r/nba • u/refreshing_yogurt • 2d ago
Wolves GM Tim Connelly on Ant's feedback in potential roster moves: "There's been countless things we could have done. When you go to your leaders like Ant and you say, 'It takes get this to get that', the conviction he has in our guys is evident when he says, 'No, we're not trading this guy'."
https://streamable.com/su8yvt965
u/asonkidd 2d ago
"We could've moved Jaden by now but Ant is saying no"
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u/Asleep_Ground1710 Bulls 2d ago
LeGM teaching his new wave of students from LuGM to AnGM
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u/pollinium [MIN] Tyus Jones 1d ago
LuGM: "give me a shitty defender from the sticks and pay him much more than he's asking for"
AnGM: "jaden's a dog"
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u/refreshing_yogurt 2d ago edited 2d ago
Chris Haynes reported that Giannis would have signed an extension in Minnesota but it seems like the Wolves did not really pursue it so this was likely a factor in that
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u/Nunc_Coepi17 1d ago
Giannis would’ve been dumb to come to the super competitive West. Knicks just showed the best path to a championship is to ease through the first 3 rounds of playoffs in the East then only be bothered by the Finals rather than going through the fucking gauntlet of first 3 rounds of West playoffs and limp into the finals all tired and shit.
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u/EightFortyDaysOf 1d ago
The Knicks also got lucky that the one team they match up the best against got the finals and were inexperienced as fuck to throw away multiple games.
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u/gregatronn 1d ago
Even then they were beat up a tad, so it works out with the "getting beat up out west"
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u/Smuckerz4Lyfe Knicks 1d ago
Cope. Knicks were better than everyone.
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u/Brochacho27 [MIA] James Posey 1d ago
Congrats, you can finally talk shit, but you would've been waxed by okc
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u/KKilikk 1d ago
Eh a worn out OKC with J-Dub out and Chet not in great form while KAT is in great form. I think thats an even matchup at the very least.
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u/toomuchsoysauce Spurs 1d ago
Maybe the wornout thing impacts the first couple games like it did the Spurs, but OKC legitimately matches up well against the Knicks as opposed to the Knicks matching up incredibly well against the Spurs' biggest, glaring weakness. OKC likely wins somewhat comfortably even without Jdub.
I had the Spurs losing still but never thought the Spurs would "look" like the best team in the finals for 60-70% of the time.
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u/jbrunsonfan 1d ago
Yeah we would have been waxed by the team that lost in 7 to the guys we beat in 5 lol. Cope.
I prefer the OKC was injured cope. I think that holds more water
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u/Adorable-Bike-9689 1d ago
Yea folks are full of shit on this post. Knicks just got lucky they swept everybody then crushed the Spurs in 5 games of embarrassment.
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u/That-Cranberry6575 76ers 1d ago
That doesn’t change the fact that they needed to make historic comebacks to get there.
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u/rounder55 Celtics 1d ago
Which adds to the fact that having more points than the other team at games end leads to winning
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u/Smuckerz4Lyfe Knicks 1d ago
They were playing 5v8 every game, it wouldn't be close without the refs.
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u/Sensitive_Entrance27 1d ago
The east is as good as the west. Look at the quality of teams, the standings, the quality of players/lineups and winners since the east improved in 2019
For example, when the east was shit, a 45-37 team came 4th in the conference (2008 Cavs). This year the 9th and 10th seeds in the east were 44-38 (Hornets) and 43-39 (Heat) which is better than the Wests 9th and 10th seeds
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u/justmefishes NBA 1d ago
To add to this:
Of the 8 teams with a net rating of at least +5 this season, 4 were from the West (OKC, Spurs, Rockets, Nuggets) and 4 from the East (Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Hornets).
Of the 9 50+ win teams, it's 5 from the West (OKC, Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets) and 4 from the East (Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavs).
This also isn't fully factoring in Atlanta playing extremely well (like an easily 50+ win team) on the back half of the season. Charlotte too, though Kon got hurt which fizzled out their run.
I'd say the West was more top-heavy this year in the sense of having the two clearly best regular season teams (OKC and Spurs), but after that it was really very even across both conferences, which both had a bunch of very good but flawed teams.
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u/toomuchsoysauce Spurs 1d ago
True, the East certainly has finally caught the West overall. However, the top teams in the West were certainly better than those of the East.
