(upbeat music) ♪ It's the Lockdown Podcast Network ♪ ♪ Your team every day ♪ (upbeat music) - Welcome to the party. I'm Sam Xtram of Lockdown Sports, Minnesota. We put a bow on Timberwolves Free Agency today on the Minnesota Basketball Party. - This is Lockdown Sports, Minnesota Podcast. It's endless Minnesota Timberwolves talk with the diverse voices of your local experts. It's time for the Minnesota Basketball Party on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. - Wolves Talk every Wednesday here on Lockdown Sports, Minnesota. It's the Minnesota Basketball Party and the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen today. For your second listen, check out Lockdown Wolves with Ben Beacon, who's absent today, but he produced its great daily. The wolves content, wherever you get your podcasts, please subscribe to us on YouTube. The Lockdown Sports, Minnesota channel, produces lots of great content every single day of the week. Plenty to get to on this 10th day of July. The Timberwolves seem to have wrapped up their free agency dealings. They do not retain any of their in-house free agents. They bring in Joe Ingalls, they bring in PJ Dozier. The Summer League is coming up and the Olympics are coming up and Anthony Edwards is headlining that in many ways. But first, we tell you that today's show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Once again, I'm Sam Xtreme, executive producer here at Lockdown Sports, Minnesota. I'm @SamXtreme on X. Let's meet the rest of our panel today with the opening tip. - I'm Jack Borman, co-host of the Lockdown Wolves postcast with my man, Luke Inman, former editor and chief at Canisupus. And right on that, Sam, I'm gonna be talking a little bit about why I believe Anthony Edwards' confidence in himself is completely justified as we inch towards the Paris Games and kick off the exhibition season tonight. - And I'm Ron Johnson, former Gophers wide receiver, Gophers Hall of Famer, NFL wide receiver, host of the Ron Johnson Show in Lockdown Sports, Minnesota. And I am gonna talk to you guys about, I'm a big Marvel Comics DC movie guy. I just watched The Flash, I finally got to watch. I haven't watched Aquaman 2 yet, but I'm gonna talk about why The Flash ended up in the Speed Force. And he's gonna change the history of Minnesota. You're gonna forget about Shlomo, and you're only gonna know about Joe Ingles. - And I'm Andrew Dukeowitz, beat reporter for Zone Copperidge, first year of being credentialed with the Wolves. And I'm gonna tell you why Rob Dillingham may not be the best rookie on the Wolves. - It's good to have Andrew Dukeowitz here. We don't have Reggie Wilson. We don't have Ben Beacon. Andrew filled in admirably on our postcast a few times, works with zone coverage, zonecoverage.com. And he's going to the Summer League as well. So I think we'll get him on again next week to talk about what he saw at Wolves Summer League, which begins here in short order. But we jump right into it. It looks like free agency is winding down for the Minnesota Timber Wolves, unless there's a big splashing move to come. Maybe that crazy Lowry marketing scenario that Jack Foreman laid out last week. But barring that, it seems like the Wolves are pretty settled. They do not retain Kyle Anderson, Monte Morris. We knew that last week, Jordan McLaughlin, the final domino to fall. He departs to Sacramento with an emotional goodbye video on Twitter. I think I had tears in my eyes. The Wolves have brought in Joe Wingles as multiple of you predicted last week. They bring in PJ Dozier as well. Joe Wingles probably the one that'll be part of the rotation next year. So we kick it to Jack Foreman who was on the Joe Wingles bandwagon. What's your take on the way things have settled now for the Wolves in free agency? Yeah, last week, well, Sam too, I want to say, I think we could maybe not be done with some player movement and some stuff with the Wolves down the line. But that's a conversation for another time, potentially. What do you know? What do you know with Joe Wingles? Joe Wingles said last week that I think with the roster, they're really only going to be able to choose between two or four skills between defensive versatility, playmaking, shooting, and athleticism. The Wolves chose shooting and playmaking with Joe Wingles. And they're probably hoping that Taryn Shane and Junior potentially could give them some of that defensive versatility in athleticism. He's 6'5", 220, has a 6'8" wingspan. But with Wingles, primarily a shooter and a pick and roll partner for Gobare. I mean, he shot 43% on nearly 173s last season, was in the 99th percentile in terms of his efficiency and catch and shoot situations. And he had a 3.2 assist to turnover ratio, right? One thing we loved about Kyle Anderson was that he was able to be a productive playmaker without turning the ball over. That's certainly the case for Ingalls. He had 250-- or 215 assists in 67 turnovers last season in Orlando. And obviously, the chemistry with Mike Conley and Rudy Gobare is huge. And that he's someone who is very comfortable throwing lobs through Rudy Gobare. I think that's something that the Timmer Wolves can never have enough of, and obviously understands the way that Mike Conley likes to play and where to position himself off the ball, and Conley and Gobare are doing their thing in pick and roll. A couple of down things about Ingalls. He's not as athletic as he wants used to be. I don't think he's going to be much of an impact defender in the same way that Slowmo was. I don't know how well you're going to be able to put him on some of the bigger, more physical perimeter players that we saw Slowmo defend. Only shot 46% at the rim last year. He didn't take very many shots at the rim. It's a small sample size, but it's still not a great number. And he really didn't shoot the ball very well at a pick and roll. And he only shot 36% when he took shots after receiving his screen and pick and roll. And so that's something that you certainly would hope would improve with one of the