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Why Anthony Edwards's ESPN Player Rank Fell | More Minnesota Timberwolves Pre-Camp Roster Moves

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Why Anthony Edwards's ESPN Player Rank Fell | More Minnesota Timberwolves Pre-Camp Roster Moves

The episode begins with host Ben Beeck analyzing Anthony Edwards' drop from sixth to seventh in ESPN's Top 100 player rankings. Beeck argues that while Brunson passing Edwards is defensible, Giannis Antetokounmpo ranking ahead of him is questionable given Giannis' injury history and Edwards' superior durability. Beeck attributes Edwards' ranking decline primarily to stagnation last season, when his assist rate fell to its lowest since his rookie year and his defense regressed due to an expanded offensive role. He predicts a monster season ahead for Edwards now that LaMelo Ball's arrival will allow him to play off the ball more. The show then covers the Timberwolves' training camp roster moves. Minnesota signed several Exhibit 10 players, including summer league standout Nate Santos and former Iowa Hawkeye Peyton Sandfort, who will likely join the Iowa Wolves. The Wolves also added Antonio Reeves on a non-guaranteed camp deal; Reeves is a proven G League shooter with good positional size. Beeck speculates that Enrique Freeman's two-way spot could be vulnerable if Santos or Reeves impress in camp. Finally, Beeck praises the Timberwolves' new broadcast team, which includes national voices Kevin Calabro and John Schambi alongside Michael Grady, Alan Horton, and analyst Jim Peterson.

