2026 Second Round Playoff Thread: Minnesota vs San Antonio

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Gopher_In_NYC said:
What’s funny bro is you act like you’re the ultimate Wolves insider, vs. just another middle aged schlub with an opinion on an anonymous message board.

No offense, but you have no idea about what Ant’s relationship is with anyone else, including Finch. This reminds me of when someone famous gets arrested for something tawdry and people are shocked because that doesn’t match the public persona; persona is the Greek word for mask

I’m a rise taker, I moved to NYC at 32 without a job or an apartment; I find the biggest return comes from those willing to roll the dice - maybe AROD can flash his ring in Ant’s face till he gets mesmerized. Fire Tim and hire Darryl would be bold, ballsy and exciting😃.

OKC had KD, Russ and Harden, lost all three, replaced them and then won their championship. MN would still be in a state of perpetual Alonzo Mourning over losing the aforementioned three All-Stars.

You either got ‘em Jammy or you don’t -

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Maybe they do hate each other. The evidence provided by the people who report on this stuff seems to indicate otherwise. If the public persona is just a persona, Finch will be gone shortly after the abysmal showing against SA. We'll see.

Glad your move to NYC worked out. Agree that risks are one of the spices of life.

No idea who Daryl is. If you are talking about Cassell, I think a guy who's in his 50's, is a known quantity in the league and has already been turned down seven times has more of a floor than a ceiling as the cliche goes. However, maybe the evidence is all wrong and he's the great hidden coaching talent that has been in front of FO's all this time.

I don't think the departures of Harden (2012), Durant (2016) and Westbrook (2019) had a thing to do with 2025. We'll never know but maybe that championship would have come sooner if they had stayed together.
 

Twolves:

2022-23 - #8 seed had to play the #1 seed Denver in the first round and lost -- Denver ended up winning it all
2023-24 - #3 seed and played #5 Dallas in the conf finals and lost -- Dallas then lost in NBA Finals
2024-25 - #6 seed had to play #1 OKC in the conf finals and lost -- OKC then wins the NBA Finals
2025-26 - #6 seed had to play #2 SA in conf semi-finals and lost -- SA vs OKC could very well be the NBA Finals winner, SA has a chance


So it's quite possible that three out of our the Twolves lost to the eventual Finals champ, with the one notable disappointment in 23-24, though they probably also lose to Boston that year in the Finals.


This doesn't seem like some massive, organizational failure.
 



JimmyJamesMD said:
Since sam has never been a HC before, you can't say that with any certainty
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Yeah, it's just my opinion. IMO, there are very few people on the planet better at coaching basketball than Finch. Maybe Sam is one of those 10-15 people. I'd bet my money on not.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
That could make sense.

I am not sure we move on from Rudy. I think he's more valuable to us than what we would fetch in a trade. Kyrie is interesting though.
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They have gafford and lively. I dont see it. But I bet they try to get off kyrie
 



JimmyJamesMD said:
They have gafford and lively. I dont see it. But I bet they try to get off kyrie
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My guess is Dal would accept nothing short of Jaden for Kyrie. They dumped AD and are looking to build around Flagg.

I can't stand Kyrie but I like the target and desperate enough to get behind it as a fan if it's anything less than McDaniels.
 

jamiche said:
Maybe they do hate each other. The evidence provided by the people who report on this stuff seems to indicate otherwise. If the public persona is just a persona, Finch will be gone shortly after the abysmal showing against SA. We'll see.
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I hope whatever they do, it’s decisive and done promptly.

jamiche said:
Glad your move to NYC worked out. Agree that risks are one of the spices of life.
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Thanks
jamiche said:
No idea who Daryl is.
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Morley
jamiche said:
If you are talking about Cassell, I think a guy who's in his 50's, is a known quantity in the league and has already been turned down seven times has more of a floor than a ceiling as the cliche goes. However, maybe the evidence is all wrong and he's the great hidden coaching talent that has been in front of FO's all this time.
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FOs make bad decisions all the time, from contacts, drafts to HCs. I don’t think that’s indicative of whether Sam would be a good HC or not - no one, including me, knows at this juncture - but he’s a winner and was a hardass as a player. I think the Wolves need more of an authority figure vs. a friendly/buddy type.
jamiche said:
I don't think the departures of Harden (2012), Durant (2016) and Westbrook (2019) had a thing to do with 2025.
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That wasn’t my point; which was they retooled after losing three players who would become MVPs and then won a Championship. Ant may will one someday and he may not🤷‍♂️. If he was to walk at some point, it’s not the end of the world either, as OKC proved.
jamiche said:
We'll never know but maybe that championship would have come sooner if they had stayed together.
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they would have in my opinion.

I believe we agree on the following -

Wolves ain’t coming out of the West with the roster as presently constructed.

