Anthony Edwards walked out of the Target Center locker room with a smile of exasperation on his face, the kind of smile that only comes when the muscles in your face do not know how to react to the scene unfolding in front of you.
His Minnesota Timberwolves had just given away a 12-point lead with 7 minutes, 17 seconds to play, losing 115-104 to the short-handed Sacramento Kings. It was their fourth straight loss and seventh in the last nine games, dropping them to 8-10 on the season. But more troubling to Edwards than the losses themselves was the bad body language he saw on the court. The good vibes of last season — the connectivity and tenacity — are all gone. And Edwards does not know what to do.
“It’s like we’re not even happy for each other out there,” he said to Rudy Gobert as he walked out. “I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life.”
Edwards had just given a startlingly blunt assessment of the team in his postgame interview session. The eye test has shown a team that is disconnected, lacking energy and defensively inept, and Edwards confirmed every one of those observations with searing honesty.
“We soft as hell as a team, internally,” Edwards said. “Not to the other team, but internally, we soft. We can’t talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. Just like we playing with a bunch of little kids. Everybody, the whole team. We just can’t talk to each other. And we’ve got to figure it out because we can’t go down this road.”
The Timberwolves led the Kings 98-86 and seemed to be on their way to snapping their losing streak and injecting some much-needed positivity into a sullen group. But the shot making and defense that built their lead evaporated with an embarrassing quickness, and the Kings closed the game with a 29-6 avalanche to bury the Wolves in front of a furious home crowd.
Edwards called the Wolves’ play “trash,” but still criticized the fans for booing them, perhaps showing the conflicted feelings that were coursing through him after the defeat.
“However many of us it is, all 15, we go into our own shell and we’re just growing away from each other,” he said. “It’s obvious. We can see it. I can see it, the team can see it, the coaches can see it. The fans f—–g booing us. That (stuff) is crazy, man. We’re getting booed in our home arena. That’s so f—–g disrespectful, it’s crazy.”
Those comments will get the headlines and attract attention, but another one of his statements gets much closer to the heart of what ails these Timberwolves.
Last season’s team rode a dominant defense and a palpable internal harmony to the second Western Conference finals berth in franchise history. One of the biggest factors in that chemistry was the relative lack of players with uncertain futures. Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Mike Conley all got new deals before or during the season. Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert had their max contracts inked years before. The youngest players on the roster, Josh Minott and Leonard Miller, were second-round picks who understood that their time had not yet arrived.
The dynamics on this season’s team are completely different. Reid and Julius Randle can be free agents next summer if they exercise opt-out clauses in their contracts. Alexander-Walker is set to become a free agent when his deal expires. Donte DiVincenzo, who with Randle was acquired from the Knicks for Towns just before the season began, is in a new role coming off of the bench after starting 63 games and all of the playoff games in New York last season. It also is his fifth team in four years. Minott is in his third season and seeing very little time after a strong preseason. Rob Dillingham was drafted eighth overall and expected to be a fixture in the rotation at the start of the season.
Even Edwards has a different role this season. After sharing the “face of the franchise” label with Towns for his first four seasons in the league, Edwards is the unquestioned No. 1 guy in Minnesota this season. And while Randle has been good offensively since he arrived, he has not been the same kind of running mate that Towns was for Edwards. That puts even more pressure on Edwards to not only lead on the court, but in the locker room.
“I’m trying to get better in that aspect, figure out what the hell to say to get everybody on the same agenda, because everybody right now is on different agendas,” Edwards said. “I think that’s one of the main culprits of why we’re losing because everybody out there has got their own agenda.”
That observation crystallizes the problem in Minnesota through the first six weeks of the season. This has not been a team that plays together, has each other’s backs and is all pushing in the same direction. There are outside forces that have crept into the locker room and have contributed to the regression in so many of their games.
After averaging 15.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and shooting 40.1 percent from 3-point range for the Knicks last season, DiVincenzo’s numbers have cratered in his first season in Minnesota. He is averaging 8.9 points, shooting 31.5 percent from 3 and turning the ball over seemingly every other time he hits the paint on a drive. He had five points and was 1 of 6 on 3-point shots against the Kings.
The Wolves have tried to make him a pseudo-backup point guard, but the role has not been a good fit. If his shot was falling at a better clip this season, perhaps that adjustment would not look as difficult as it has.
Randle is shooting better from 3 than last season. His scoring is down, but that was to be expected moving into a true No. 2 role to Edwards in Minnesota. His rebounding (6.7 per game) is the worst of his career by a wide margin and his defense has left a lot to be desired to this point. He had 21 points and nine rebounds on Wednesday night but also turned it over four times.
Fox throws a DIME to Domas in the post 🏈 pic.twitter.com/FTHws5EjYk
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) November 28, 2024
Reid’s offensive numbers are all very similar to when he was NBA Sixth Man of the Year last season, but his defense has taken a noticeable step back from a year ago. He had a quiet night against Sacramento with seven points and three rebounds.
McDaniels is financially secure in the first season of a five-year, $136 million deal and had, over the last couple of weeks, addressed coach Chris Finch’s concerns about soft defense and a lack of rebounding by putting in more consistent effort in both phases. But his shooting has been a disaster, hitting 28.8 percent of his 3s. He went 0 of 2 from deep against the Kings and was scoreless in 24 foul-filled minutes.
Gobert did get a new contract just before the season started, offering him the security and stability that he wanted. But he has been very inconsistent as well following up his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year award last season. His scoring has dropped from 14.0 points per game last season to 10.5 with a well-publicized pouting in Toronto, protesting not getting the ball on offense. His lack of inclusion in the offense could be bleeding over to his defense, where he has not been the same dominant presence. His rebounds have dropped from 12.9 last season to 11.1, and he is averaging 1.6 blocks per game, which is down from 2.1 last season.