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Why Anthony Edwards fell by one spot in this year's ESPN Top 100 Player Rankings, plus more roster moves for the Wolves ahead of training camp, next. You are Locked On Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Wolves podcast. My name is Ben Beek and I'm the host of the daily Locked On Wolves show. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel Rewards Club. Every week, check the FanDuel app to see what's waiting for you. Happy Friday, everybody. Happy weekend. A lot to get to here today. A little bit later, I want to talk about the training camp moves the Wolves are making. I also, this isn't on the graphic here on YouTube because I saw it right before I hit record, but the Timberwolves have a new broadcast group that, yes, it still includes Jim Peterson, but like a legit. It's an all-star group that's part of the Timberwolves broadcast. Now, we'll talk about that a little bit later, too. We'll talk about all those training camp moves, but I want to start with ESPN's Top 100 player rank. We talked about this a little earlier in the week in the context of all the non-Ants players in the Top 100, so where Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, Lomelo Ball, and then also some recent former Wolves. I have to see moves on the list, but then also Nas Reed, Carl Anthony Towns. We did that, I think, on Wednesday's show. It might have been Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I also mentioned that we're coming up with a Locked On NBA Top 100, just like we did last year. This year's list should be out very soon. We've started releasing it with some Locked On NBA shows, but I'll have it here on this show probably early next week. The ESPN list is out, so I want to talk about where Anthony Edwards is on that list, where I had him ranked. When I did this exercise, I submitted my rankings for Locked On. I had Anthony Edwards number five on my list. On ESPN's list, he's ranked number seven. On my list, the way I had my top, I'll just give you my top seven, the way I have them listed out. I have SGA number one. I had Nikola Jokic number two. Wemby number three. Luka Doncic four. I had Ant five. Jalen Brunson six. And Giannis Antetokounmpo seven on my list. The ESPN list is a little bit different. Jokic one, Wemby two. SGA down at three. They've got Luka at four, which is where I have him. And then they've got Giannis five, Jalen Brunson six, and Ant at seven. I can get behind both of those. However, it's even stated in the description of this article. And I'm going to start here with kind of the guys in front of Ant before I get to really why I think Ant is a little bit lower. Giannis still being ahead of Ant is a little bit tough for me. It's even mentioned in the description of this, of the article and how they come to it, or how they come to the, or how they, I guess, that's the word I'm looking for, the parameters with which they create this list at ESPN. Is predict, predicted contributions, quality and quantity. Okay. The panel was asked to rank players based on predicted contributions, quality and quantity, which tells me durability matters for this list. And I don't understand why Giannis would be at number five then. And sure enough, and I get that it was a little, it's not that fluky though. He's had calf injuries for a while now, but the first sentence of the write-up on Giannis is Antetokounmpo continued to put up MVP caliber numbers last season, but didn't finish in the top four. The MVP. For the first time in eight years, because he missed so much time due to injury. So to me, and I know last year's Ant's most banged up year too, but Giannis played in 36 games and Ant played in what, 61 games, I think 62 games. So I think the 25 extra games should matter. And given the age and the likelihood that Ant continues to improve this year and Giannis doesn't, he's on the wrong side of 30 with some injuries with a new team. That surprises me a little bit. The Brunson ahead of Ant is completely defensible. I think there's an argument to, to say he was better, is better, will be better this year. He is, you know, if we want to factor in age, he's five years older. I think Ant being a superior defender matters. But of course the run that Brunson had with the Knicks to the, to the championship, to the finals and to winning the finals. But also the regular season performance. I mean, I mean, Brunson's just gotten better and better and better. And, you know, obviously Ant's a better outside shooter, but the Brunson mid-range stuff and like what he's able to do to drive that offense really by himself at times. Is significant. So I understand putting Brunson ahead of Ant. The Giannis thing I have a little bit more problem with, more of a problem with. But Ant last year was six on the list. And the reason he fell, of course, was because of Jalen Brunson. Everybody else ahead of him was ahead of him on the list last year. And so like Giannis went down a spot, Luka went down a spot, SGA went down a spot, and Wemby jumped up three spots from five. Remember last year on their list, Wemby was five, Ant was six. And I had an issue with that last year. I had Wemby six, Ant five last year. I have Wemby ahead of Ant right now. I can't argue against that one. The Brunson one I would argue against. The Giannis one I think is wrong. I think Ant should be ahead of Giannis on this list. But the biggest reason, besides the jumps by Brunson and also Wemby up the list a little bit higher, is that Ant, for the most part, stagnated last year. And we'll talk more about this when I actually do a full player preview about Ant here soon in the next week or two. But a lot of what Ant does kind of stagnated because of. Because of the shifting role and because of being forced to play more point guard. And this is talked a little bit in the ESPN write-up as well about Ant. It even acknowledges in the write-up, it says, will he continue to improve as a facilitator? It says, the Timberwolves experiment of using Edwards as a point guard appears to be over after trading for LaMelo Ball this offseason. But it may not get in the way of Edwards' development in this capacity. Last season, he posted his lowest assist rate since he was a rookie. So that's notable because he actually did play more quote-unquote point guard. But the assist rate actually went down. I think part of it was pressing. Part of it was a lot of times the open player wasn't one pass away. The open player was two passes away. So this was his lowest assist rate since his