1A

Most important to success (outside of Ant obviously) is still Rudy, or that supply closet.

Donte’s a very good player but the fact he is in the conversation for our second best guy is why we are not contending this year.

And I do like Randle, and think he could be a very good tandem with Rudy, I just don’t know how to marry that with Finchy, Naz, McD flow.

Last I heard the plan was he will debut in a pre-season game this upcoming week.

If we're going by historical points tracker Julius would be our second most impactful player is Julius, but it is still actually Big Ru. It will be interesting to see how he's used here, would venture the hope is to spread that around more. One of the conflicts is points = money, part of it will be convincing Julius of his "new role/market value."

Rudy is probably our second best/most important player for now (take $$ out of it)

Crazy that Donte (who won't even be a regular starter) might be our third best/most important player.

I'd lean Jaden. They kept him out of the Rudy trade for a reason. He's on Ant's timeline. They're kinda tied at the hip. Jaden may see an increased offensive role this year too with KAT's departure which I think will bode well for the offense.

After that, it's gotta be Donte and Naz, right? Donte was so heavily targeted by Connelly in free agency and in the trade that he's gotta be viewed as part of the core. And then, of course, Naz, because I think there would be rioting if Naz were traded.

My list of most untouchables goes like this:

- Ant - completely untouchable

(huge gap)

- Jaden, Donte, Naz - only traded if you're getting a true star (i.e. Tyrese Halliburton)

- Rudy, Conley, Dillingham, Randle - "We want to hold onto them, but if you make us a great offer, we'd listen"

- Minott, Miller, TSJ, NAW, Ingles - not shopping them but not holding too tightly

- Garza, Keita, Nix - "Throw us a decent 2nd and they're yours"

MIN was built to deal with DEN, and they did so successfully last year. It seems they decided DEN is not the team to beat this year, it is OKC. This year's iteration of the wolves seems to be built to deal with that threat specifically. Maybe that is why they are moving more towards a platooning system rather than the standard three stars and combinations of coattail riders, minimums, and undrafted rookies around them.