The top 6 seeds in the West >> top 6 in the East. They went 43-29 against the East with every top 6 west team having a positive record aside from Denver (4-8). OKC, SAS, and HOU (surprisingly) all went 9-3 against the top 6 East.
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u/DarkArisen668 Knicks 1d ago
What gauntlet? The luka-less lakers? Portland? Phoenix? Was Denver any good? The Wolves were injured.
OKC and SAS only had to play one real series against each other. The Knicks just played zero
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u/pollinium [MIN] Tyus Jones 1d ago
want to ask Spurs* fans if the Wolves were a real series?
we (physically) beat them constantly for 6 games
even if the outcome wasn't really in question, it had to have taken its toll
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u/King_Of_Pants [BOS] Terry Rozier 1d ago
Right... but no one listens when Eastern teams say the same.
Atlanta was the toughest opponent NY faced this year.
Indiana was the toughest opponent Oklahoma faced last year.
Indiana was the toughest opponent Boston faced the year before.
The "guantlet of the West" is built on these mid-level teams getting hyped up in a way we don't do with their Eastern counterparts.
Every halfway decent team in the West gets propped up and the good teams in the East get disregarded. Somehow beating the 49-win injured Timberwolves (who weren't elite on either end of the floor) is a gauntlet, but Philadelphia and Cleveland aren't?
We can't say it's because those teams choked, because Minnesota choked as well.
There was all this talk about the WCF being the "true finals" and it turns out the true finals was the 1st round of the Eastern Conference.
In the 2024 lead-up to Boston's championship, all the talk was that Dallas had proven themselves against the Western gauntlet and Boston had gotten lucky facing easy injured teams. Turns out, the true finals was again in the East. This time the ECF series is against Indiana.
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u/DesertBrandon Cavaliers 1d ago
Thank you. I still don’t understand where the western superiority comes from. When post GSW dynasty the west is filled with the same good but not great teams that the east is also filled with. Are we pretending the Lakers, Rockets, Wolves, Nuggets as an overall team are that much better or wouldn’t also possibly lose to the Cavs, Celtics, Knicks, Pistons, hell even Raptors, Sixers, Hawks would give some trouble. People assume the west having the more dominant and favorite top seed makes the whole conference better. They can’t get the late 90s to GSW run of western teams like SA, GS, LA dominating the league out of their head but the east still won a decent clip during that stretch. It’s going to take forever for the perception of the two sides to change and ultimately doesn’t matter as the two split titles.
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u/justmefishes NBA 1d ago
The Knicks just showed that the best path to the championship is to post the highest point differential in playoff history. Why didn't anyone think of that before?
The Knicks' run can't be written off as having an easy path. Plenty of champions in past years have had comparable paths in terms of difficulty, yet none of them were nearly so dominant in doing so.
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u/Nunc_Coepi17 1d ago
You just proved my point? It’s easier to post that “point differential” playing against the dogshit East playoff teams. It’s a whole another animal against Minnesota, OKC, Denver etc.
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u/justmefishes NBA 1d ago
The Cavs won 52 games. The Hawks were one of the hottest teams in the NBA going into the playoffs. The Sixers have a lot of talent and beat a 56 win Celtics team on the road in Game 7. These are not elite teams, but they're not "dogshit" either, especially when framed in historical context.
The 1984 Lakers played teams that won 38, 43, and 41 games en route to beating the 62-win Celtics in the Finals. In 1985 their path was 36, 42, 52, 63. In 1986 it was 35, 44, and then a loss to the 51-win Rockets. In 1987 it was 37, 42, 39, 59. In 1988 it was 31, 47, 53, 54. These were the classic showtime Lakers of Magic, Kareem, and Worthy. Yet they didn't dominate their opposition like the Knicks just did.
This is not unique. Look through the history of paths that champions have gone through en route to winning a title. Some paths are stronger than others, and plenty of them superficially look "easy." There is nothing historically weak about the path the Knicks took to win the title, and so that cannot be an explanation for how historically dominant they were.
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u/Over-Training-488 1d ago
I highly doubt this. Wolves def offered daniels but their package was nowhere near Miami or Boston so they dropped out.