last non-All-Star season. His second year in the league was the last time he had an assist rate below 19%. It was 17.6% this year. We saw the free throw rate go up a little, which is nice. But the three-point rate came down. A lot of it was the double teams. It was trying to get off the ball. And then the ball didn't get back to him enough, which is partly. It's not entirely his fault. It's partly the players around him and how the Wolves' offense was functioning and how slow they played at times, too. We did see the true shooting percentage go up. We saw the three-point percentage improve marginally. But again, he shot 300 less threes volume-wise because he played in 18 less games. It's the biggest reason. But the three-point rate itself dipped, too. Free throw rate was up, but because he played less games. And actually, the percentage was down 4% at the free throw line. This was his lowest free throw percentage in three years. Still 80%. Yeah, the volume-based numbers across the 61 games he played did go up. Like, he scored 1.2 more points per game. We did see the assist and rebound rates go down. But the. Excuse me. Well, yeah, assist and rebound per game numbers go down. And we saw the shooting go up, both two-point and three-point, which is great. But the shot mix and the lack of true facilitation, I think it wasn't that he was worse last year. It was that he made a pretty big jump from age 22 to age 23, from the first Western Conference final season to the second one. In my opinion, I thought he got significantly better, from that 23-24 year to the 24-25 year. The jump from 24-25 to last year, there wasn't really a jump. It was more of a stagnation as he tried to add to his game. And I thought the defense slipped a little bit, too. And in large part, as we've talked about on the show, I think that was because he was being asked to do so much on the offensive end. And I think that that really impacted the amount of effort and energy he was able to put into the defense, both on and off the ball, frankly. So that was, to me, that was an issue this year. I thought the defense. The defense regressed a little. The offense stagnated. And even though he played differently, I don't think he played better. Now, I think that completely changes this year. I think he's in for a monster year. And I'll do some more prediction-type stuff here as we move forward. I mean, we're less than a month away from the start of the regular season, believe it or not. But he's going to get so many more catch-and-shoot three-point opportunities playing off the ball with Lomelo. And he'll get a lot more assist opportunities if Lomelo is one pass away. First of all, he'll have more scoring opportunities against one defender instead of two-and-a-half defenders when teams would load up against him. And now they wanted the ability to do that. And then if they do, Lomelo is one pass away, and you may get the assist. Or, you know, you still get some hockey assists in there with the driving kick from Lomelo to a teammate off of the initial pass from Anthony Edwards. So I think he's in for a big, big year this year. And I think he dropped in this ranking by one spot because he stagnated and guys like Brunson and Wemby both improved. Now, again, I think it's going to be a big year this year. I really do. I think Ant's going to have a monster season. Okay, what I want to do next, we'll touch on. We'll touch on the TV stuff next because I think that's pretty interesting. And then we'll get into some of the training camp additions. The Wolves made a couple more moves that will impact the Iowa Wolves more than the actual camp and the Timberwolves. But then they also did make an addition to the training camp roster, a player we've not talked about before who just got added in the last day or so. Very interested to talk about him, to dive in on what he could bring to the table. And does he even have a shot at making the roster this year for the Wolves? We'll talk about all that here next. Today's episode of Locked Out Wolves is brought to us by our friends at Odoo. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odoo comes in. Odoo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform. 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Some of the players in the ownership group have been the same over the last few years, but their hiring of Tim Connolly, aggressiveness, doing that, keeping on Chris Finch, who had been hired by Gerson Rosas in the previous front office, and this ownership group was still in charge at that time with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Laurie, who I know is now a minority owner, but they've just kind of had this steady hand and kept everybody pulling on the same side of the rope, and that really matters. Great organizations, and yes, the Timberwolves are now a great organization. Great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get Odoo. Try it for free today at odoo.com slash lockdown. That's Odoo, O-D-O-O dot com slash lockdown. Today's episode of Lockdown Wolves is also brought to us by our friends at FanDuel. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever, only on FanDuel. How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring. More rewarding than an 18-point comeback. Maybe even more rewarding than an O-lineman catching a touchdown. Maybe. This season, FanDuel's making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all-new FanDuel Rewards Club, featuring exclusive offers, surprises, and more. Of course, lots of football coming up this weekend. Every week, you can check the FanDuel app to see what's waiting for you. This Sunday, I got some interesting football games. Thursday night football was pretty anticlimactic, I would say. Like Texans at Colts, that's interesting to me. Texans are only favored by one and a half. I like the Texans in that game. Chiefs at Dolphins. Chiefs are only favored by 10 and a half. I say only, but that feels like a two-touchdown win to me. The Vikings are at the Bucs. It's one of the late-afternoon window games on Sunday, and they're favored by one and a half at Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. Go there, check out all the games for this weekend. Visit FanDuel.com to get started today. Again, that's FanDuel.com to get started today. A reminder about the Everyday Air Club. You can sign up to get ad-free episodes of the show. You can sign up to get ad-free episodes of the Locked On Wolves, plus access to the Discord channel where they're talking about the Wolves on a daily basis. Go to