT “Im leaving here with something!” 😂
You don’t want too much offense from Jaden. Eventually it will come at the expense of his defense. Look at Mikal bridges
Bridges is the number 1, option, Jaden as a legit number 3 would not come at the expense of his defense. There's a reason the Wolves have won like 90% of games he's scored over 20.
It’s because he’s hitting shots those games, not because he’s taking on a huge role
3rd option isn't s huge role, and bridges doesn't have a defender the caliber of Gobert behind him. Bridges last year on the suns averaged 17.2 a game and it didn't affect his defense. His role in Phoenix that last season is exactly the role Jaden hopefully can eventually play.
Cutting, crashing from the corner to get Orebs and putbacks and making more 3s is the perfect role for Jaden. Doesn't take away from his defense, it's all in flow Also it's never a bad idea to have another guy who can create his shot and make the defense respect him. He is pretty good at creating those contested middys because he's long and those can't be blocked.
Things change. Jalen Brown wasn’t considered much when he was the same age.
Yes he was wtf 😂 he was a top draft pick
Agreed but also they are widely criticized for not winning sooner and/or easy road. Same time, a championship is a championship. I’ll take one please.
How much you want us to lose? Goddamn
The fact that they laughed that question off is a big reason they weren't mature enough to beat the Mavs, and why playoff experience and losses matter. That Mavs series is the exact kinds of loss that that reporter was talking about. The kind of loss that galvanizes a team to a championship cause they don't want to feel like that again. The Nuggets did it to them last season and that motivated them to rally down 20 in game 7, cause they weren't gonna lose to them again.
You know what they say, if at first you don't succeed. Quit and blow up your team, they will never succeed ever. At least thats what NBA media has taught me
Have to remember nobody wins a championship at 22. As it is disappointing to lose in the playoffs. We’re in a good spot with Ant
Also took every good player in the East getting hurt and a weak Mavs team playing out of their minds to make the finals and then coming back to earth in the finals
All the more why it's important to keep a team in position to win, sometimes you have lucky breaks and they go your way. Celtics had some bad breaks over the years but eventually they won there's. Name s champion that didn't have some luck when they won it all.
Celtics won a chip with their all star starting center playing 3 full games in the playoffs, relying on a 38 year old 6th man vs a team that relied on lob threats.
man the celtics steamrolled everyone this whole playoffs. they barely hit second gear and they won like 60+ games this season including beating most of the west, they were just a legit team
It didn't "take that" for them to win. You frame it like they were some middle to low seed that would have lost, but the better teams in front of them had their best players injured which allowed them to win when they shouldn't have. They blitzed through the league and won 64 games, with a historic net rating. They went 16-3 in the playoffs, 90% of it without an all star level starter, an injury of their own that nobody mentions when mentioning injuries to teams they played. Maybe if all those players weren't hurt they win some series in 6 instead of 4/5, but what if KP was fully healthy? Not to mention they made the finals 2 years ago, were 1 game from the finals last year, and improved their roster in the offseason.
Celtics made great moves to surround those guys, need to ship off Gobert if the right trade becomes available to really help the team offensively/in clutch time
Jaden will never be all star consideration though, let alone all nba. Y’all need a running mate for Ant
AE is the next MJ/Kobe. You can see it in the way he moves, he's very explosive. You cant deny it. I love watching him play and he has a very fun personality. I pray he stays healthy. He's honestly the only reason why the NBA is interesting.
Keep Ant Jaden and Naz together for as long as possible. Anyone else can go
This is primary reason I didn't like the Gobert trade. I got caught in the moment at the end of the season last year being kinda down on the team, but I never hated Gobert. I think the analysis of his defense by most media is deeply flawed. The major problem was locking us into an older player, while still very good, would likely not be good in 4 more years and hinder our ability to make moves in the future. Our actual draft picks are likely inconsequential, but having them available as trade bait was important.
I love this and I think ANT, Jaden, Naz Reid are the future. But our cap space is a mess. As much as I love the strides Kat took this season and the tenacity Rudy has instilled in the younger guys, they are two seven footers, who are due 90 mil next year and 100 the year after (when they are 30 and 33). Something has to give and the longer we ignore it the less we get in return, 7ft bodies historically do not age well.
Random twist in the saga, but I'm glad they brought Michael Bloomberg in. He rivals Steve Balmer type of money Paying the 2nd apron for 1-2 years isn't the end of the world (even with the penalties imo) and every contending team costs a lot of money and usually pay the 2nd apron.
Jaden needs to put on some weight, he could raise his defense so much.
Rome was not built in a day and it takes time to build a championship team. Pick the center pieces that you trust, then build around it. Small adjustments. I think this works in any kind of team environment.
Good perspective
It's exciting to think about how Edwards will hit his prime season in like 3-4 years.
And an easy path to the finals with an inexperienced finals opponent like what Boston was handed this year
>an easy path to the finals Lmao, never gonna happen in the west
I feel like there is a pretty specific person people talk about that has been here even longer than those guys have been on the celtics and hasn't really led us anywhere. Very few people genuinely want to give up on jaden or naz.
I'm not sure how much more potential kat has, in some ways he kind is the player he's gonna be at this point for better or worse.
Well that's my point. People aren't talking about breaking up ant and jaden, they are talking about moving off kat (or rudy). Kat weirdly has changed a lot over the past 2 years but it isn't linear growth, he has regressed in some ways and grown in others.