best screen setters to ever do it, and Rudy Gobare with him. So yeah, I'm a fan of Joe Ingalls. I think that what he's going to bring to the team is nice. And we're going to circle back to Dogere after. You want that now? Let's circle back, because I want to get Ron on Ingalls, because Ron, you were breaking down Ingalls tape. You were sending us Ingalls clip. So you like this guy. So when I first-- I mean, on the show before they even signed them, that was one of the names I threw out there. And this is why I'm a Hooper. Like, as a football player, yeah, I know I play professional football. But everybody knows, professional wide receivers in the NFL are usually your best Hoopers on your team. Just check with the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson. Ignore Adam Theland, because he's not a Hooper. But he does like to play basketball. But when you are a Hooper and you play with guys all the time, there's one thing that I love. And it's a lefty shooter. Why? Because they are awkward. When I say that, we're all right handed. So our thought to defend with our left is to run at their shooting hand. We grew up being taught hand up one hand down because of lefties and righties. Like, that's just everybody's a righty. So coaches always taught, put that left hand up, the right hand down is to stop the crossover. Most guys-- I'm not saying they-- I mean, the pros, they know. They know he's a lefty, so they're going to run at the left. But it still throws people off how quick he gets his shot up. And I just-- I love the way he gets the shot up quick. Again, it's the opposite of slow-mo when it comes to getting the shot off. Not the athleticism, not the defensive side of it because I did end up having to pray slow-mo. Sam, you were right. He did a great job against the Nuggets. But I want scores. Give me some scores, because I agree with Jack on that. I think Terrence Shannon Jr., I think he's going to be able to add some of that defensive prowess that they might be looking for. Again, when you look at that size, 6, 5, 2, 20, you can put him in that slow-mo role to say, come in and deal with a Clay Thompson. Come in and deal with a Kevin Durant for a couple of series. I think they'll get that out of Terrence Shannon Jr. But I like Joe Ingalls when he's-- if he's on the floor of that day, where's Mike Conley, Carl Anthony Towns, and go bare. Or if you take go bare, I'm putting Nas Reed. Nas Reed and Joe Ingalls on the wings or in the corners. You now add two quick shooters with the trigger and you have Cat. So now you just added an additional big with Jaden McDaniels. That's why I don't think-- I mean, free agency, if something happens, if something happens. But look at where this team was. I feel like they were one score away from being able to be in the game with the math. They were never in these games. But I think one score would have helped Anthony Edwards maybe not have to feel like he had to exhaust all of his energy. Andrew Dukeowitz, can we call you the Duke? Is that OK? That's fine. It's why I call him a nice girl. It's fine. Duke Duke Duke of girl. Duke of Vegas. There we go. Help people that. Well, you need people to say I'm the Duke of Vegas. I just want to piggyback off of what Jack was saying. It's just the shooting. I think it's the most important part with Joe Ingalls. 91% of his three-point shots came off of the cysts. 41% of his total threes came as wide open, no defender within six feet. And he hit those at 54%. For reference, I think Kyle was about 18% on Open Catch and Shoot threes. That upgrade, when you're picturing Kyle Anderson in the corner getting a wide open three and having that hit shot versus Joe Ingalls just being able to let it go, I think is going to put an added level of fear in the defense. His playmaking is something he's had his entire career. I mean, with Utah, Kyle Anderson even said to get comfortable with Rudy, he was watching Joe Ingalls film to try and get that lob pass in those pocket passes down. I think Joe Ingalls, even at this stage in his career, is going to be definitely addition to this team. That being said, the defense is tough. I was watching quite a few clips of Joe Ingalls for a Joe Ingalls piece I did. And his on ball defense, he's just not quick enough to cover guards anymore. And his post defense, he's just not smooth enough to stay in front of people. He's going to have to be someone that you hide at this point in his career. That being said, we're talking about a guy that's going to play 15 to 18 minutes a game at best. And I think the shooting in playmaking, when you can surround him with Jaden, Nikhil, Nasri, Rudy, I think it's a very big upgrade for the rotation in general. Yeah, the shooting's good enough that you're willing to sacrifice some other stuff. And let me kick it back to Jack. And you can toss in some PJ Dozier analysis here if you want. But let's just look at the tail of the tape. You subtract Slomo Morris McLaughlin. You add Ingalls Dozier, Dillingham Shannon. So with that being the case, and Jack, it sounds like you think they might make more moves, if that's the end game, did the Wolves get better this offseason? No question. I think they addressed their biggest issue, which was that they didn't have enough on ball creation and guys that can put the ball in the deck and go get their own bucket. They got a big time Hooper for our guy, Ron, and Rob Dillingham, who not only is going to be their point guard of the future, but is going to be a guy that has a really scalable role that fits his game right away and being able to be another microwave score off the bench, which is huge. So I think just by acquiring Rob Dillingham and getting two guys on rookie scale contracts, there is no question a win in the aggregate for the Timberwolves. And another nice thing about what they did with going out and getting PJ Dozier is hopefully they can get some of that defensive versatility that they lost with Kyle Anderson. And that he's six, six, 205 pounds. You can switch one through three. He's got