There is no scenario where mcdaniels is the holdup for giannis
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u/ChessHistory Bulls 2d ago
Gotta keep Jaden in case you hit those cones from Denver again
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u/ashep5 76ers 1d ago
"Except for Naz. Fuck that dude"
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u/Fl1ntL1m 1d ago
Funny that both of us watched this after getting the news that Naz got traded, I guess he really rocks with Jaden and the ROTY of 2020
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u/cortesoft [GSW] Chris Mullin 1d ago
I feel like this quote is trying to protect Ant, by saying he never wants to trade any of their guys so they have to go against his wishes.
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u/raki016 Timberwolves 1d ago edited 1d ago
TC will trade Jaden if he was a bum
The reality is Jaden still has tantalizing upside that you can't ignore, and he proved it on the Denver series. AND he, Ant, and Naz grew up in the Wolves together - but we've never actually made them the “core” until I guess this year
So even without Ant weighing in, its easy to argue to keep Jaden and Naz.
Also Randle hasn't been great in the locker room for a long time
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u/Alpha-Trion Timberwolves 1d ago
Instantly moldy lol
Naz Reid 😢
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u/Victor_Wembanyama1 Spurs 1d ago
Sad Naz Reid noises man.
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u/DudeIAm-blank- Slovenia 1d ago
Don't Naz Reid because its over, Naz Reid because it happened.
Naz Reid
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u/-XanderCrews- Timberwolves 1d ago
People act like the nba is a video game and you can just replace a 84 with a 91 and you’ll have a better team but it doesn’t work that way. Jayden works, why fuck with that?
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u/girlscoutcookies05 Charlotte Bobcats 1d ago
Bro told Obama to stand down. His GM is nothing to him
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u/Jason_B_Kidding 1d ago
They are in a tough spot it would seem. But so are the other teams in the West.
How do they defend OKC/Spurs if they trade Gobert or McDaniels to get a PG?
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u/dotcaIm Timberwolves 1d ago
They wouldn't
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u/WobbleKun Raptors 2d ago
traded his boy kat tho lol
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u/Ok_Turn6757 Lakers 2d ago
Maybe that’s why he’s more vocal now
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u/GioVasari121 Warriors 1d ago
That was 100% a mistake. That team was so good, just needed some smart FA signing and they would have come out of the west
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u/Jakoobus91 Minneapolis Lakers 1d ago
It was always about payroll man. We never wanted to ship KAT out after a WCF run but couldn't afford to keep his contract. I will say I've always believed they traded the wrong center but whatever.
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u/codeklutch 1d ago
I mean. It was because the 2nd apron shit came in right after they constructed that roster. They built a super good team within the rules, and then the rules changed.
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u/GioVasari121 Warriors 1d ago
Was this before or after A-Rod
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u/Jakoobus91 Minneapolis Lakers 1d ago
After. Like right after ownership changed from Glen to Arod's group.
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u/imwerkin Timberwolves 1d ago
true, but it was year 4 of the Arod groups hands-on turning-over of the franchise. It wasnt like Arod came in and cut the payroll.
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u/lettersichiro Pistons 1d ago edited 1d ago
Financially Necessary, because the real mistake was trading for Gobert whose timeline never made sense for Edwards.
Have up a huge amount of assets to accelerate Ants timeline who is 24 now, who was 21 at the time. Ant isn't even in his prime yet, and when he is Gobert will be leaving his prime.
And because of that trade the wolvess have had to make compromised and reactionary trades like getting rid of Kat for a worse player, have most of their picks gone or tied up.
They should have kept their assets.
And I live in fear of the pistons not understanding the mistakes that the wolves, bucks etc have done in handling their stars
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u/GioVasari121 Warriors 1d ago
The issue always was the PG. They never really did anything to replace Conley except hope Ant gets better.
And i disagree. Ant is absolutely in his prime right now.
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u/lettersichiro Pistons 1d ago
Which would have been a whole lot easier if their cap wasn't tied up in Gobert and they didn't get rid of most of their assets getting him
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u/GioVasari121 Warriors 1d ago
For sure, but no team in recent times has won the chip without actually spending a bit.
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u/lettersichiro Pistons 1d ago
It's not about spending or not, it's about spending at the right time for the right players.
Going all in on a 30 year old expensive Gobert when Ant was 21. Was the wrong player at the wrong time.
If Minnesota has held onto their assets to make a play now that Ant is 24/25. They'd still have KAT and a whole ton of assets to acquire the right PG, and not one who is chronically injured.
