I'm just confused, offense gets super stagnant and you have this young guy who can create driving offense reminiscent of Ant, yet Finch doesn't even attempt to play him?

I get he just got cleared to play full contact after his injury but you shouldn't be losing to the tanking Wizards, regardless of their make percentage.

Also, where tf was Minott? Wasn't listed on injury report but wasn't on the bench as far as I could see.

All in all, Saturday's game has me pissed.

Spurs traded salary filler (Tre Jones, Zach Collins), a raw prospect that's probably less appealing than Leonard Miller, a protected Charlotte pick that's almost guaranteed to turn into two seconds, a bad 2027 pick (because the Spurs will have Wemby in his 4th year + Fox, Castle, Vassell, and Sochan).

The Spurs pick that went to the Bulls was the Bulls own protected pick, which wouldn't convey anyway if they're tanking.

Our pick, which we traded for Dillingham, was the only valuable asset the Spurs gave up.

Absolutely insane trade for the Spurs.

I feel like the Luka trade just created a massive buyers market where a lot of the Western Conference GMs are gonna be more open to big trades in order to keep up with the Joneses. I'm not looking for the Timberwolves to make a trade for a big name, but rather some guys who fit the team's 3 and D identity better. Not sure who that is and I'm not gonna pretend like I know everything, but I'm cautiously optimistic heading into the deadline.

After the Fox trade the kings are down De’aron Fox and Kevin Huerter and the players that they are receiving are not going to be able to play for another day or two.

TC panicked. The one bad matchup that waxed us is now gone...

Imagine still having Kat now! I don't fear the Thunder, the Mavs aren't as dangerous to us without Luka, the Nuggets are cooked.

Free path to the WCF and likely the upper hand against the undersized Thunder (no, I don't believe Chet to be the same player with a cooked hip. He already had lower Body and back Problems before. Massive muscular imbalances (same as wemby btw). Those "Freak" injuries arent so freaky If you know a thing or 2 about Anatomy)

I’m in my late 40’s, been around a while and I’m normally pretty patient. In an 82 game season there are ups and downs, good times and bad times. I get that. But last night was unacceptable coaching from Finch. Being down four of your top six guys stinks, but the Wizards are absolutely atrocious. They aren’t a professional team right now. Playing Mike 34 minutes while Rob gets 17 and Minott/TSJ don’t see the floor is absurd.

THIS is the reason people have been clamoring for more minutes from the end of the bench. They had no idea how to play with each other because they haven’t had the opportunity to! Rob should be further in his development now and the idea of Minott being in the “doghouse” is petty and stupid. If Finch is going to punish young players, how come he isn’t responsible when HE screws up?

The missing players, the bad refs, hot shooting from WAS, and that game was still winnable. Instead we spent the 4th quarter “running it back” with the 2021 Jazz, and still found time to screw up crunch time. I’m not normally a “fire the coach” guy, but Finch has to be better. Plain and simple.

https://preview.redd.it/m3dtnbcvpsge1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=00b50d9141ea0845cd2537e8029b58b8af31f88f

Hey all! We’re heading to the TWolves/Bulls game on Wednesday.

My father is handicap and uses a walker so trying to find somewhere as close as possible to eat and park to the stadium. Any recommendations are much appreciated!

Title says it all. Luka is better, and a bigger asset (assuming reporting is correct on him wanting to sign the extension) than Ant.

What an absolutely horrible trade.

Two ways this isn't a complete disaster: it all magically clicka for them and they win the title this season, Luka gets arrested for murder tomorrow.

I just realized that the Christmas game was Luka's last game as a Mav and it was against us. No one probably predicted that it was his last game (maybe aside from Mavs FO).

After seeing how much I detested the guy in the playoffs, I can’t imagine what it will be when he hits shots and is yelling at the other team while wearing Laker yellow.

Congrats, Adam. The NBA is making a comeback. Now, let’s stop with the ticky-tack whistles and this league will be all the way back.