some good P&R chops on the ball. He's really long and moves really fluidly from side to side. And he's familiar with Tim Conley, right? So he played for Conley and Denver. He signed a training camp contract with the Wolves in 2022, dominated for the Iowa Wolves and played last year in Serbia with Frank Kaminsky out there in Serbia. It was the same team that Dante Exim played for before he had his NBA revival with the Mavericks. Average 9 points, 29.4% from three. Three rebounds, three assists in a stock and a half in Euro League play. Not really going to set the world on fire with those numbers. But again, he's much more of a role player at this point. A guy that's going to come in and primarily be a defensive guy. So you'd certainly like to see him improve on him shooting 33.7% on catch and shoot threes. But again, it's a defensive option on nights or maybe you don't have Nikila Alexander Walker or maybe you don't trust Jalen Clark quite enough and you want a guy that's got a lot of NBA experience in PJ Dozier. So yeah, I think overall, you're looking at a pretty darn good offseason for the Timberwolves considering the circumstances. It's not going to be perfect. But I think when you're dealing with such limited mechanisms that you have to be able to improve the roster, I think what Tim Conley and his staff did was pretty commendable. Yeah, Ron, quickly, do you think the Wolves got better as Jack does? I think so. Again, when I talked about Terrence and Junior, Rob Dillingham, and just last year's team, like look at the guys they let go of nothing against. I think Shlomo was the one. It's like, ah, maybe it could have been nice to keep him because of his defensive versatility and the guys he can guard. Offensively, you get more with Joe Ingalls. But I think Jordan McGoughlin and what's his name? Monty Morris, the two rookies are an upgrade. So yes, I think they got better. Duke? Yeah, I'm right in lockstep with him. I think if anything we learned that Tim Conley is a phenomenal GM as well, that draft day trade to get the extra assets, I mean, they wouldn't have been able to get anyone close to Dillingham. And frankly, probably not even Shannon in a veteran minimum market. So setting themselves up for the future, learning that Tim Conley is that guy that is going to be able to guide this team, hopefully for the foreseeable future, and then upgrading it pretty much everything they really needed. I mean, they didn't need-- they don't really need more scores off the bench with Joe Ingalls being able to hit threes. Dillingham, Ant, Cat. They just need a guy that if there's a lot of injuries, he can go in and play his role. And it sounds like PJ Dozier can do that at this point in his career. Let's talk about that bench rotation when we return. How do they divvy up the pie chart of bench minutes? We'll discuss what that rotation looks like next on the Minnesota basketball party. We're presented today by Game Time and authorized to get marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the Game Time app actually go down the closer you get to first pitch. And the Minnesota Twins have been playing a really good baseball lately. They'll be back at home after the all-star break, and they're creeping in on the first place Cleveland Guardian. So make sure you get into building its target field and find some great deals. Maybe it's a zone deal where you choose a section. Game Time chooses the seats. In its exclusive in-app deals are the flash deals with Game Time on select seats ahead of games or events. And it's not just sports, it's concerts, comedy, theater, and more. There's great customer service, the lowest price guarantee. 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Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. - All right, Minnesota basketball party, moving right along, we're talking wolves bench and then we'll get into Team USA, Anthony Edwards comments and a little summer league preview with the Duke who set it out to Vegas. But this bench that we've been discussing, you know, there's only so many bites you can take out of the Apple. You've got Nas, six man of the year, you've got Nikhil and now you've got Ingles. So are you gonna go much deeper than that in the regular season, maybe on occasion? But Ron will start with you. Like who do you think is going to be able to crack this bench rotation of these rookies? I mean, you've got Dillingham obviously, Shannon and then Jalen Clark coming off an injury who the team apparently really likes. How do you think that bench is going to look next year? - I think you kind of hit it. I think, you know, the guys we've seen Joe Ingles and Nikhil Alexander Walker, I think like cracking the like line up a lot is going to be the two draft of guys, Taryn Shannon and what's his name, Rob Dillingham. And just because of what we saw last year, I think the minutes, I mean, unless somebody and maybe the Duke can tell us what he sees down at Summer League, but unless somebody really just goes off in Summer League, I don't see it because, and when you draft a guy in the first round, it's not a like guarantee we have to play them, but the eighth pick, you usually want to see what you have in them at least. And another first rounder, you probably get them in the rotation and get some work in. I think that's about it 'cause Joe Ingles deserves, I mean, Nasri, Joe Ingles, Naw, and Jay McDaniels, that's a lot. And then you still have Mike Connolly, Anthony Edwards, Curly Towns, everybody go bare, that's eight right there. So I think those rookies are going to have to fight for minutes. I think Rob Dillingham probably gets way more than Taryn Shannon, just early on my initial thoughts 'cause Anthony Edwards is a beast. I mean, in hockey terms, he's a guy that can skate probably over 90 seconds. You know, he's a, he's a true like, I'm going to grip this out, I can play, but I do hope that they use Taryn Shannon Jr. if he is usable in that situation. So Anthony Edwards, when we're in the Western Conference finals, again, he's not