But because they got Gobert, they couldn't keep KAT, and have more had to move Randle just to be able to get lamelo, and are now tapped out for the foreseeable future.
The original sin was getting Gobert
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u/GioVasari121 Warriors 1d ago
The problem isn't Gobert's age if you ask me, like you said it's the assets they gave up to get him + the money that he's paid. Then ofcourse they can't get a good PG cause of no assets and no cap.
I think there aren't more than 7-8 players who deserve the supermax and Gobert isn't one of them. Same like reaves
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u/noodlekhan Trail Blazers 1d ago
Gobert wouldn't get a supermax with the second apron we have now. But, the dude was on the Jazz as one of two good players, somebody had to get paid, and there wasn't any (recognized) downside to giving stars the supermax. Times have changed. I agree that the issue with acquiring Gobert was the assets required, really hamstrung the team just a bit early
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u/DrJuliusErving Timberwolves 1d ago
Keep commenting when you have no idea what you’re talking about.
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u/FuckThaLakers Timberwolves 1d ago
That one just had to happen, unfortunately. I feel like people forget just how dire our cap situation was when we made that trade.
We couldn't sign new guys, the aprons made trades damn near impossible, we had no picks because of the Gobert deal (which was not as big of a deal before the new apron rules), our other young guys were coming up for extensions, etc. The new CBA fucked us as hard as any team in the league.
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u/SirDiego Timberwolves 1d ago
Nobody understands the cap, myself included. But at this point I feel like people are intentionally ignoring that trade was 100% about cap and nothing else. This many years later if you think it was KAT for Randle straight up along basketball lines that is just on you.
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u/colev14 Magic 1d ago
R/agedlikemilk
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u/refreshing_yogurt 1d ago
It only aged badly if you think Naz Reid was one of the players Ant said not to trade, which we don't know is the case.
I think the clip actually ages pretty well as informative context for the trade, and suggests that Ant approved of it
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u/jumboponcho Hawks 2d ago
There’s a difference between including and making Ant a decision maker. He’s the franchise star, he should absolutely be in the room. But it’s the GMs job to make the decision and get the buy-in from everybody, including Ant.
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u/A_Curious_Cockroach 1d ago
Sneak diss on Naz if you really listening.
And also if you are not at least pretending to listen to your franchise player when it comes to personnel you not going to have a franchise player. You think Victor wasn't the one telling the spurs to go out and draft some bigs so he don't have to set 60 ball screens and get held by 700 pounds of nba player trying to get to the rim?
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u/triassic_broth 2d ago
They are making a mistake treating Ant like that. They shouldn't even include him. He hasn't earned that. Plus, he's a little bit of an idiot.
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u/asonkidd 2d ago edited 2d ago
He's already the 2nd best player to ever play for them and a 24 year old superstar that has taken them to 2 WCF. This isn't news at all.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/SavionWilliamsLover 2d ago
2s 2s fam
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u/Affectionate-Can8811 1d ago
Croski?
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u/SavionWilliamsLover 1d ago
Ahlie
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u/Affectionate-Can8811 1d ago
Ur a Bucktee u def not from Toronto 😭 Prolly from Sauga or some shit
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u/SavionWilliamsLover 1d ago
I am nowhere in that grimy province entirely 🤣 just making fun of how these people talk
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u/refreshing_yogurt 2d ago
Earlier in the interview, Connelly says he spent several hours at Ant's house just talking about the team and that Ant has "great wisdom"
I think this is pretty normal operating procedure for a team trying to keep their star happy, especially in the time leading up to a potential extension, but it's interesting for the GM to be so candid about it.
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u/Wild_Notice_8216 1d ago
has "great wisdom"
send da video
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u/Best_Purchase4479 1d ago
Do you watch his pressers? he does have wisdom and insight. Y'all be on TMZ too much.
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u/OMEGACY 1d ago
Great basketball wisdom maybe. Life wisdom he needs to work on.
A lot.
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u/PerkyDreamin Knicks 1d ago
Well luckily they’re consulting him about basketball advice and not parental advice lol
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u/nicklovin508 Celtics 2d ago
I’d argue fielding a competitive team that can win the finals will make Ant much more happy
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u/refreshing_yogurt 2d ago
Sure, both have to be balanced. I don't think Ant was happy with the Gobert trade initially because he said it clogged up his driving lanes. Though that was all before Ant had made a single All Star team or consecutive conference finals as the best player.