Roster requires major changes and Connolly isn’t the guy who should be responsible for those changes.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Wolves ain’t coming out of the West with the roster as presently constructed.
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It doesn't matter if you blame the GM, Head Coach or the players for our failure to win a Title with the current team, this is still a factual statement IMO.
Gopher_In_NYC said:
Roster requires major changes and Connolly isn’t the guy who should be responsible for those changes.
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Connelly is a very aggressive GM (I like that) and certainly has his share of misses, but he's responsible for far more team success than failure in DEN and MIN.

The Gobert trade was a huge success no matter how we slice it. If someone wants to make an argument that we should've just continued to build slowly around Ant the last three (3) rather than acquiring Rudy, I'd certainly listen.

Of course, without our recent success in the Playoffs, we might also be looking at a frustrated Ant that wants out to play on a more competitive team. We might get to that point anyways so I'm not sure there's really a "right or wrong" answer.
 

Slim Tubby said:
My guess is Dal would accept nothing short of Jaden for Kyrie. They dumped AD and are looking to build around Flagg.

I can't stand Kyrie but I like the target and desperate enough to get behind it as a fan if it's anything less than McDaniels.
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Yes you are 💯 right on Dallas asking for jaden
 



Slim Tubby said:
It doesn't matter if you blame the GM, Head Coach or the players for our failure to win a Title with the current team, this is still a factual statement IMO.
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Say what? Not sure what your point is.

Slim Tubby said:
Connelly is a very aggressive GM (I like that) and certainly has his share of misses, but he's responsible for far more team success than failure in DEN and MIN.
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Agree.
Slim Tubby said:
The Gobert trade was a huge success no matter how we slice it.
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I agree.
Slim Tubby said:
If someone wants to make an argument that we should've just continued to build slowly around Ant the last three (3) rather than acquiring Rudy, I'd certainly listen.
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Seems like hamstrung ourselves with the trade and maybe gave up too much🤷‍♂️.

I think he’s had his shot and I’d rather give someone else a shot - new ideas, approach. Same philosophy with the HC.


Slim Tubby said:
Of course, without our recent success in the Playoffs, we might also be looking at a frustrated Ant that wants out to play on a more competitive team. We might get to that point anyways so I'm not sure there's really a "right or wrong" answer.
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“You never hit a homer, unless you take a Swing,”
George Herman Ruth.

“Giannis or bust🥳,” NYC.
 
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Slim Tubby said:
My guess is Dal would accept nothing short of Jaden for Kyrie. They dumped AD and are looking to build around Flagg.

I can't stand Kyrie but I like the target and desperate enough to get behind it as a fan if it's anything less than McDaniels.
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That's the same as saying they want to keep Kyrie, which maybe the do. They aren't that far from being a pretty good team.
 

The people talking about firing Finch on this board are completely out of touch. There are two franchises that are really ahead of us and they both kind of fluked into it.

SAS, of course, wins the lottery when it is Wemby. The dude is an alien. He's not far off from winning the Lebron sweepstakes and then they come out and then they land the second pick from the 8th worst record. I'm not making excuses, they made all the right moves from that situation. They didn't dump pieces for Durant but the biggest piece was a generationally good #1 overall that they landed on.

OKC is a product of taking advantage of everyone trying to build a super team. You can argue we should have been in their position - selling everything off for pieces but I don't think you can look at what OKC is and use that against Finch.

There wasn't a strategic thing I can really point to in the series. When we went big, we had a really hard time scoring because Wemby stayed in the lane. When we went small, we had zero chance of stopping them (and we had to hit a ton of shots). I just didn't see a coaching failure, I saw a better team winning.

Maybe that means we blow it up around Ant. I'm not opposed to trading off anyone outside of Jaden or Ant.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
That's the same as saying they want to keep Kyrie, which maybe the do. They aren't that far from being a pretty good team.
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Agree completely that DAL may want to keep him. That's why I think it would take an overpay to get him.

I still think Jrue Holliday is a more realistic target but there would be a ton of buzz/excitement if Kyrie was coming to town, but that might be completely stymied if the cost was Jaden.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
The people talking about firing Finch on this board are completely out of touch. There are two franchises that are really ahead of us and they both kind of fluked into it.

SAS, of course, wins the lottery when it is Wemby. The dude is an alien. He's not far off from winning the Lebron sweepstakes and then they come out and then they land the second pick from the 8th worst record. I'm not making excuses, they made all the right moves from that situation. They didn't dump pieces for Durant but the biggest piece was a generationally good #1 overall that they landed on.

OKC is a product of taking advantage of everyone trying to build a super team. You can argue we should have been in their position - selling everything off for pieces but I don't think you can look at what OKC is and use that against Finch.

There wasn't a strategic thing I can really point to in the series. When we went big, we had a really hard time scoring because Wemby stayed in the lane. When we went small, we had zero chance of stopping them (and we had to hit a ton of shots). I just didn't see a coaching failure, I saw a better team winning.

