How do you guys think the Wolves will perform without Ant and Jaden? I know we’re missing our best perimeter defender and offensive player, but I believe we’ll be fine. On offense, Conley, Brown, and Naz (mostly Naz) will step up.
I believe KAT will put up the same numbers or maybe step up, but to be honest, this man’s game is impossible to predict. Sometimes he’ll drive into 3-4 people in the paint, other times he’ll let it fly from three point range or he’ll be passive and refuse to shoot. But one thing is for certain, KAT has shown that he is capable of contributing to winning even when his offensive game is not on. We would not have won today’s game without his free-throws, rebounding, and defense.
The main reason I believe we’ll win is that our offense may flow better without Ant. When Ant plays, you can see him impairing the flow of the offense in order to go for an iso play. He is still inefficient in that regard, so we frequently find ourselves in offensive ruts that could have been avoided had he made the right plays. And this is not a criticism of Ant; he is our best offensive player, so he should have more offensive freedom because it is literally his job as our go-to guy whenever we need a bucket. Not only that, I hope this team has the maturity and mental capacity to play without their leader and tone-setter.
Whatever it is, the next four games are unquestionably winnable because we have NAZ REID.
I would say give all the rest to Ant and Jaden for these four. Good time to try to get more bench players like TBJ going. My guess is we go 3-1 because the lack of scoring punch catches us once despite the soft schedule.