LockedOnWolves.Supercast.com. Again, LockedOnWolves.Supercast.com to become an Everyday Air Club member and get those ad-free audio episodes. That's LockedOnWolves at Supercast.com. All right. So real quickly, on the TV front, this is fascinating. Just came through this afternoon or this morning, I guess, on Friday. We know who the on-air talent's going to be for the Wolves. We knew that Michael Grady wasn't going to call, you know, any more games than he did last year because of the national TV duties. And he, I think, called less than half of them last year. And last year, Alan Horton called the rest of them, but he's great on the radio and the Wolves wanted to get him back to the radio. So what do we have now? We have legitimately an all-star crew. In addition to Michael Grady, who's fantastic and now a national voice, the Timberwolves have two other national voices joining the broadcast. Kevin Calabro, who primarily has done local games for Portland and before that, of course, Portland's new owner doing the stuff that Portland's new owner has been doing and cutting costs here and there and parted ways with Calabro just a few weeks ago. And I remember like he called, it wasn't NBA Live, but it was a video game like Inside Drive or something from the late 90s that he was the voice on. And like just watching late night Sonics, Wolves Sonics games occasionally growing up. And then also the, you know, on League Pass with Portland. Calabro's fantastic. And he's going to call some games. We don't know how many, we don't know what the mix is going to be. And then John Shambi, also known as Boog Shambi, who's a national TV voice primarily for baseball for ESPN, calls Chicago Cubs home games. He's going to be calling Timberwolves basketball games this year. I believe he calls some college basketball occasionally or had. And so now between Calabro, Shambi and Grady, and also Alan Horton, who's primarily going to do radio, but based on the release from the Timberwolves, it looks like he'll also call some TV here and there. I mean, that's an incredible quartet. And Jim Peterson is still the primary analyst that appears as though he'll be at every game. Megan McPeak is the new sideline reporter, and she's really good too. She's done some Wizards games. She's actually done, I think, both play-by-play and maybe also some analyst stuff as well. So she's a good name too. And I've liked what I've seen from her. And then the studio, you know, very similar, you know, Marnie Gellner, who of course, fantastic, used to be on our postcast occasionally, or actually one whole season, she did our postcast with us. Megan McPeak is going to do road games. Jim Peterson, an analyst there, Rebecca Brunson still. And then Parker Fox, our own Parker Fox here at Lockdown Wolves. He does the squad show once or twice, once, once a week during the summer, twice a week during the season, he's on the squad show with, with Jack Borman and Julia, and also Sam Ekstrom and yours truly occasionally as well on that, on that show. So Tuesday, Thursday squad shows right now, we're just doing Tuesdays, but I think we go back to twice a week in October. And Parker's fantastic. So really cool. And I know he's been doing big 10 network stuff for a little while, but to have him on Wolves games is going to be really cool to have another Lockdown Wolves connection there on the broadcast. So congrats to all of them. And awesome that the Wolves are going to have like guys that like we've seen announced games nationally, you know, for years and for other teams as well. Like that's a really great group. So really exciting stuff there. Okay. I want to talk about some of these moves that Timberwolves made in advance of training camp. We talked earlier in the week about all these other players that they've added, who they signed and then waived. And if you missed it, I'll give the like 20 second, what the Wolves are doing is they're signing these guys and waving them. And then they are able to offer them an example of what they're doing. So we're going to talk about some of these moves that an exhibit 10 contract, which then allows them to go play for the G-League Iowa Wolves. If they stick with the G-League Iowa Wolves for four, I think it's 60 days, they get a $91,000 bonus on top of their base salary in the G-League. So it allows the Wolves to basically guarantee themselves, these guys on their Iowa Wolves roster. They are not part of the training camp rosters, my understanding. So I don't believe they're going to be able to participate in camp, but they're within the organization now. And, and we'll get to, you know, the Wolves know that they'll have them with the Iowa Wolves with virtual certainty. So guys, we talked about earlier that they're going to be able to participate in camp, but they're within the this week, Jalen Crutcher, Stevie Thompson, Jr. Jules Bernard. Bernard is the one of the three that has been around and played on the Iowa Wolves last year has been on the Wolves summer league team. And then they, they made two more announcements. One's a new player. One, somebody who's been around. The one that's been around is Nate Santos. Of course, probably the story, I would say the, the standout of Las Vegas summer league this year for the Timberwolves was Nate Santos. Really, really good movement shooter, a solid three and D guy who can guard multiple positions. Really, really good movement shooter. And then they made two more announcements that's his game is he's kind of a forward who can guard, you know, three, some two, some fours and be really a knockdown shooter and just looked pure from outside the arc during, during summer league. So I've been speculating on this show. Is there a chance he wins a two-way spot? And I know the Wolves two ways are full right now with Rocco Zakarsky, Enrique Freeman, Zion Pullen, but could Santos take one of those spots? We saw that last year post-training camp, Tristan Newton lost his two-way spot. The Wolves gave it to Johnny Juzang who was in camp on a camp deal. Juzang apparently outplayed Newton in training camp. I thought, I thought he did that. I thought he did that. I look better in the preseason games we saw. Um, and they released Newton and they elevated at the time. Um, uh, I lost my train of thought. They, if they wave Newton at the time that Johnny Juzang to the two-way deal. And then of course, Juzang in February ended up having to be released because he used the maximum number of games. He could be active, um, at the NBA level. So, you know, that's, that's the movement that we saw late