Maybe that means we blow it up around Ant. I'm not opposed to trading off anyone outside of Jaden or Ant.
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I might lean heavily towards the group that questions if Finch is capable of taking this roster farther but to try and make an argument that he's a poor coach doesn't carry water with me personally.

I regularly visit a highly active NBA message board with a lot of league fans that know far more than I do. They ran a poll to name the 3rd best team in the NBA behind OKC and SAS and the Wolves were a resounding winner with 32% of the votes (NYK were 2nd with 18%).

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that but there are a ton of unbiased NBA fans that think very highly of the Wolves and especially Finch.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Since sam has never been a HC before, you can't say that with any certainty
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Slim Tubby said:
It doesn't matter if you blame the GM, Head Coach or the players for our failure to win a Title with the current team, this is still a factual statement IMO.

Connelly is a very aggressive GM (I like that) and certainly has his share of misses, but he's responsible for far more team success than failure in DEN and MIN.

The Gobert trade was a huge success no matter how we slice it. If someone wants to make an argument that we should've just continued to build slowly around Ant the last three (3) rather than acquiring Rudy, I'd certainly listen.

Of course, without our recent success in the Playoffs, we might also be looking at a frustrated Ant that wants out to play on a more competitive team. We might get to that point anyways so I'm not sure there's really a "right or wrong" answer.
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I know I'm the outlier on this board but Walker Kessler's numbers have been comparable to Rudy's over the last three years. At Kessler's approx $2M/year it means the wolves could have kept KAT, kept the four #1's, no pick swaps and gained lots of roster flexibility. Rudy has given them a presence in the middle and a defensive identity that has been somewhat overstated except for the year they finished first in defense. Kessler would have done almost the same on defense and added the occasional three point shot at about 1/20th the price. Kessler is no superstar, but he didn't need to be at that price.

Not close to the deal people think it is when you look at the whole picture.
 

Slim Tubby said:
Agree completely that DAL may want to keep him. That's why I think it would take an overpay to get him.

I still think Jrue Holliday is a more realistic target but there would be a ton of buzz/excitement if Kyrie was coming to town, but that might be completely stymied if the cost was Jaden.
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One of the proposed trades last summer was
Giannis & Jrue in a three team deal
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Say what? Not sure what your point is.
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I was simply saying that your statement was 100% true. It doesn't matter who you blame for coming up short, our current roster isn't good enough to get past OKC/SAS and changes need to be made.
 

Slim Tubby said:
I was simply saying that your statement was 100% true. It doesn't matter who you blame for coming up short, our current roster isn't good enough to get past OKC/SAS and changes need to be made.
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Thanks for the clarification 😃
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Since sam has never been a HC before, you can't say that with any certainty
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I think we can say with sufficient certainty that the league thinks there are other candidates likely to be more successful than Cassell if Finch gets the boot.
 

Slim Tubby said:
I might lean heavily towards the group that questions if Finch is capable of taking this roster farther but to try and make an argument that he's a poor coach doesn't carry water with me personally.
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maybe JB is now available🥸

Slim Tubby said:
I regularly visit a highly active NBA message board with a lot of league fans that know far more than I do. They ran a poll to name the 3rd best team in the NBA behind OKC and SAS and the Wolves were a resounding winner with 32% of the votes (NYK were 2nd with 18%).

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that but there are a ton of unbiased NBA fans that think very highly of the Wolves and especially Finch.
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jamiche said:
I know I'm the outlier on this board but Walker Kessler's numbers have been comparable to Rudy's over the last three years. At Kessler's approx $2M/year it means the wolves could have kept KAT, kept the four #1's, no pick swaps and gained lots of roster flexibility. Rudy has given them a presence in the middle and a defensive identity that has been somewhat overstated except for the year they finished first in defense. Kessler would have done almost the same on defense and added the occasional three point shot at about 1/20th the price. Kessler is no superstar, but he didn't need to be at that price.

Not close to the deal people think it is when you look at the whole picture.
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I was with you for a short while in regards to Kessler, but he is nowhere near as good as Rudy. There is a reason he hasn't become a regular starter. They still had to find a way to get rid of Towns. Salary hell. Had to happen.
 

tikited said:
I was with you for a short while in regards to Kessler, but he is nowhere near as good as Rudy. There is a reason he hasn't become a regular starter. They still had to find a way to get rid of Towns. Salary hell. Had to happen.
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There's also a reason that UTA will most likely trade Kessler this offseason. He has a lower ceiling, lacks athleticism, can't stay healthy and they don't trust him enough when it comes to committing big money on his upcoming contract.

I think it's fair to question if we gave up too much for Rudy but you can't question the results. I was actually more bothered by the KAT trade, especially after seeing how he has grown his overall game. He still scores and rebounds at a high level but he's also become a great facilitator.
 

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