gas. But no, I think those eight are it. And then you're going to see some Rob Dillingham as that ninth player. - Yeah, I mean, Duke, there's going to be good players, when the team's healthy, that is. There are going to be good players on the bench that are not playing simply because it's a numbers game, right? You're not going to play 10 every single night, but who do you see cracking this rotation this year? - This isn't a shade at Luca Rignard, but there isn't going to be a Luca Rignard type player getting minutes on this team. I mean, the bench of this team could have been starters seven or eight years ago. I think Ron said it perfectly. I mean, Nikhil and Reed are probably going to get third 20 minutes or so. Dillingham's probably going to get close to 15, 20 minutes. And then you have Ingle, Shannon, Clark, Miller, and Minot that are all going to be trying to figure out which one or two of them can split the last 15. - I do think that Chris Finch early in seasons has shown that he's willing to go to nine, 10 men rotations to try and figure out what he has. So we might see quite a bit more earlier in the season. I also get the vibe that the team really wants to lessen minutes on Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert. I mean, to some extent, Ant, I think he would play 45 minutes a night if they'd let him, but they'd probably like to see him closer to that 38 mark. So there might be more minutes available this season as opposed to last season, but I really think Nikhil, now as Reed, Dillingham, you can pretty much pen in the lineup at this point. And then it's really going to be Ingle, Shannon, Clark, Miller, Minot, all battling for those last 15, which when you have Joe Ingles and a first round draft pick battling for 15 minutes, you're doing something right. - Yeah, I mean, if anybody's wondering why they traded Wendell Moore, this is why. There's not room for, there's not going to be room for Leonard Miller. You know, Jack, what do you think? - Yeah, I think, you know, you're going to get Nas and Nikhil playing, you know, really substantial minutes like they did this past season, I think, and maybe with Naa, his minutes might be a little bit more match-up dependent, you know, if you need a bigger, you know, if you're planning it's a bigger team, maybe you see a little bit more Joe Ingles than Nikhil, but I think those two guys are pretty, pretty set in stone as the seventh and eight, or the sixth and seventh guys in whatever order you want them. I think Rob Dillingham is locked into that, a spot in the rotation. Like Chris Finch is going to use a nine-man rotation. He used a nine-man rotation for pretty much the entire regular season. He even went to 10 at some point. So Jordan McLaughlin was playing really well. So I think you get those four locked into the rotation, I think on night one, and then, you know, depending on foul trouble, depending on, you know, what part of the season it's in, if guys are tired, you feel like you need to go to 10, you know, the temporal has certainly had the talent to be able to go to a 10-man rotation. Then I think you start just seeing, you know, who's doing the, who's playing the best in practice, who's making the most of their minutes at the end of the game when the game's already been decided, whether that's, you know, Taryn Shane in junior, whether that's P.J. Dozier, Jalen Clark, or whether that's Josh Meinart or Leonard Miller, you know, I think when you look back at, you know, some of the guys, Tim Roles had drafted in recent years, like none of them have really played between one, I mean, Walker Kessler, before he got a chance to trade, or play was traded in the Rudy Guabere deal, and then you have one more junior who had that one start against John Moran, did a great job, but didn't really play much outside of that, and Josh Meinart, Leonard Miller, haven't played at all in Jalen Clark, obviously hasn't played at all, he's been hurt. So there's not really a lot of precedent for the Tim Roles, you know, playing these young guys, at least in the last few years. But I think then, you know, when you're looking at who's gonna play with, who I think you have to structure it in terms of who's gonna play the best, or who's gonna fit the best with each big, right? 'Cause that's kind of how they structure, you know, it's kind of a bifurcate rotation in that way. I think with Rudy, you'll probably see Nas and Joe Ingalls play with Rudy, and Rob Dillingham play a lot with Rudy, as well as a pick and roll partner, kind of get him on the same wavelength, throwing lobs, utilizing more of his pick and roll, scoring off the bounce in the mid-range. You know, and then I think with Carl, you're gonna insulate him with more defensive guys, I think you're gonna see Nikhil play a ton of minutes with Carl, and I think you're gonna see Jaden McDaniel's play a huge chunk of his minutes with Carl Anthony Towns. Last season, Jaden was a plus 8.4 with Cat on the floor. He was a minus 1.1 with Cat off the floor. So those two guys have a really good connection together, and Jaden's play really bounced back once Carl returned from injury. So yeah, I think you're gonna see that. And I think, you know, with Carl, you can have Nas out there for defensive purposes. Like we saw last year, it was tremendous defensively. And then if you want more standard spacing in second-side creation, I think you could go with Joe Ingalls with Cat. But the nice thing is like all these guys are gonna play together, it's a long season. You know, hopefully they're as healthy as they were last year where you're able to get a ton of minutes with both guys. So. - And Jack, before we move on to Team USA, I gotta extract something from you. You seem to think that they're gonna add to this roster. I think they do have a roster spot open. So what does your instinct tell you in that regard? - I don't know. I think they'll try to leave a roster spot open so that they can convert Jalen Clark from a two-way contract to a regular contract. Once we get into the regular