post-training camp last year after following the preseason. Could we see that again this year? Um, with some of the, uh, the, uh, the like a Santos who I think is fantastic. There is like, they don't have that many guys of that size on the roster. Like he's kind of in the realm of a TJ Shannon size where you could play some small ball four. He could play some three. He's a good enough shooter. You could put him out there with some guards, uh, or he could function as a guard because he's a good enough shooter. Um, so I think that's pretty intriguing. Um, and then the other guy that they added on an exhibit 10, which again means he's almost virtually assured to be with the G league team would be, um, would be, uh, big 10 fan. If you're a gopher's fan, you may have, uh, heard of Peyton Sanford. He played four years for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He was a, um, I believe he went undrafted or did he get drafted? Yeah. He went undrafted and then, um, ended up playing in a few games for Oklahoma city, actually got into four regular season games, but then played in with their G league team for 20 games last year. Uh, he was a, on a two-way deal. Um, okay. So he signed to an exhibit 10 at the beginning of the year, and then they waived him and he was in the G league with them. And then they signed him to an exhibit 10 at the beginning of the year. And then they waved him and he was in the G league. And then they signed him. They elevated him to a two-way deal in March and he finished the season with OKC again, appeared in just four regular season games for the thunder. And then in the G league, uh, played pretty well. I mean, he averaged what 11 points a game shot 34% from three, six rebounds per game. Um, his profile, he's actually similar size. There's actually quite a few similarities between Santos and Sanford. In my opinion, um, Sanford is, is six foot seven. He's got a, uh, a wingspan of six, eight. So, you know, a moderately modestly wingspan. He's got maybe a better reputation as a shooter than the results actually show because the shot looks so good. And that was just what he did at Iowa was like more than half of his shots were threes. Um, like well over half of his shots were threes, but he was only, he was a shade under 36% for his career at Iowa from outside the arc in part, cause the volume was so high. He was 34% as a senior. And for a guy whose reputation is a shooter, you gotta be able to shoot league average. And he wasn't even 36% over four years in college. So the shooting skill needs to improve a little bit. If he's actually going to stick in the league, or even in the G league, frankly, um, you know, because he mostly shoots threes, he doesn't get to the line very often. He's a great free throw shooter, but it doesn't really matter if you don't get there. So I think as a movement shooter in the flow of the offense, there's, you know, maybe it's, I don't know this, but maybe there's a thought process that maybe Santos gets elevated and we end up with Santos on a two way. And then, you know, Sanford can play the Santos role role with the Iowa wolves and kind of fill that backfill that type of position. But I just don't think he's a viable NBA guy because the shooting is not to where it needs to be. And he's, he's not a great athlete and, and, or, you know, he's fine defensively. I think he's probably a better rebounder than people give him credit for. You look at the rebound rate, both at Iowa and in the G League with, uh, with the OKC blue last year. I actually think Peyton Sanford can rebound a little bit. So, um, I think that's interesting, but I don't think he's a viable NBA guy. The other one, um, well, actually we'll do that. So he's the other exhibit 10 guy. They did make one other signing, and this is a player who is on an actual camp deal. So he'll be in camp with Minnesota, a non-guaranteed camp deal, like what Johnny Juzang was on last year. And we'll talk about Antonio Reeves, what he brings to the table here next as we close out today's show. The problem of finding clothes that you can live in all day, be comfortable and do whatever you need to do, whether it's just chilling, going to meetings, playing golf, being on the move. That problem has been solved by Cozy Earth. The everyday polo is the answer. 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And he spent a year with the Pelicans, played in 44 games for them two seasons ago. Last year, went to Charlotte and actually ended up signing a two-way deal with the Hornets, spent all of last year on a two-way with Charlotte. So was on the Pelicans roster for the majority of the season two years ago as a rookie, then last year on a two-way deal with the Hornets. And so he only played in nine G League games that year he was with New Orleans because he also played in, what did I say, 44 NBA games, started six. And then last year, again, the 10 games of the Hornets, he spent $20,000 on a two-way deal with the Hornets. Regular season games with the Greensboro team. That is their, their G League club overall in the G League. So 37 regular season games over two seasons, 18 and a half points per game shot, almost 41% from three that includes 38% last season. Mostly advanced stuff is just okay. Like roughly half his shots are three point shots. I mean, that's, that's what he does. He doesn't really rebound a whole lot. I should also say he's a shooting guard. He's a six, five shooting guard. Wingspan is, is, is fine. It's a six, eight. So good wingspan, good size, not a great athlete, which is probably why he ended up, he started his career at Illinois state in college, played three years at Illinois state, transferred to Kentucky and played two years there. And so ended up at a, you know, a blue blood program, but the lack of athleticism is certainly part of why it took him, you know, he had to play three years at Illinois state first. And that was really good. Like at Kentucky, his senior year, he, he scored 20 points a game at Kentucky shot 45% from outside the arc. And so legitimately, I thought a, a, a nice NBA prospect, again, just the athleticism and the defense is just okay, but I don't think he's, he's Swiss cheese defensively. I think he's fine because of the size and the wingspan from what I've seen. Now there's a reason that he was still out there and he's getting a training camp invite and not is not yet on a two way deal or whatever, but the shooting skill is something that you can never have too much of, as we know. And it's something that he's fantastic at again, overall for