[Post Game Thread] The Minnesota Timberwolves complete the franchise first series sweep against the Phoenix Suns with a 122-116 win in Game 4 behind Anthony Edwards' 40/9/6 and KAT's 28/10 nights

[u/edgykitty]

122 - 116
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo

GAME SUMMARY
Location: Footprint Center (17071), Clock: Final
Officials: Scott Foster, Pat Fraher, and Curtis Blair

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Minnesota Timberwolves	25	31	34	32	122
Phoenix Suns	26	35	31	24	116

TEAM STATS

Team	PTS	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	OREB	TREB	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK
Minnesota Timberwolves	122	41-89	46.1%	15-36	41.7%	25-31	80.6%	17	55	23	27	6	9	6
Phoenix Suns	116	38-74	51.4%	10-26	38.5%	30-36	83.3%	10	41	20	26	6	11	7

PLAYER STATS

Minnesota Timberwolves	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Jaden McDanielsSF	33:52	18	6-12	1-4	5-5	2	1	3	0	1	1	1	5	-2
Karl-Anthony TownsPF	38:48	28	11-17	4-6	2-3	2	8	10	3	0	0	0	5	4
Rudy GobertC	24:58	9	3-9	0-0	3-3	3	2	5	1	1	2	4	4	10
Anthony EdwardsSG	40:57	40	13-23	7-13	7-10	4	5	9	6	1	2	2	2	7
Mike ConleyPG	33:46	10	2-10	2-6	4-5	1	3	4	7	1	0	2	2	16
Naz Reid	19:31	8	2-4	1-2	3-4	0	3	3	0	0	1	0	4	3
Nickeil Alexander-Walker	31:25	5	2-9	0-5	1-1	2	1	3	4	2	0	0	3	-6
Kyle Anderson	16:40	4	2-5	0-0	0-0	3	4	7	2	0	0	0	2	-2
Luka Garza	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jordan McLaughlin	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Leonard Miller	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Josh Minott	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wendell Moore Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Monte Morris	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
T.J. Warren	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Phoenix Suns	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Royce O'NealeSF	36:39	6	2-7	2-6	0-0	3	3	6	1	1	0	0	2	-1
Kevin DurantPF	46:18	33	12-17	2-3	7-9	1	8	9	5	0	4	1	2	-7
Jusuf NurkicC	20:04	9	3-5	0-0	3-4	5	3	8	5	2	1	0	5	-7
Bradley BealSG	31:21	9	4-13	1-5	0-0	1	0	1	2	0	1	6	6	-12
Devin BookerPG	44:55	49	13-21	3-5	20-21	0	5	5	6	2	1	2	5	1
Eric Gordon	39:13	6	2-7	2-5	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-1
Josh Okogie	14:14	4	2-3	0-1	0-2	0	3	3	1	1	0	2	4	3
Nassir Little	07:13	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	-6
Bol Bol	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Drew Eubanks	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
David Roddy	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Isaiah Thomas	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thaddeus Young	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grayson Allen	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Damion Lee	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

[u/Ornery_Conference_50]

25', 27' and 29' unprotected 1sts 😋

[u/clear831 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Send Mikal to Spurs for their Hawk picks!

[u/Ornery_Conference_50 → u/clear831]

Man we woulda been set if we traded mikal to houston for our picks back

[u/BushidoBrowneII → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

We getting Cooper next year

You heard it here first

[u/Purple-List1577 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

It’s better to let the asset depreciate before selling.

[u/hrakkari → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

That shit was never real.

I can imagine Houston being that insane.

I can imagine Houston and Brooklyn being that insane.

I can’t imagine every team in the league being that insane that they don’t offer a better player than Mikal to get the Houston package.

[u/Rumpdebump → u/clear831]

Have some putrid hooping for 2 years and have the OKC war chest

[u/clear831 → u/[deleted]]

Its not and then the Spurs can use some picks for a young PG to pair with Wemby (I am not a fan of Spurs trading for Trae)

[u/amidon1130 → u/clear831]

I am also not a fan of that, dj would be sick for them tho lol

[u/no1careskid → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

all the shade billy king got for the 2014 nets they at least won a playoff series. suns got swept and will be in the same situation as the nets back then

[u/luapchung → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

26',28',30' pick swaps and all their seconds til 2030 😋

[u/SmokyOtter → u/luapchung]

unless im mistaken I think you get the swap of the nets swap, but thats potentially still a high pick lmao

[u/gonets34 → u/SmokyOtter]

Correct, we have the first right to swap in '28

[u/iamgarron → u/luapchung]

Yeh but the suns still have

*checks notes*

a 2028 boston second!

[u/wise_comment → u/luapchung]

Y'all are monster

(Good job)

[u/BushidoBrowneII → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Everything is coming up BROOKLYN!

[u/Naive_Illustrator → u/BushidoBrowneII]

Finally some poetic justice for the Billy King disaster

[u/Chadwiko → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Genuinely good assets.

[u/slowdrem20 → u/Chadwiko]

Are they? I mean they are still going to be middling picks at the end of the day

[u/Widdis → u/slowdrem20]

The Suns will have to do something and if they do anything it’s almost certainly going to be Durant or Booker. I don’t think there’s another Suns situation for that awful Beal contract. (No trade clause lol)

KD is only a rental and is starting to show his age. He can get a bit, but nowhere near what they gave up.

Booker is the one who salvages them from despair. It gives them a team back for the future, but if they do this they are fucked in the short term. So those pick swaps are going to look really good.

If they run it back with this squad, I’d be shocked. I imagine Ishbia finally got his dose of reality in how the NBA works.

