Anthony Edwards on playing with LaMelo Ball: “It’s definitely goin be ups and downs. First year together maybe a lot of downs. We’ll celebrate both of them
Star player more patient than his FO. Rare
He’s experienced 3 major trades with his team at this point. He knows first hand that there’s always a down year/few months of acclimation that follows the trade
ya, my immediate thought is that this is spoken with someone who learned how to play w KAT, then Rudy, then Randle, now LaMelo basically a big change every other year.
he’s not saying it won’t work, or whatever, but just he’s seen a new big time rotation player come in, and that it takes time for everything to click
I’d throw Team USA in the mix, too. He played a different role on that squad
so rare he should get a tattoo that says rare
What does this mean?
front office is in a sprint
Ant is in it for the marathon
Can you explain yourself tho? They traded a 31 yo, 27 yo, and a first for an all star caliber pg who is the same age as Ant
yeah but also you have like 0 draft capital left as a result of your gm sprinting
i think is the point he’s making
I mean, who are they gonna get who’s better than Lamello with that, though
i didn’t comment about that, just that they seem to be sprinting rather than jogging
What move would have been ‘jogging’?
Were you rushing or were you dragging?
Damn I just rewatched that last week one of my favorites
People just be saying shit cause it sounds good. Wolves got younger.
Lmao shut that dude down immediately
Yes
This is a fair point, but getting Lamelo is mostly driven by “We must get a pointguard” by any means
Not saying they don’t believe in Lamelo, but the need for a pointguard was their top concern. Hornets couldve gotten even more tbh
Idk i would argue they had been patient. Randle was on the block the entire time he was on the team. Reportedly the wolves were interested in Lamelo for two seasons. With Randle they were going nowhere fast. Sometimes no move is a very bad move.
Also while I don’t think Ant would leave Minny as he seems to love it there, still always a good idea to show your superstar you’re making moves to remain competitive and get better.
He’s gonna NOPE outta there to Atlanta within three years
I really don’t know how Wolves fans fell for the gaslighting that they HAD to make the Gobert trade in 2022 when Ant was just 21 to convince him to stay
it was new owners wanting to make a splash and overpaid in a short-sighted move for a player that was never going to elevate them to serious contenders. every move they made since has been a domino effect of the Gobert trade
What kind of dumbass revisionist history is that? lmao. The wolves have been in the conference finals twice + 2nd round once in the last 3 years and won more playoff games in the last ~4 years than the rest of the history of the franchise. The Gobert trade was an overwhelming success, to the point that anyone that questions it should be marked on the spot as an absolute moron that knows nothing about basketball.
Ring culture is brainrot. Because you didn’t win a championship the move was a failure. Never mind that the Wolves were contenders, got reasonably close twice, and are expected to contend again this year.
TWolves match up well against some contenders and poorly against others. Playoffs are matchup puzzle luck, injury luck, chemistry luck etc. But idiots act like 29 teams completely fail every year regardless of expectations or circumstance.
You only fail tho if you had a legit shot. The only teams doing what they are supposed to in their world are those on the tails.
Rudy is instant top ten defense, the wolves had the parts to be better and they were.
But no ring? You’ll just get laughed at with a gif of Luka shooting a 40 footer over Rudy, who guarded him as well as any guy his size in the league (and better than many shorter) prior to Wemby.
why would Ant care about past Wolves history as if that affects the present or his career?
your logic is like when Kings fans were trying to justify the Sabonis-Haliburton trade because Kings ended a playoff drought with Sabonis
And your planned alternative is… what exactly? Keep KAT/Naz/picks and have Ant be lucky to win a single playoff series by this point in his career?
you realize you could trade those picks for an ACTUAL superstar right? if you’re dangling 5 FRP, teams would be blowing up Wolves phone. but instead they traded it for a high level role player
Name the player then. Any max player you name will have KAT instantly traded because they will be in the 2nd apron. Let’s hear it.
