RealGM

First time watching him in game 3 playoffs against the Suns, after much hype I have randomly read online.

His running mechanics, ie. running strides and first-step quickness, reminds me of Jordan. I had read a comment that critiqued his skills as very raw, which I agree.

His game currently reminds me of Dwayne Wade though; I could see his career trajectory similar to Wade.

Is this a fair assessment?

Has a chance at being a better than D Wade, which is crazy. He's only 22 man.

And no, not the Cavs Dean Wade lol.

Tor_Raps wrote:Has a chance at being a better than D Wade, which is crazy. He's only 22 man.

And no, not the Cavs Dean Wade lol.

D Wade had a chance at being a better than D Wade. Injuries stopped him unfortunately.

Aesthetically his game looks a lot like Jordan but production wise, I see him being closer to Peak Wade .

He's got a very good chance at being the best guard in the league for a significant stretch of time. And that time's probably starting soon.

After that, you judge by rings.

He's an incredible athlete with a huge upside who is already a very young all-star and great player has a chance to be in the MVP conversation moving forward.

I thought the same thing about Ja Morant a few years ago though too.

3rd year(Age 22) Ja = 27.4 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 6.7 APG 34.4% from deep and the Grizzlies were #2 seed in the West (56-26)
4th year(Age 22) Ant = 25.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.1 APG 35.7% from deep and the TWolves were #3 seed in the West (56-26)

I can see all NBA first team but hard for me to see an MVP in this guy's future I think. I gotta watch more games of him, but other than the athleticism nothing about his game seems transcendent. Seems like he'll peak at a Tatum-ish level or slightly better. His passing is way better than I thought it would be, and obviously his driving and finishing is as advertised. I dunno, unless he gets a nasty 3 how can someone his size ever win MVP over the bigger point forwards and skilled centers coming into the league.

Him, Paulo, and Barnes will compete on who the next best perimeter player in the league will be.

He's shaping up to be a better version of Kobe. Still not a top 5 player, but he might get there.

Thaddy wrote:Him, Paulo, and Barnes will compete on who the next best perimeter player in the league will be.

Is Luka ruled out? I hope that at some point he realizes that he should take better care of his body and in terms of talent I will choose him

Astaluego wrote:

Thaddy wrote:Him, Paulo, and Barnes will compete on who the next best perimeter player in the league will be.

Is Luka ruled out? I hope that at some point he realizes that he should take better care of his body and in terms of talent I will choose him

Yeah and after Luka, SGA still ahead of those folks.

I actually think I’d take Jalen Williams over those players too. He’s less athletically gifted but he also has no holes in his game really and is a better two way player than them at the moment. He’s also very mature and that’s currently Ant’s greatest weakness.

Thaddy wrote:Him, Paulo, and Barnes will compete on who the next best perimeter player in the league will be.

Harrison Barnes has a better chance than the other Barnes lol

Sent from my SM-G990B2 using RealGM mobile app

He isn’t offensive hub like Doncic/Lebron/Jokic. More like Wade/Durant/Tatum/Kawhi attacking mode. So his potential is around 4-8th man in the league.

wablty wrote:He's got a very good chance at being the best guard in the league for a significant stretch of time. And that time's probably starting soon.

After that, you judge by rings.

I don’t think he can’t be better than Doncic/SGA maybe at best on the same level, but I doubt.

SpreeS wrote:

wablty wrote:He's got a very good chance at being the best guard in the league for a significant stretch of time. And that time's probably starting soon.

After that, you judge by rings.

I don’t think he can’t be better than Doncic/SGA maybe at best on the same level, but I doubt.

He'll probably never be the creator that Luka or Jokic are, but he can create. And he's also a really good perimeter defender. IMO he's well ahead of where SGA was at the same stage and catching up every year. They're all the cream of the crop though. There's no "nah, this guy sucks" argument. It's just SGA and Luka are 25, and ANT's 22.

TBH I think Tatum is a fair ceiling at this point. To date, he's yet to have a truly elite volume scoring performance, even in this era; he averaged 26/5/4 on 57 TS% this year. He seems to rise during the playoffs, but I don't see anywhere near the all-around playmaking IQ of a Dwyane Wade or Michael Jordan or Kobe TBH, and he seems to also lack the nuance of skill. But like Tatum, he' in a situation where his organization has had a run of competence that eventually helped him a lot. Like, how would 2019-2023 healthy Dame look on this team instead of Ant? He's essentially a far better passer and a far better shooter while being someone that can average 30/5/8 on 63 TS%. His efficiency is about 5% worse than Luka's, and he's a far, far worse playmaker and a far less consistent volume scorer. His free throw rate is not yet elite. Ant is scoring less points on worse efficiency than prime/peak wade even *without* considering the relative TS% rank. Wade was averaging 30/5/7.5 on 58 TS% with elite defense in 2008-2009. Ant, even in this era where the average TS% is around 57-58 TS%, is averaging 25/4/5 on 57 TS% while being a worse defender and playmaker than Wade. Wade's equivalent TS% is like 62 TS%, and he would probably be even more dominant today. People gotta remember, Wade was like a top 5 player when LeBron was the GOAT, cp3 was incredible and Kobe was still around. Even 34 year old Kobe averaged 27/5/6 on 58 TS%, which is still clearly better than Ant *before* considering the differences in how easy it is to score now.

Like I said, he kind of reminds me of Tatum; a player that the league somewhat force feeds to give us a prototypical star. The Tatum hype has been so crazy that there were people who seriously considered him to be a better player than Luka. Ant is a top 20 guy right now. He's s0meone who's on a low-key stacked team that doesn't appear to be stacked because there aren't the most obvious marquee names. But Rudy Gobert is the likely DPOY (deservingly) on the best defense in the league, KAT is a big man averaging 22/8/3 on 63 TS%. Naz Reid a 6MOY candidate. Mike Conley averaging 11 ppg on 63 TS% as a super savvy veteran... just goes on and on. I think ANT has top 1% athleticism, above average skill, decent IQ. But I see him as a top 20 player now, a top 10 player at best, and even that would need a big jump as he wasn't all that close this year.

Heej wrote:I can see all NBA first team but hard for me to see an MVP in this guy's future I think. I gotta watch more games of him, but other than the athleticism nothing about his game seems transcendent. Seems like he'll peak at a Tatum-ish level or slightly better. His passing is way better than I thought it would be, and obviously his driving and finishing is as advertised. I dunno, unless he gets a nasty 3 how can someone his size ever win MVP over the bigger point forwards and skilled centers coming into the league.

Lol he's already better than Tatum.

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

One_and_Done wrote:He's shaping up to be a better version of Kobe. Still not a top 5 player, but he might get there.

What?????

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

uncleduck13 wrote:Aesthetically his game looks a lot like Jordan but production wise, I see him being closer to Peak Wade .

So almost exactly like Jordan. Peak Wade was something.

eyeatoma wrote:

One_and_Done wrote:He's shaping up to be a better version of Kobe. Still not a top 5 player, but he might get there.

What?????

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

Did I stutter?