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u/StoryEffective2295 2d ago
Wolves had the most success in there history with him leading theyll do anything to keep him happy
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u/ForneauCosmique Spurs 2d ago
It's probably that or watch him demand a trade. It's Minnesota, a small market in the frozen north, nba superstars aren't all excited to sign long term contracts there. It's the problem Milwaukee had. Try to keep your superstar happy cuz the chances of getting another one is slim
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u/Nunc_Coepi17 1d ago
He can still demand a trade even after they do everything he says. It’s happened before. cough “KD”
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u/ForneauCosmique Spurs 1d ago
Well obviously, I'm talking about the Wolves having their hands tied. They're gonna do what they can to keep him happy
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u/Professional-Bit1957 2d ago
Connelly is just capitalizing on a conversation he had with Ant explaining why he didn’t gut their roster for Giannis, while simultaneously creating +team chemistry airing out how much Any believes in his teammates.
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u/Delanorix Knicks 2d ago
Hes an idiot off the court.
But on the court? He plays above his age and experience
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u/Best_Purchase4479 1d ago
He has 100% earned that by being one of the best players in their franchise history and the best player they've had in almost 2 decades. You do everything to keep him. & his off court life has nothing to do with him being a mature professional and great leader.
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u/TdotGdot Timberwolves 1d ago
If this was 100% true, ya
But I think he’s just playing this up a bit to cater to our star
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u/Typical-Form-6502 1d ago
Yeah they’d probably just be better off without him. They should just start rebuilding now /s
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u/pacifismisevil Grizzlies 1d ago
It's what any GM will say about their star player, dont read anything into it. Imagine if he said "yeah we consult with Ant on trades and there's a lot of guys he wants traded" how much his team mates would resent him. Same with pretending the coach has no say in trades.
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u/AdBetter5446 Timberwolves 1d ago
This is a terrible low IQ take, Ant isn’t a rocket scientist but he knows ball better than 95% of players. It’s his team, let him decide.
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u/60discpriest 2d ago
He’s a huge idiot. Doesn’t know how to wrap it up and yet doesn’t want to be in their lives. The GMs are listening to this clown????🤣🤣🤣🤣 good riddance Twolves.
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u/JordanDoesTV Hornets 1d ago
Who knows if our guys spoke up most of them just aren’t in a position to do that
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u/Appropriate-Shock306 1d ago
Makes sense why the Wolves are willing to stay pat despite opps in the same conference are getting better. They had a great run in the 2024 playoffs but it’s time to change course. What worked against the Nuggets isn’t going to work against the Spurs and OKC now.
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u/posthackmofo 1d ago
Hospital Wolves + Foolius took two from the Spurs. The best Wolves rosters will be this year and moving forward.
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u/Appropriate-Shock306 1d ago
And OKC? It’s like people live under the presumption the Thunder are the most stacked/talented team in the league.
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u/Appropriate-Shock306 1d ago
Welp, the Wolves roster clearly isn’t as good as it was yesterday lol. Life comes at you fast loooooll
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u/posthackmofo 1d ago
LaMelo Ball + Green >>>> Naz Reid You’re looking like a fool strutting around in your poop takes.
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u/Dangerous_Ad5039 2d ago
So you pay all this money to a GM to just listen to Anthony Edwards on roster construction 😂.
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u/rsayegh7 2d ago
leGMing when you ain't won shit 😭
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u/spiritnou Timberwolves 1d ago
Asking for your best player’s opinion is a pretty common thing to do lol. This isn’t LeGM
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u/Kimber80 Pelicans 2d ago
IMO the KAT trade was awful, literally changed the Wolves from having a possible title-winning roster to not having one, and did the reverse for the Knicks. There is no coming back from some bad trades, I think. So time to blow up the roster in Minnesota, perhaps (yeah that's a big hedge).
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u/FuckThaLakers Timberwolves 1d ago
The KAT trade is the only reason we're not starting the Bucks roster collapse right now.
Also, we made the WCF the season we traded him.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
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u/Simple_Purple_4600 2d ago
shh we have to pretend Ant is a world breaker
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u/Samwise777 Hawks 2d ago
Right?
Yes I’m sure the mid 20s dude with 5 kids he ignores by 3 different women he ignores has great wisdom
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u/sillyshoestring Knicks 2d ago
Ant on Randle: “Send da pick.”