shit 2022 Harden went for 2 FRP lol
You think ancient Harden, Ant, Jaden, Naz + random center is anything more than a 6 seed? LOL
wdym random center? why are you acting like they’d have nothing else? they even still have 3 FRP saved from trading for Gobert
and yeah, I’d take Harden to deliver more playoff success than Gobert LOL
we dont want that shit
A superstar like Mikal bridges or Desmond Bane?
shit at least Mikal Bridges made Finals with Suns before he was traded. and Knicks won a title with him
I think Bridges and Bane are fine players, just saying high level role players go for 4-5 unprotected picks.
no they don’t. most can agree those are overpays but at least Mikal had Finals history and Knicks also thought that would put them over the top + Villanova connection
OG Anunoby didn’t cost the Knicks a single FRP
Oh brother we’re doing this again…
What are you basing this on? As a Wolves fan, we never said we HAD to make the Gobert trade. In fact, at the time many of us were skeptical of it. Then over time as we won games and were finally a good team we all agreed that the Gobert trade was indeed good.
I’ve never heard anyone say the gobert trade to convince Ant to stay. Tim Connelly has always said it was to help get into the playoffs and give give our young players experience in big games
but they already made playoffs before Gobert…this logic is just part of the gaslighting to justify trading away the warchest
And they lost in the first round because they couldn’t rebound or defend the basket… that rosters success was not sustainable. It’s ok if you don’t follow the wolves that close, maybe try listening to the folks who watch every game
wdym sustainable lol. their franchise player was just 21. why are you rushing as if Wolves were 1 move away from being serious contenders?
did you see OKC rush the process and trade a bunch of assets for a big man when they got SGA? shit, they didn’t even give up a SINGLE pick for Hartenstein and won a title anyways
The Wolves didn’t get a head start fleecing a team for Paul George, or lucking into a bunch of early picks like the Spurs.
Different teams take different paths.
It wasn’t gonna last or continue trending up that 2022 team was in the play in and lost 1st round. They just weren’t very good. And they made the conference finals in 2024 and had the 1st seed majority of the season… they did contend You’re sitting here with hindsight acting like you knew everything that would happen
The only reason we’ve got this “domino” since the Gobert trade is because of the 2nd apron coming in a year later which the FO didn’t know was coming or didn’t understand. The intent was to keep KAT with Gobert and Ant, which, if possible, would have probably worked out A LOT better.
I’m still happy with where we are at but obviously the margin for error is basically nil now that we don’t have any picks or tradeable assets outside of our untouchables.
I’ve heard about Wolves having to trade for Dlo to convince KAT to stay, but trading for Gobert to convince a player 2 years into a rookie deal to stay? After a season they made the playoffs? Wtf is that
They’ll be a entertaining team to watch for sure
Win lose or draw just remember to have fun type vibes
Win lose or drawjust remember to clear the streets after home games
they gotta go get Darius Garland
And DLo and Westbrick
Need Russ to sign for the minimum then
Already got Bones
There’s no draw in the NBA, they just play overtime
Legendary post game interviews
Send da highlights.
You people are crazy.. Ant is going to eat with all that spacing and not having to bring the ball up the court. First time season ticketholder for twolvesand I am excited.
League Pass darling for sure
💯 they are going to be so much fun to watch
Yo same here, it’s going to be so fun to watch I can’t wait.
💯… crazy people trying to treat this like a hornets win. Their owners don’t want to pay to win a championship. This was a salary move from cheap owners. They want medicoracy.
Um, no lol, it was selling high at the right moment (according to them), Lamelo isn’t exactly the pinnacle of health or very consistent.
Haha!! Yeah that is what I would do it I had the top offense in the league for the last half of the season.
the heat gave all their players big extensions after going 30-11 in the second half of the season a few years ago, and it immediately turned to shit. better to trade a year early than a year late
Fair point.. just not many good pgs in the league with size and passing skills.
How can u be not consistent and top out in advanced stats. His epm and dpm is ridiculously high and eye test verifies it.
Dude makes something out of nothing every single game even if shots rnt falling down. Hes consistently a plus player and on off nights still contributes by playmaking.