college, 38% over five years, his first years at Illinois state, he's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great at Illinois state though. He was sub 31%. And then over his final three years, he was 39%, 40%, and then nearly 45% as a senior on almost 200 attempts from outside the arc. So the shooting skill is legit. I mean, he's, and again, 41% or whatever in the G league too, the last couple of years. So the shooting skills legit, the size is very good. He's just not going to do that much else for you. I think as a movement shooter, as a catch and shoot guy, really good. I think there's limits to what he can be defensively because the athleticism and overall though, as a score, like even though roughly half his shots are threes, he's pretty good at attacking closeouts too. You know, again, from what I've seen, I can't claim to have like crunched hours of Antonio Reeves tape, but from the little bit that I saw of him at Kentucky and then, you know, prepping for that draft and then watching back some of the G league stuff attacking closeouts is something that he's decent at. And I think he could like, it seems like he's been a really good G league player. I think there's an outside shot that he could push for potentially a situation like what we just talked about. I think there's last segment that Johnny Juzang did last year. Johnny Juzang played so well in training camp and those practices and into the preseason that he ended up getting offered a two-way spot as, you know, a guy who'd played a few years in the league already. And Chris Finch values that. Whereas somebody like, again, I hate to, you know, I keep bringing this up, but I think Enrique Freeman's two-way spot is probably in danger just given what he did in summer league, which is pretty underwhelming. And I think for the most part, what he did in spot minutes last year, like really spot minutes for the world. And then also, you know, thinking back to last summer, last off season, preseason, like I liked Enrique Freeman as a prospect coming into league, but I just think he doesn't do anything quite well enough, right? Like he's a really good rebounder, but he's undersized. Like he's a good athlete, but he's not quite a great athlete. He can shoot, but he's not a great shooter. And because of his size, he's a little more limited defensively. He's not, you know, a great rim protector in part due to that or in large part due to that. So I just think like you're looking for guys, you know, hang your hat up. And so for like a Nate Santos or an Antonio Reeves, that's shooting like these dudes can shoot. They've got site positional size, right? Like obviously Freeman's bigger, but Freeman is a, a big, right? He's a four. Like that's just what he is. Whereas Reeves is a two Santos is a, a, you know, a three slash four that can maybe place them to like these guys have more positional size and these skills that they can hang their hats on. And I don't necessarily feel that way about Enrique Freeman. So that's again, a spot to keep an eye on. I think Zion pulling was so good in summer league and the wolves are so thin in the backcourt. I'd be surprised if they moved on from pulling and I would be shocked if they moved on from Zakarsky. Remember he signed a two-year two-way deal before last season after he was drafted in the second round. And even though the summer league was a rollercoaster for him, I think, um, that's to be expected for a guy who's, who's as raw as Zakarsky is at the size that he is. There's a lot to learn and there's enough upside there that I'd be, I'd be surprised if the Timberwolves moved on from Zakarsky. So in my mind, the only, unless like Santos and a Reeves, like really impress everybody at, at camp, I think it's most likely that we're going to see if there was a two-way spot to open up, it would probably be Freeman's. That's just me speculating, but we will see. All right. That's all I got for you today. Next week, we're going to get into some player previews. We'll also know at that point, are there more training camp additions? We'll talk about that Monday media day is Monday. So Monday show will probably be more setting the stage for the week and talking about the roster specifically, assuming there's a couple more additions announced between now and then. And then Tuesday we'll be kind of reacting to media day and everything that happens on Monday. It'll be a packed week because then the following week we get right into preseason stuff. September ends next week. Like, man, this is a, it's all coming together here. It's going to happen. So looking forward to that big, thank you for making lockdown wolves, your first listen every single day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube, as well as all of your favorite audio platforms, wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find lockdown wolves reminder that you can sign up to be part of the everyday air club at lockdownwolves.supercast.com. You can add free episodes of lockdown wolves and access to the lockdown wolves discord channel as well. Again, that's lockdownwolves.com. Then wolves.supercast.com to sign up today. Once again, this show is part of the lockdown podcast network, your local experts in all the biggest stories, and now the number one sports podcast network out there. Once again, I'm Ben Beacon. This is the lockdown wolves podcast, and we'll catch you next time.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Anthony Edwards fell one spot to seventh in ESPN's Top 100 player rankings, with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jalen Brunson ahead of him.
  2. The host had Edwards ranked fifth on his own Locked On NBA ballot, behind SGA, Jokic, Wembanyama, and Doncic.
  3. Edwards' stagnation last season, including his lowest assist rate since his rookie year, contributed to the ranking decline.
  4. The Timberwolves added several Exhibit 10 players, including Nate Santos, Peyton Sandfort, Jalen Crutcher, Stevie Thompson Jr., and Jules Bernard, who will likely join the Iowa Wolves.
  5. Minnesota signed Antonio Reeves to a non-guaranteed training camp deal; he is a career 41% three-point shooter in the G League with positional size at shooting guard.
  6. The Timberwolves unveiled a new broadcast team featuring Kevin Calabro, John Schambi, Michael Grady, Alan Horton, and analyst Jim Peterson.
  7. Enrique Freeman's two-way spot could be in jeopardy, with Santos or Reeves potentially pushing for it if they impress in camp.
  8. Media day is Monday, and preseason begins in less than a month.