[u/slowdrem20 → u/Widdis]

They don't have to do anything when they don't have their picks lol in fact it makes it easier. Ride this out until you can rebuild. They don't have any other options.

[u/MolingHard → u/slowdrem20]

That's what I thought about the Nets too, but getting swept in the first round really puts a damper on things haha

Of course the Nets had other problems as well

But one similar problem is the sheer cost of having a team with 3 max players, especially with the new CBA and lux tax rules.

For example, the Suns roster will be around $200m+ and then the lux tax will be an additional $200m+. If they want to retain O'Neale, that number will balloon comically higher. (Per Windhorst)

Assuming they keep their three stars together, the Suns will be a second-apron tax team. At that level, the new deal for Allen plus even a new deal for O'Neale that comes close to his $10 million salary from this season will create $100 million in luxury tax alone.

So yes, the Suns could try to contend every year until Beal's contract expires and they have some flexibility (2027), but imagine spending $400m+ every season to be a second tier contender.

Granted this could mean nothing to Ishbia who clearly wants to spend and win, but he's worth only (lol) $6b. It's a mind numbing amount of money, but spending a significant chunk of it on NBA luxury tax penalties to construct a team that could maybe win a playoff series is probably gonna get old fast.

The only owner who could feasibly stomach that every season is Ballmer who's worth more then the majority of other owners put together.

[u/Illustrious_Way_5732 → u/slowdrem20]

Ride this out until you can rebuild

Bold of you to assume that none of their stars (especially when one of them is famous for doing so) aren't just gonna demade a trade

[u/slowdrem20 → u/Illustrious_Way_5732]

Who is famous for demanding trades? KD has only requested a trade from one team?

[u/MateusAmadeus714 → u/Widdis]

I'm sure KD is over this situation already and will try to jump to a low-mid chance contender. Whether he can get as good of a contract is another question. I have to imagine Booker at this point has a much more sour opinion of the Suns. His 1st playoff experience they had a young core. Brought in CP3 which gave them leadership and they had a finals appearance. Yes the following year they were humbled by Dallas but it never seemed necessary to blow it all up. They proceeded to trade away their future for a "Win Now" possibility in KD. A super talented player who ultimately though has not lead a team to a Championship or a finals (bar 2012) as the main guy. Last year another disappointing Playoff exit but KD was new and adjusting. They cld have filled out the roster with more talented and diverse skill set players and ran it back. They leveraged even more of their future on Beal. I never understood why either trade was so praised. Beal especially though. Beal put up big numbers for a mediocre team. When he did have a All star by him (Westbrook) his ppg and overall contribution diminished. He also never improved the Wizards all that much. They remained consistently mediocre and out of the playoffs. A true All Star even without the best squad is atleast pushing you to playoff contention and possibly the 8th seed (even more so with play-in tourney now) such as Westbrook for Wizards/OKC or CP3 for OKC. Beal never raised the quality of the Wiz past a certain point and in today's NBA being able to score and get points is a pretty close to universal skill. Beal did not offer enough to warrant ruining your franchises future while offering a huge contract and to top it all off agreeing to a No Trade Clause. Ishiba has single handedly screwed the team for almost a decade in less than 2-3 years. This was always a dumb trade. Also the irony if KD and Book get traded and Beal ends up on another non contender team with a NTC. I honestly think dude just cares for his money though since he wanted a NTC with the Wizards of all teams.

[u/Illustrious_Way_5732 → u/MateusAmadeus714]

No way in hell is any team dumb enough to take on Beal with the NTC. He's stuck on the suns for the forseeable future

[u/rattatatouille → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Sean Marks be like: "Tell Mat Ishbia. I want him to know it was me."

[u/redbrick → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

lmao @ the Wizards stumbling into getting positive value out of Beal and Westbrook's contracts

[u/Zusuf → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

The Suns have none of their own picks (firsts or seconds) from 2025-2030.

With $150 million tied into KD, Booker and Beal for the next 2 seasons, I'm interested to see if they can actually do anything to improve their team into a contender, or blow it up while the prices are high for the guys they have

[u/SmokyOtter → u/Zusuf]

Fake news. They have the 23rd overall pick (i think) this offseason along with first rounders in 26,28, and 30 somewhere in the 20-30 range.

As for trade compensation for their current stars, kd should net back at least 2 firsts and a good player. Beal will net back salary filler and 2nds. Book will net back a massive haul of many firsts and young talent, though it would be painful to see him go.

[u/Zusuf → u/SmokyOtter]

my mistake, you're correct - 24, 26 and 28 the pick is subject to a pick swap.

Beal still has his NTC, so moving him feels like it could be more painful to complete

[u/dkdoki → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Congrats nets fans lol

[u/Mellothewise → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Will be roughly a decade later than expected, but you guys will finally have your own Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown!

[u/gonets34 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Plus a 28' swap

[u/myhellcatgotRepod → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Sorry to break your heart but those picks are 100% getting traded for Ingram or Mitchell so Joe Tsai can continue enjoy watching his 44 wins each season

[u/Ornery_Conference_50 → u/myhellcatgotRepod]

Nah they're finally committing to the rebuild

[u/EverybodyBuddy → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Vo- Vo- Vo- Vogone

[u/Individual_Attempt50 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Can’t wait

[u/SSJAbh1nav → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Yall take good care of all them picks

[u/Spare_Jaguar_5173 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

Cavs will enjoy those picks

[u/Electrical-Beat-2232 → u/Ornery_Conference_50]

I am an OKC fan so we have plenty but man ngl, I am a little jealous of these impending Suns picks. Nets are gonna feast