season, probably around that February time, what they did with Luca Garza, just because it's a cheaper way to avoid having that, you know, having that incomplete roster charge hit the books at the end of the season. So, so we'll see, you know, who knows if it's free agency? Maybe it's a trade, but we'll see. You know, I think one thing with Tim Connolly is that he operates in the shadows and you don't know what's coming until it comes. So we'll see it out. - Jack's holding out on us clearly. He knows things. He's withholding information from his dear friends at the Minnesota basketball party. Really disgraceful, disgraceful. We'll get it out of you eventually. Let's talk Team USA after a very quick pause on the Minnesota basketball party. - Hey, every dayers, NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team. Locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the off season with quick hitting 30 minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA. Make Locked on NBA your second listen and stay caught up on the biggest off season storylines and free agency signings every day, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. - All right, it was indeed a very quick pause. Team USA, the Olympics coming up in just over two weeks. And the big quote that came out of press conferences this past week, Anthony Edwards believes that he is the number one option. I think he said some other unselfish things as well, but that's the one people have latched on too, that Ant believes he's the alpha on a team with Durant, with LeBron, with Steph, with MB, Tatum, Duke. Do you think that Anthony Edwards is the top to pecking order with Team USA? - I think Ant believes he's on the top of the pecking order for Team USA. I mean, looking around on that team though, I mean, he's beat all of those guys. I mean, he knocked the sons out of the playoffs, Durant and Booker, both, you know, theoretically under him on the pecking order. I think when it comes to Team USA though, this team is so stacked and I think it's gonna be more of, you know, you'd like to say it's like a healthy competition, but like it may be closer to that dream team where it's just Curry, LeBron, Durant, all having fun together. And I think there's an equal chance that Ant just takes this team and this is his team too. It is just the kind of last tour for an old band on the road. - Good take. Yeah, it's like if Durant takes the final shot, you know, no one's bothered by that. If LeBron takes the final shot, if Curry takes the final shot, there's no headline there. If Ant takes the final shot with those guys on the floor and whether he makes or misses, that's gonna be the headline, right? Like Ant can really assert himself above some of these legacy players. But Jack, you tease this in our opening tip. What do you have on the Olympics? - Yeah, I just want, first of all, I want to give a big shout out to Chris Canty. I don't know if people saw that clip of him talking about Anthony Edwards on the Olympics, but that was incredible. And I feel the same way in a sense. Like, sum it up for us 'cause I didn't see it. - He basically, they asked him, you know, what players would, you know, do you think the player acts is better than Anthony Edwards? They went down the line, asked him every single player. Can you say this player is definitively better than Anthony Edwards? It was just like, no, no, no, no, no. I don't, and you're just like, just crocheting down into him, just getting progressively more and more dug in in his defensive hand. It was a great clip. But, no, I feel the same way. I think LeBron and Curry, the only two guys that I think definitively you'd probably want the ball in their hands at the end of the game. Just because they have such a proven pedigree of being able to make plays either for themselves or other people at the end of ball games. And, you know, and I think those two guys are probably the guys that strike the most fear in the hearts of defenses, right? In terms of being able to draw, you know, being able to draw attention to themselves, to create for other people. But, I mean, you'd look around. I mean, Jason Taylor's the least efficient clutch players in the NBA right now. You beat the breaks off of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and the playoffs is by far the best player in the four in that series. Qui Leonard, you know, are people even sure he's gonna play? You know, is he gonna pull a Jimmy Butler in the All-Star game and just say like, "No, I'm just here, but I'm not gonna play." Because if I was the Clippers, I sure wouldn't want Qui playing. If he was hurt in the playoffs and now you turn around a month and a half later and go and you play team USA. Tyree Saliburton won't be on the floor at the end of the game. And Joel Embiid, like Steve Kerr's never played through a big man late in games with the Warriors. So I don't think he'd start now. I mean, when you're looking at Joel Embiid, he's not trying to hit a game winning shot. He's trying to draw a game winning foul. So, you know, I think when you're looking at Ant, you want a guy that's got that alpha dog in him, that leadership and Ant certainly has that. He's one of the most magnetic people that you'll find. You know, and I think, you know, Steve Kerr wants a perimeter centric player to have the ball in their hands at the end of the game. And I think, you know, it's gonna be really important for Ant if he does have those opportunities to try to seize them. Because I think, you know, what we've seen with Ant is that, you know, he's been really hit and miss and up and down in clutch time. But just in terms of his blend of scoring and athleticism and ability to get downhill and create open shots for other people, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if they choose to kind of leverage that athleticism and downhill, you know, just play to be able to open up shots for guys like Steph or Katie on the perimeter or Devin Booker or something like that. So it would not surprise me one bit if Ant is the guy there. - Yeah, Ron, you talked about this at length in the Ron Johnson Show yesterday, but I don't want to spoil what your take was. Give it to us. What do you think? - Well, the Duke, I mean, Sam, I felt like the Duke watched the show in just literally, I mean, we sat the same as I think. - Like literally Sam, did we not say the same exact thing? Like- - Pretty similar, pretty similar. - If you beat these guys, I am better than you. I don't care what you say. I want the shot, I beat you, you can't beat me. Give me the ball. Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, LeBron James, the only person that I could see taking a shot over him and I believe he should steal, is gonna be Steph Curry. 'Cause Steph Curry is an absolute, but Steph Curry and Katie have had their issues with who takes the last shot. 'Cause we've seen the Draymond Green videos. And so I think the pecking order becomes like Curry, Katie, but then I think it goes to Ant. Like, and we know LeBron doesn't even want the last shot. Like LeBron gave D-Lo last shots with the Lakers and Austin Reeves. Like, so LeBron's passed the, like, I guarantee you, there will be a game this year, early on, 'cause he already said I wouldn't be on the floor of Bronnie. He's gonna get Bronnie the last shot. Like, he's gonna tell his son to take the last shot 'cause he doesn't want it. And then he's gonna deal with the consequences if he doesn't make it and everybody's gonna be like, "Dude, why did you take the shot?" This is, this is, this is nepotism. I'm all forward, but God, Lee, take the shot. And so, Anthony Edwards, he has three, in my opinion, on that list. - Do you see Skip saying that Bronnie has the, has a better clutch. Do you remember that? (all laughing) Skip is like a, Skip is like a hippo that has, like, 12 lions surrounding him. And he's trying to figure out how to survive. Like, Skip needs to just let it go. Like, he already got rid of Shannon, or what's his name? Richard Sermon doesn't want to be on the show with him anymore. Like, Skip is realizing it was never about you. It was about your co-host, and he's ruined him. So, yeah. But yeah, he's gonna say dumb stuff like that to go viral. Like, that's his point. And the funny thing is, LeBron's probably gonna feed into that. Like, oh yeah, Bronnie is clutch. Oh, shut up, shut up, Skip. That's what Shannon Sharp wants to say. - Skip, skipping to new lows, using LeBron's son as an argument against LeBron, which, I mean, incredible, incredible, incredibly bold take there. The anticlimactic part of this is that we might not have a single clutch time situation in these entire Olympics for Team USA, just because they're so loaded. I know Canada beat them in FIBA, but they didn't have a lot of these dudes on the team. USA on FanDuel minus 470 to win the gold medal. Canada next best chance at plus 1,100. So like, unless Nikille Alexander Walker goes off for 40, I don't know if Team USA has any clutch time situations. Maybe one, you know, at most two games in this tournament, will they, I think, really be tested in that way. So we may never find out. We might not find out at all, but I think it's gonna be compelling to watch. And Jack, to be honest with you, I'm probably watching nervously the whole time about it. Like, I'm worried about injury, right? Like, Kawhi's worried about it and beads worried about it. Those are injury prone guys. But I think every wolves fan is gonna watch this for two reasons. One, to see if Ant asserts himself and be, please, please stay healthy. I mean, that's a huge subplot in this. - Yeah, no doubt. And you know, and the fun thing is that wolves fans will be able to watch because all these games are gonna be on it at watchable times. But yeah, I think the biggest thing for me watching Ant is just like, how other guys on the team react to him. And like, where they think he's at, because they just had a straw poll, I think in the athletic of like, where guys are. And it was like, LeBron was definitively the best guy according to that straw poll. And then Steph and Ant were tied with the second most vote. So that's what I'm most keen on watching. You know, I think the good news is that I don't think there's gonna be all that much physical stress on his body. So maybe it's an ankle turn that we've seen a million times. But yeah, no, it was fun last season when you got to kind of watch Ant be the guy. But yeah, with Ant, it's never something I worry about. I'm honestly more concerned about it with Rudy playing and banging with big guys down low for France. - Yeah, Duke, we gotta go bare with France. We've got Nikhil with Canada. Are there any other wolves in this tournament? - No other wolves. I do cover the links though. So I do wanna give the W it's shout out. They have BC Bridget over with Canada. Lana Smith is playing with Australia. And Nafisa Collier is working her way back from a planter injury and expects to be a big part of Team USA, third on FanDuel for MVP fee. So they do, the wolves do have Joe Ingalls that did make the Australian team as kind of a last man rotation spot. So if you do wanna, I think they're called the boomers. So if you wanna watch some boomer basketball, Joe Ingalls might be hanging around over there. But I kind of go, I second, what Jack was saying is just, you know, I'm not really worried about Anne. He falls down, he claps his hands. He's gonna probably have a couple's times during this USA run where it looks like he got shot. And then he just goes back to the locker room and comes back out. But Rudy, I mean his first year in Minnesota, he got injured playing internationally. And he is at that stage of his career in his mid 30s where knees and feet and back start to become a problem. I think it will help that they have Viktor Wemanyama on the team. Hopefully they're not doing a Viktor Rudy combo, a ton and Rudy's playing closer to, you know, 25, 28 minutes instead of the whole game. But Rudy's the one that I'm kind of watching at of, just hoping he can stay healthy. - Yeah, unquestionably there. By