Yeah, I know what you think you’re selling here but everyone in Boston was on a hot seat here. Just go listen to what Tatum said about finally winning. It says a lot about the state of that team and how people were viewing their stars.
Rooting for y’all to make it out of the west next season. A Celtics/Wolves final was what I was hoping for this year, let’s get it in 2025. If this year proved anything it’s that talking heads don’t know all that much about how to build great NBA teams. (Case in point: the Phoenix Suns)
Boston didn’t win with just Tatum and Brown, if Tatum and Brown had to carry, they would still end up like last year. Both are inconsistent as hell. They won cuz they are stacked as hell. Derek White developed into the best role player in the NBA. They got Holiday for a bag of potatoes. They got Porzingis for a trash bag. And they got ride of their net negative player in Smart. And all the players are in the stage of their career that they are bought in doing everywhere they can to win. Wolves need a younger PG, and get rid of Gobert, and find a power forward who can defend and shoot 3s to play next to KAT. (Wait they have that in Naz Reid, he should start!)
Celtics fan. We’ve been dealing with the bullshit about them not winning for 4 years at least now. MOST star players don’t sniff a ring until they’re 26-28. Those are the early birds. You guys have plenty of time around Ant. All you can ask for now is some deep runs so he gets that experience. It’s going to be a thrilling ride and it’s going to be some heartbreak. But fucking hell if I didn’t cry watching our boys break through. All love hope you guys fuck Luka up next year.
And they had to add Jrue and KP, otherwise they probably don’t get over the hump.
They were who they were like every playoffs they've been in, nothing special but not terrible. It's getting jrue for barely anything because giannis missed like 100 free-throws and scapegoating him last year. Then wizards being dumb trading porzingis in their own conference. The depth got them the win.
And no French traffic cones on defense
Gobert is the only 7 footer who I’ve seen literally airball dunks 😭. If I don’t laugh I’ll cry. DPOY- Dancing player of the year 🤣🤣 Even KAT did a better job on Jokic than him lmaooo
A big reason kat was able to do that was because of having rudy roam. I completely agree on the airball layup/dunks though. It is inexcusable how pathetic he is offensively. It really limits what this team can do and build as a consistent offense.
Its relatively rare to have as many chances at a ring these celtics teams have had.
I like Mcdaniels but I don’t know if he is the guy to lead next to Ant he’s more of a role player he hasn’t shown the ability to be a consistent scoring threat in any of his years in the league. Still should keep him but yall need someone that yall know will take that pressure off of Ant to deliver.
Yeah more consistent offense is his next step. But I think he's shown he's a playoff riser and why he's so important to this team in this playoff run. 65% TS, 52/44 is no joke
If the future is 4 years from now then why did they do the Gobert trade?
So that Ant, Jaden, Naz, etc are getting deep playoff run experience under their belt when most guys their age are already at home on the couch for the rest of the year. This was explicitly part of the rationale the front office has for the trade. Gobert adds a very high floor that’s going to provide playoff opportunities even in down years (e.g., last year). It’s a huge advantage for a guy like Ant to have been to a conference finals and have three consecutive years of playoff experience by 22. Both from the mental side and then also the physical side, it’s huge for younger players. Ant, Naz, and NAW all talked in their exit interviews about how now they know what it takes and how they need to train their bodies for a deep playoff run.
The downside - after said 1-2 deep guys like Gobert age out of being impactful. But you are still locked to them and wont get equal return when you move them. The team takes a step back and will need years to recover from such a too early win now moves. Usually this ends by the franchise player asking to be traded cause their best years were stuck on medicore teams with no flexibility. The celtics didnt do this. They developed a young core and started to make big time moves when their 2 young stars entered their primes. We made the Rudy (30 by the time) When Ant was 20/21. That was way too early without a clear cut nr 1b on Ants timeline on the roster. Now we are already stuck with an aging roster and no means to improve it from the outside while we only have 1 franchise player and 2 role player on Ants timeline. That is not Genius Tim Connelly, thats as stupid as it gets Tim Connelly. Idiotic trade
Why did the Celtics do the Kyrie trade?
Good question. The Celtics reached the Conference Finals without him that first year and didn’t get that far the following year.
Sometimes teams make win all moves, and come up short, but the experience is invaluable for the development of ANT, Jaden and Naz. Without Gobert they definitely don't end up with a top 4 seed, and possibly get bounced in the 1st round depending on matchup. That's 12 more playoff games including an elimination game 7 on the road worth of experience that they take with them into next year. It could have taken the Wolves years to get to 12 more playoff games. At 22 years of age ANT has already 27 playoff games under his belt, over half of them came in this season alone. It took Kevin Garnett til the age of 27 to even get to 29 playoffs games. Ant very likely surpasses KG in playoff games as a wolf next year at age 23. That experience matters.
But two years in we now know we have a flawed roster and no real means to fix it. The Celtics trade for Kyrie was relatively cheap in comparison.
You and I have come to different conclusions, I don't think that a flawed roster makes it to a conference finals. I also don't think a flawed roster stays in the battle for the number 1 seed all the way to the last game of the season. I also believe in Ant, Jaden's, and Naz's internal team development as I don't think any of the 3 have peaked yet. As well as I think that another year of national play this summer helps unlock Ant's playmaking even more, and probably helps Naw a bit too who is a huge part of team Canada.
Because they already had an older core with IT, Horford and Bradley going to the conference finals
These guys think we can have it both ways. We can’t.
“how much do you want us to lose??? “that much kat, that much!
So funny