Kalen🎄🎅🏿

I love @mar_mones

If you want to actually change someone’s mind, you have to care about the conditions under which minds change. Minds rarely change under humiliation. They rarely change while cornered. They rarely change while being publicly defeated. They rarely change when the change requires immediate exile from their people. People need bridges.

@ImAureus @LJJM__ It’s clearly both was my point. More fans of neither team make up most of the viewing audience and they don’t just want to see Wemby dominate anyone. They want to see his team beat the most popular young american star’s team even though it’s their first postseason run

@JustStarkey @LJJM__ It can be both :)

The books are cooked, but the country yearns to watch the wolves for the 5th straight year

@Stewcat2006 @jasonmgood And he played as if that was the point he wanted to make to the organization. Never really put his body on the line or pushed himself as hard as he probably could’ve, thankfully. Then straight up told media that the better team won.

Ant coming back game 1 wasn’t important because it gave us a chance, it was important because it didn’t give us a chance to lie to ourselves about what could’ve been.

This is what happens when you build something super methodically and don’t rush it. OKC stacked assets that fit seamlessly including a couple home run trades and draft picks and got a HC that exhibits patience and leans into youth while getting guys in spots they can maximize their strengths. The Wolves elected to expedite their build and add older players to an inexperienced and immature roster. Instead of hoarding assets and equipping themselves with premium flexibility for Ant’s prime years, they dumped their assets to win right away. It was a bet that got them one of their 2 best seasons in franchise history and 2 WCF appearances — which, given the history of this organization, feels like a huge win. But it wasn’t without massive future risk. Now, the Wolves are very clearly at a difficult crossroads. They have a roster divided between eras with an aging Gobert and Julius Randle (who probably don’t have much value on the trade market) and 3 guys entering their primes in Ant/Jaden/Naz that don’t possess adequate star power to go toe-to-toe with OKC/SAS/BOS/DEN/DET without some serious help. Because of Connelly’s shortage of draft assets from the Rudy and Rob trades, extra pressure is placed on every remaining pick he has to use to supplement the roster. And to this point, he’s just flat-out not done a good enough job with this and the staff hasn’t done a good enough job developing them. So much of this team’s future viability rides on major leaps from Ant/Jaden/Naz and Joan Beringer hitting his immensely high ceiling as quickly as he can. Barring a miracle trade or 2 involving some combination of Randle/Naz/Rudy, this team’s future outlook is murky. It’s interesting to think back to the Rudy trade and wonder what the alternative, OKC approach might’ve looked like…how bullish would we be about the Wolves’ future with a core Ant/Jaden/KAT/Naz/Kessler and all of their picks? What if the Wolves had stayed patient and ended up with the 10th pick in that 2023 draft and taken Cason Wallace? What if they had used those picks to make other trades for younger core pieces? I’ve had more fun watching this team throughout the past 3 years than I’ve had since the KG prime, but I do wonder about the other path and whether patience would’ve ultimately produced a more synergistic team with more long-term championship upside.

starting front court gave you a combined 3/10/1 on 17 TS% in an elimination game #salute

Anthony Edwards reflecting back on the season: "You're supposed to build championship habits or playoff habits during the regular season." When asked if the Wolves did that: "No, we didn't build the habits during the regular season."

in ant 2nd year we won 46 games. the starting lineup was Dlo/Pat Bev/Ant/Vando/KAT YOU WON 46 GAMES IN ANT’S 2ND YEAR AND 4 YEARS LATER YOU WIN 49 GAMES AND EVERY SINGLE ASSET IS GONE

Chris Finch on Rudy Gobert on Stephon Castle "I'll take the blame for the start of the game. We flipped the matchups around. We tried to do some things there that maybe slow down their start. Allowed Castle to get hot early, that certainly wasn't the plan. — That's on me."

Julius Randle can’t be relied upon as the No. 2 for the Wolves to take the next step. I really think they need to find a high-level playmaking guard, but that's easier said than done. They may just be stuck in the second tier for a bit. The bar in the West is insanely high.

Anthony Edwards: "I tip my hat to them. They were the better team."

Year after year in the postseason the biggest winners are players with two feet based production. FTR + Adaptability under pressure/contact + Read and react decision making Imo it’s more than just skill, there’s a certain body + movement type that falls into this category

@1momo1__ Ben Taylor was also talking about how surprised he is at how the Wolves still don’t show in the gaps at all on defense when most elite defenses in the league do

But, to be honest, each of these last two years it's felt far less like a team that "quit" and instead was a case of being severely overmatched. This is the third blowout of this series. Just aren't in the Spurs stratusphere, as the regular season demonstrated

Joan got more points than Rudy

I think there’s plenty of things to be critical of Ant about. Defensive engagement, processing as a playmaker etc — although they do fall on deaf ears a smidge on this series with his health — but this is the worst offensive ecosystem a star player could ever be cursed with.

Yall don’t think the fact that they start every half horribly is an indication of bad coaching?

I really wonder why this is, he plays through plenty of contact.

Randle had TJ wide open in the corner and instead did ... that