the way, Team USA women minus 1,800 favorites to win that tournament. So, I mean, that is an absolute run away if they can fulfill expectations. Also, no shade against South Sudan, but South Sudan qualified for the men's tournament. I mean, I'm wondering what that region looked like. I just didn't associate them with basketball. All right, the Summer League is starting this week. Duke is going. Jack's going to be watching every game, intently, taking notes feverishly. We'll talk about that after I remind folks that you can check out lockdown sports today for all the best in sports every day at the lockdown podcast network. Also our big six in 60 find on FastTV apps, which collects the biggest sports stories of the day with our lockdown hosts. Make sure to check those out our great national shows. All right, Duke, you're going to Vegas, Wolf's Summer League, the roster is pretty compelling. Obviously, you've got the first round picks, but some other cool names as well, who specifically and what are you watching for closest? - I'm really excited to watch Jalen Clark. You know, coaching staff has been talking very highly about him that he's worked on his three-point shot almost throughout the entire time he's been injured. Last year, fans probably noticed that he was sitting on the bench next to Mike Connolly almost every game. And, you know, he's really looking to kind of get back to that NCAA all defensive, think he won defensive player of the year, his junior year with UCLA. You know, he had a quote after practice if he wants to break the Summer League steals record. So he's definitely motivated and he's going to get a lot of opportunities. The other thing I'm really looking for is just Rob Dillingham, we know he's a scorer, we know he can get his own shot, we know he can make catch and shoot threes. I'm really interested to see how he runs in that Finch offense where it's more of the, you know, quote unquote, beautiful game, Golden State Warriors-esque style where there's a lot of passing, a lot of flow, back guts, coming off of pick and rolls, looking for the option to pass to the option. I just want to see him do it. I think that'll be really determinative of how many minutes he gets this season. And then they do have a couple Minnesota kids, Tyler Walls from Lakeville is kind of the most notable out of Wisconsin that he's going to get some minutes and it'll be cool to see a Lakeville graduate out there who've been at Summer League. - I was going to highlight Gabe Calcher, who I mean, go for fans. Remember how potent he was as a freshman from three, helped them win an NCAA tournament game. And then just inexplicably couldn't shoot threes the rest of his career. I mean, he was 41% as a freshman, beautiful release. I mean, it's one of the most fundamentally pure shots you can imagine. And then he never exceeded 35% the rest of his career. So I mean, I'm intrigued by Calcher just because he can defend. And in theory, he can shoot threes, three and D kind of guy, but he hasn't really shown the three part of it the last four years. Jack, what do you got? - By the way, for those wondering what I was showing on the camera, for those watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe on YouTube. You can see all the videos and the hijinks. I had Gabe Calcher on my iPad. Like I had this picture blown up, I had all this stats. So Sammy, you took my guy, I gotta find another guy now. - I was gonna say, I mean, Gabe Calcher is a good friend of mine, I went to high school with Gabe. So I've watched Gabe very closely for four years. And then obviously super, super proud of everything he's done, how hard he's worked to get here. So I'm super, super excited to see him be able to, to put on the Timmerworlds jersey in play. So I'll be rooting for him wherever he's at, above anybody else. But yeah, removing my guy. - You said you went to high school with him or? - Yeah, yep, it deals with him. - Oh, okay, I thought you were from Edina, I was about to say. - No, he's from Edina. - He's from Edina, come on, no, come on, raw cheese. - I thought you guys caught up together from Edina, you know? - No, no, I'm Minneapolis through and through. - Edina, you guys are fine people, by the way, though. Thank you for subscribing on YouTube, we love Edina. Without Edina, there would be no Mighty Ducks, just remember that. - We love cake. - Oh, man. - Yeah, but outside of him, I'm really intrigued to see, what Leonard Miller has done to improve his playmaking and defensive awareness and discipline from last season. I think those were a couple of years, it didn't look super polished in summer league last year or in Iowa for most of the season. He certainly has all the physical capabilities to do both of those things at a very high rate, at a very high level, but it's just a matter of seeing it because I think Leonard Miller could be a really impactful player for the Tim Rules, probably not this year, but next year and certainly in the years to come. And then I'm also really, obviously, I think Rob Dillingham is just an electric factory with the ball in his hands. And I'm just so excited to be able to watch him make all these highlight plays and play a super fun brand of basketball, but do it as a Tim Rules player, not as really as a Kentucky player, 'cause I think he's got a ton of fans and he's gonna be box office with Nasarid and Anthony Edwards this season. So those are the two guys that I'm certainly most interested in watching. - Yeah, I stole Calscher from Rod. Anyone else? Rod? - Yeah, no, so I do wanna see, I mean, honestly, my number one is Rob Dillingham. Like I wanna see what they say about him. How does he play, you know, is he playing within the scheme? Is he a one-on-one guy? 'Cause at the end of the day, and I love it, I forgot the quote. I don't know if it was Kyrie Irving or Jason Kidd, but they said a lot of people can play within certain schemes and certain offenses, but they're only a handful of guys that you can say, clear it out one-on-one, let's see what you got. Now, I don't know if you guys remember the old KG clip and the way Kyrie actually talked about the USA team, we're back in the day, it was always, who can beat who the most one-on-one? 