It isn’t often but damn. If we traded Ant like that idk what i’d do

Do we need some trust falls or will Finch let him play through some adversity and figure it out. Finch also looks almost physically ill whenever asked about Rob in the post game interviews.

First half, he looked like the most impactful player for us, missed some shots in the third and never played again while we ran out the old Utah guys with Naw and Jaden the entire 4th quarter.

These recent trades just tell me that we overrate draft picks. I already knew that, but not to this extent. It seems GMs value the quality of proven players more than the number of picks.

Wolves gave up an unknown rookie and players who in just 2 years, are either out of league or have been shuffled from team to team. Knicks traded 5 picks for Mikal because they only gave up one 35 year old average role player.

Luka trade was still unfathomable and insane. But damn...it seems the value of draft picks don't mean shit compared to the value of proven All-NBA players.

Seriously why didn’t he play in 4th quarter?

We could easily offer Joe Ingles and Leonard Miller + a 2nd

I know we have some restrictions so was there anything we could've hypothetically gave up to get Luka?

Mavs gm doesn't even shop around the league and instead goes to the Lakers and only the Lakers to discuss terms.

Apparently they wanted a defensive big but I Imagine Connelly would have given up almost anything to pair Ant up with Luka wtf 😆. Trade was Ad and one first that's crazy lol.

Kind of a long post but if your into analysis I think you'll find this interesting.

Luka was traded to the Lakers along with a first round pick and a handful of other guys for Anthony Davis, while the jazz took on some picks and JHS from the lakers. What does this mean for the Wolves?

In my opinion, This trade genuinely makes me happy as a wolves fan, due to the fact that no team immediately meshes well in general, so I imagine both these two teams will drop a few games especially the lakers since luka is still injured but on the horizon of a return. The mavs won this trade, 100%.

The mavs gained a dpoy and all NBA caliber center was still retaining one of the most ball dominant scorers in the NBA, who also happens to thrive in the pick n roll game. The lakers lost the one position that they NEEDED for ANOTHER ball dominant guard who IMO just wont mix well with lebron, at least not for a minute. Granted, this opens up a plethora of pathways for the lebron to be shipped off before Thursday, Im hoping deep down that he genuinely goes back to the east to chase a ring and the lakers just try to stack up on picks. Meaning they would drop a lot of games and even out the west a bit more. I think the mavs really added a good plug an play guy that wont change anything drastically for them so apart from the new town woes, they don't drop immensely.

Anyway, each team matched up against the wolves would look like this,

Lakers - In a 4 game series, I have the wolves in 5/6.

Rumors surrounding Luka being traded due to his conditioning habits and injuries stick out to me as big factors in his departure, meaning if he's still fat, then we can definitely slow him down. Lebron is aging really fast as the season goes on and the lakers have almost zero depth besides markief morris who is also old. If the wolves keep figuring out the rotations and have it down and we meet the lakers, There is no world where we cant just challenge luka and force lebron to drive. Meeting Rudy in the paint. Lebron and luka also cannot play 48 minutes a game, which is also a key factor.

Mavericks - Either or in 6/7.

The mavericks genuinely intrigue me now, if anyone watched the series last year, luka practically put the team on his back for every single game, and derrick jones junior played amazing two way ball. Both of those players are now gone. Luka averaged 30+ in that series and Kyrie had 2 30 balls on us. Anthony Davis has proven to be a problem for Rudy recently, but last game against him, rudy held him to under 25 WITH no lebron, which factored into my thought process aswell. If rufy can contain ad and hold him under 25 points for the series, I think the wolves have a real chance, and with how well jaden, naw, and clark have all been playing defense, going relentless at kyrie to slow him down would help immensely aswell. If our scorers show up, Im not worried.

All in all, this trade benefits the wolves a lot due to records and standings, both teams especially the lakers will lose a few games especially after the lakers just put together a few games, the mavericks will more than likely go on a huge run at the end of the year to climb aswell. Alot of things to be happy about for this team.

TLDR: Lakers drop a bunch and the mavs lose luka so we back.

Grimes could be a NAW replacement? Or is it better to keep the space we get from Randle leaving?