Low iq
People overvalue picks like our first rounders are gonna be lottery picks and not 20-30th for the next few years.
If this were the NFL, I might care more about first round picks. But it’s not and your average 20th pick is just not very good. 6 of them is not really better.
This.. people don’t understand most players in the draft are out of the league fast and don’t break the rotation. So few roster spots
This feels like a pretty bad take. Look at just about ANY draft, there will be rotation players or better available at picks 20-30. Take an easy example, Jaden McDaniels.
For the 30 games Lamelo plays
Yea like jdub
This is Jdubb’s first time playing 33 games lol, the last 3 yrs before this his average is 72 games per yr. But it’s cute tho you guys are experimenting with Lamelo.
Nickname checks out
Next time flair up before u talk shit
I imagine if I had season tickets at all I’d be elated, season tickets for a team that’s going to be pumping out highlights must feel awesome
Yeah they even gave me suite spur tickets playoff center court to by them. Don’t regret my decision
Yes! Enjoy those, Minny fans are gonna feast this year.
Ant is gonna be an mvp candidate this year
Or he’s going to choke the hell out of Lamelo’s throat
Nah Ants a great teammate, he could even stand Julius Randle which is impressive
Who knows, it might be good for him lmao
Largest issue with LaMelo is health. The Hornets sold high on him the second he had a healthy season
They just need to be as careful as the hornets were last season with him even if they have to eat a few losses to do it.
So play him 28 minutes per game?
No way they made this trade just for a 28 minute per game player
If you can consistently get a good 28 minutes out of him every night, that’s a lot better than playing him 36 and having him get injured and miss half the season. You probably ramp him up a bit closer to the playoffs so he’s used to it but you do what you need to do to keep him healthy.
He won’t have the same usage as he did with the Hornets with Ant still doing his thing.
Might make it a bit easier for him.
Wolves are also insanely heavy at the guard position.
Maybe for the regular season
Wolves have a really good medical staff though, and the Mayo Clinic isn’t far.
damn made me realize they did the same with Kemba Walker
It’s interesting how everyone sees the hornets have one ok season for the first time in a decade and suddenly their FO logic is unimpeachable. Is it possible a lot of those missed games were due to a team that was committed to tanking
No. He was hurt all the time and at times when came back not completely healthy because he’s a pretty competitive dude. His injury concerns are very real, he seems to have ankle soreness/pain at some during the season every season now.
Hornets have rarely committed to tanking. They just suck in their own usually.
Nobody thinks their logic is unimpeachable lol. It’s just very clear what they were thinking when making this trade
I’m not sure if I support it but it wouldn’t be surprising if LaMelo goes back to 50 games and under seasons and then the hornets look pretty smart
Most of the post trade media chatter was giving them high marks for getting a good 6th man and a 1st round pick for him with a lot of the same sell high language, so it does seem that way. But yes like any transaction the outcomes depend on whether the assets stay healthy
It’s not that simple
Every trade depends on player health but LaMelo’s health history is awful. That obviously has to be taken into account
If he doesn’t play much going forward it won’t be surprising
His injuries are very real. He’s still an amazing player when healthy, but you’ve got the tanking situation backwards. The Hornets tanked because LaMelo was injured, they didn’t hold him out in order to tank.
LaMelo missing time is the biggest reason we have been terrible recently. It’s not a coincidence that we had our best years during the two seasons he played 70+ games.
I’m not suggesting all of his injuries were fake at all, moreso that he probably had to miss 15-20 games mid season which spelled doom for the year and then was held out an additional 15-20 games to preserve draft position in those 3 straight bad years. Are you saying that isn’t the case?
first year with the ant/rudy/kat combo looked iffy too
Vibes were not good that year lmao. Then the city connects were those ugly crack stack jerseys and KAT had that calf tweak that looked like an Achilles.
There were definitely moments and a few stretches that showed they could be incredible, though.
It was an up and down season but let’s not pretend there wasn’t some good on the court and that much of the bad vibes weren’t driven by fans still in denial about drafting Rudy.