'Cause that's what we're gonna need in a national game, the way it's structured. Well, we saw Kevin Garnett kind of take all those guys to the woodshed with his size and his ball handling. I wanna see what Rob Dillingham does, because in the summer league, you get a lot of that. Like if you watch some of the Bronny highlights, he had one-on-one opportunities, he just didn't make a lot of them, but he had a couple where, of course they're gonna show the highlights, we cross the guy over, does his little side step, guy falls, he knocks down a jumper. There's gonna be a lot of opportunities like that, like that for Rob Dillingham, because one other teams in summer league, 'cause I mean, Sam, you remember, we had James Theus on the show, he's down the worker for Junior NBA, down in Vegas, and he talked about the one-on-one ability, a lot of these guys, and the coaches wanna see, are you a one-on-one on-ball defender? 'Cause I can't always send help your way, and so that's what I wanna see, I wanna see both sides, I wanna see Rob Dillingham guarding guys, and I wanna see him, can he just absolutely do what he did at Kentucky, we just control the floor. And I wasn't gonna say this out loud, but I am interested in Tyler Wall, like I know he went to Wisconsin, but he's graduated so we can move on now, but I do wanna see Tyler Wall, 'cause with his size, and I hate to say it was, constant guys do play a smart level of basketball, who knows what he, I mean, he's probably gonna be a Glee guy, but you know, or can he make the Glee, but you know, can he be a guy that works back at 6'9, you know, and becomes just another piece on this team, to be a 10th guy maybe in two or three years, I wanna see what Tyler Wall can do. - Yep, that's a good point. Well, one of us is gonna have a better week than the rest, because only one of us is going to Vegas, and it is the Duke. So-- - I'm watching softball all week, so I don't know about that. I'm gonna be in Missouri watching softball. - Vegas, softball in Missouri, pretty tight, so-- - A lot of people are in the other way, two places that are really not hot in the summer. - Ozarks. - We're going to the Ozarks, oh yeah. - We're out for Marty Bird. - I know, I'm looking for him. I'm trying to figure out where the money's hidden. - I did just wanna say Calshare did play last year, some spots dense with the Iowa wolves, so-- - Yeah, I saw that. - You know, he at least knows the system, sounds like he's gonna give minutes. Deshawn Nyx also has been brought up quite a bit in the practices of him getting a good shot at and a good crack at it, whether he makes the roster or not. - Yeah, those would be sort of the so-called veterans on the roster. Duke, what's your poison? If you sneak away at 1 a.m., you go down to the casino floor, is it the slots, is it baccarat, blackjack, craps, what are you playing? - Gambling days were behind me, blackjack, if I have to choose. I'm gonna be honest, I, before the whole journalism thing, my wife and I would go to Vegas for about a weekend, long weekend to go watch all the shows. Cirque du Soleil, Michael Jackson's dope. The other Cirque shows are great, Blue Man Group, a lot of good food, a lot of good comedy down there. So, even if you're not a game-- - Way to the Mountley Slots, the Monopoly Slots, the Mountley Slots-- - The Mountley Slots. - They've always been good to me. They've always been good to me. 'Cause you get a bonus pool, and then when you get that bonus pool, it's like if you can hit go or not. So it's either Monopoly or Jeopardy. I gotta look up and see which one it was. It might be Jeopardy though, but one of 'em you get that bonus pool. Oh no, it's the Price is Right. You get the bonus pool. So those, like Price is Right, Monopoly Jeopardy, like those slots, every year I go, I've always gotten lucky with those. - Guaranteed profit, I hear. - Red 19, Red 19 too. (all laughing) - Red 19 made me and my friends probably a collective three grand and we're in Vegas a couple years ago. - Oh my goodness. I mean, Instagram shows me-- - Five times, half hours, man. - There's some foolproof roulette strategies out there can't possibly lose. Please don't listen to us too. Have a good time in Vegas. - Just stay in the lobby and say, who let the dogs out? - I appreciate y'all. - Yeah, there you go. Thank you for joining us. - 'Cause you've read the logos out. - Anytime, it's always a blast coming out here. You bet, check out his work at Zoned Coverage, Jack Borman from our postcast, formerly Candace Hoopis and Ron Johnson, host of the Ron Johnson Show. I'm Sam X from Thanks for watching and listening on the Lockdown Wolves podcast feed. Talk to you next week. - I love sports. I love them so much. I never want them to stop. But as the playoffs wind down, we get fewer games and the sports aren't sporting like I want them to. But Fandall lets me keep the sports going whenever I want. All I have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime I'm in the mood. In this summer, Fandall is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone every day all summer long. So head over to Fandall.com/lockdown and start making the most out of your summer. Fandall, official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. - Hey, every dayers, NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team. Locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the offseason. With quick-hitting 30-minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA. Make Locked on NBA your second listen and stay caught up on the biggest off-season storylines and free agency signings every day. Available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.
The Minnesota Timberwolves seem to be done with the majority of their offseason activity, so how are things looking as they come out the other side? Plus, Anthony Edwards is set to shine for Team USA.