Summary:

The episode begins with host Ben Beeck analyzing Anthony Edwards' drop from sixth to seventh in ESPN's Top 100 player rankings. Beeck argues that while Brunson passing Edwards is defensible, Giannis Antetokounmpo ranking ahead of him is questionable given Giannis' injury history and Edwards' superior durability. Beeck attributes Edwards' ranking decline primarily to stagnation last season, when his assist rate fell to its lowest since his rookie year and his defense regressed due to an expanded offensive role. He predicts a monster season ahead for Edwards now that LaMelo Ball's arrival will allow him to play off the ball more.

The show then covers the Timberwolves' training camp roster moves. Minnesota signed several Exhibit 10 players, including summer league standout Nate Santos and former Iowa Hawkeye Peyton Sandfort, who will likely join the Iowa Wolves. The Wolves also added Antonio Reeves on a non-guaranteed camp deal; Reeves is a proven G League shooter with good positional size. Beeck speculates that Enrique Freeman's two-way spot could be vulnerable if Santos or Reeves impress in camp. Finally, Beeck praises the Timberwolves' new broadcast team, which includes national voices Kevin Calabro and John Schambi alongside Michael Grady, Alan Horton, and analyst Jim Peterson.

FAQs

Anthony Edwards ranked seventh on ESPN's list. He was ranked sixth the previous year.

He fell because Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama improved, while his own game stagnated, especially as a facilitator, and his defense regressed.

The Timberwolves added Kevin Calabro and John Shambi to their broadcast team. Michael Grady and Alan Horton will also call games.

An Exhibit 10 contract allows a player to join the G-League affiliate and receive a bonus if they stay for a certain period. The Timberwolves used these to secure players for the Iowa Wolves.

They signed Nate Santos and Peyton Sanford to Exhibit 10 contracts. Both are expected to play for the Iowa Wolves.

Antonio Reeves is a shooting guard with NBA experience. He is a strong shooter and provides depth at the wing position.

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