You mean those dope as fuck crack stack jerseys?
> ugly crack stack jerseys
I thought it was about Minneapolis’s LGTBQ+ community, but anything to bring riverside plaza into it I guess
IIRC a big reason for their turnaround was getting a real pg in Mike Conley
honestly i think it was just injuries and buy in
KAT had to adjust from i’m 25⁄10 on a good team to oh now i have to play PF, ph okay it’s ANT’s team, oh now i’m closer to like 20⁄8
they were like .500 with conley and .500 when he joined
You heard it here first, we’re throwing away next year for the wolves and looking towards 2028
I really don’t see what changes about 2028 compared to next season, in terms of us suddenly getting better. Even if we end up with a high draft pick, next year’s draft class is set to be pretty awful
I’m sorry but Taylor Rooks is so damn fine
Don’t think ant heard a thing she said
Why is the camera angle so low?
Signs of maturity and/or foreshadowing a possible disaster, either way, Im excited to see.
It’s definitely goin be ups and downs
Is he talking about basketball or Lamelo’s driving on urban roads?
He has a driver now. He’s locked in.
Yall gone beat a horse to death for them karma points
This is the same guy who quit on his team to spend time with his literal horse btw
I wanna celebrate with Taylor.
These guys are gonna make a run this year mark my words. (Coming from a thunder fan) Ant is too authentic and melo is his own vibe, mash that together you may have something great
She is so fine
reddit moment
I keep forgetting this trade happened. Timberwolves fans about to watch the most entertaining basketball of their franchises history.
Espn headline: ant says ball has downs
Damn lol
“yayyy my teammate has downs”
L
Minn gonna be worse
Luh yew Ant. Heart.
Ant and Lamelo are in a car together. Who is driving
There’s another duo in this video I’d rather see
Ant, the shockingly mature model teammate
Yeah it’s true, but why would you put that response after this meatball question? He’s like me playing fallout 4 just mashing buttons to get to the next conversation point
Ok. Admittedly, might not go far in the playoffs right away lol
Go waste money on your trading cards and ugly dog
Damn, why you got to go after his dog like that? 😩
I went overboard defending Ant-man. I love all dogs, but I’m keeping my comment up because I embrace my mistakes lol
My man. 👏 I respect that.
Guys, amplify this nickname: “Cum and Dumber”
Godbless.
Send da video either way
ant with the “i can fix her” mentality. i like it.
There’s definitely a lot of downs when you play for Minnesota :(
I dont see the moves in the off-season, making this team any better?
Inefficient chucker who doesn’t play defense? Ant is right, gonna be a lot of downs
Yeah, Ant’s gonna murder this dude right around the 10th time Lamelo airballs a 30 footer with 18 seconds on the shot clock.
This is media training from his team. The “face” of league is up for debate since Wemby lost so he wants his shot at the throne.
He has already said he didn’t want to be the face of the league and “that’s what yall have wemby for”
That’s exactly what the future face of the league would say.
Sounds really excited to play with LaChucker.
(This is just one tiny clip and he’s done a lot of media etc. disclaimer)
Sure seems like he isn’t pumped to play with Lamelo!
I’ll be right there with ya celebrating the downs
Same, I’ll be right there when we poop on the Lakers again
Does anyone really think Lamelo is gonna play? Hornets were smart as hell and sold high.
Is he going to retire?
He’s gonna learn to read.
Interested to see if the wolves let him loose or hold him to a mins restriction like we did last year.
In theory, Dosunmu can play pretty substantial minutes at LaMelo’s position off the bench to limit the latter’s minutes during the regular season. The issue with that is that we still don’t have a starting PF, and until we do it can probably be assumed that Dosunmu will be a starter.
There is also a chance that TSJ takes another step and gains enough trust from the coaching staff to play PG some. He had a couple really amazing games at PG, and Finch said something toward the end of last year like “turns out he just needs to have the ball in his hands. Silly me, been having him spot up this whole time.”
Still scarred from AD?