“It’s about us being willing to adapt to each other and really do anything we can to help each other thrive,” Gobert said after a loss to Houston on Tuesday. “When we do that, the team is going to thrive. I think we have that in us. We got some young guys, but we’re not a young team anymore. Even the younger guys have been through a couple of playoff experiences and they know what it takes.”
Right now, the group has not splintered but has seemed to retreat to separate corners to work through their struggles. The shoulders slump quickly when things start going wrong and self-centered play starts to take over.
Edwards, still only 23 and learning what it takes to be a true leader, set a terrific tone to start the game against Sacramento. He made his first five shots, including four 3s, in the first quarter to get the Wolves out quickly. But he went just 4 of 19 the rest of the way, including 0 of 5 from deep. When the Wolves still had a 10-point lead with 6:41 to play, Edwards uncorked a wild stepback 3 that missed and led to an easy runout for Keon Ellis, which gave the Kings some life.
“We lost our willingness to execute,” Finch said. “We’re looking for the knockout punch all the time. Even if you make that shot, there’s five minutes left and you’re only up 13 so it’s not a knockout shot. Gotta get better there.”
Finch has to take accountability as well. He has essentially run the same eight guys out there every night, save for when Conley was out the previous two games with a toe injury. Dillingham played an electric game against Houston, but only received 5 minutes, 32 seconds on Wednesday night, thanks to Conley’s return.
Finch was looking for more defense against the Kings. He said he is going to start calling more plays himself to get the offense running the way it should and he is also looking for ways to address the porous rim protection when Randle and Reid share the frontcourt and Gobert goes to rest. He also said he wants to lengthen the rotation, but that has been an ongoing talking point that has yet to show any signs of being implemented.
Finch echoed Edwards’ concerns about the team chemistry preventing them from turning any kind of corner.
“They have to be able to handle small pieces of adversity a lot better than they are, whether it’s a shooting slump or a bad call or a bad stretch of play or a poor decision by their teammate,” Finch said. “They’ve got to get a lot closer and more connected through those times, for sure.”
While the public pressure mounts on Finch, Edwards stands tall for the coaching staff. If anything, Edwards said, the players aren’t executing what the coaches tell them to do.
“We got to start doing what the coaches say,” Edwards said. “We always got something to say back. Even if you have something to say back, I feel like we just go out there and do our own (stuff). … It just comes from not following the game plan and listening to the coaches, man. I think that’s the main thing.”
That’s where the individual agendas can wreak the most havoc. Much like Gobert’s ragged first season in Minnesota two years ago, it takes time for new players to learn how to play with him. The struggles that come at the beginning of that union can be difficult to overcome because the players need to see it be successful to believe in it. Randle and DiVincenzo have never won at a high level with Gobert. That’s why you see Randle hesitate to throw it to him in the post or DiVincenzo turn it over while forcing a pass to him through a tight window.
The lack of success breeds hesitation. The hesitation is easy for everyone to see.
“We have to live with each other’s deficiencies,” Conley said. “We have to live with each other’s mistakes and pick each other up. And that’s what the message is right now; you can’t be immature about this.”
The Timberwolves are discovering what the Kings realized last season, that the euphoria of an unexpected rise in competitiveness can be enough to fuel one run, but that’s about as far as it can take a team. The Kings ended a 16-season playoff drought in 2022-23 but missed the playoffs again last season.
“The biggest thing is it only gets harder,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “It’s easier to ascend and get to where you think you should be. But once you get there, people come for your neck not most games, but every game. Every game is a big game for your opponent. Somehow, some way, you have to match that focus, that energy, that accountability to details. It can take some time.”
While Towns is off to a terrific start in New York, the Knicks have been up and down themselves. They are 10-8, but lost on Wednesday night to the Dallas Mavericks without Luka Dončić and recently lost to Utah as well. The Wolves do miss the sweet-shooting big man on the court, but they also miss his goofy nature in the locker room. There were times when Towns could induce eye rolls with a corny story, but he did help to keep the room light in good times and in bad. It’s a stark contrast to the dour tone in there over the last two games.
“We’re just so negative right now. Last couple years, we were like this,” Edwards said, clasping his hands together. “And I just feel like we’ve gradually grown away from each other, which is the craziest thing because most of us have been together. We’ve got two new players, that’s about it. Everybody else has been together.”
While frustration is high and heads are low in the Timberwolves locker room, the belief remains. They are 18 games into an 82-game schedule and still trying to build trust in one another. While Edwards exited the locker room shaking his head, Conley walked out with confidence.
“We’re going to be all right,” he said. “I promise you.”
The Wolves host the LA Clippers on Friday night and the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday to complete the homestand. By that time, the season will be nearly a quarter of the way over.
Comparisons have been drawn to Gobert’s first season in Minnesota, but as of right now, another infamous Wolves season seems more apt. The Wolves were the toast of the NBA in 2004 when Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell led them to the conference finals. The next season started with sky-high expectations, but quickly imploded thanks to Cassell and Sprewell getting sidetracked while lobbying for new contracts. The toxicity and selfishness on that team were much greater than what this team has exhibited to this point. But it feels like the collapse on Wednesday night marked a new low for them.
They have held team meetings after that embarrassing loss in Toronto last week and again during halftime on Wednesday when the Kings put up 69 points on the hapless Wolves defense, 42 of which were scored in the paint. Conley pulled the team together and started a conversation, one that helped them get in the frame of mind to turn a 12-point halftime deficit into a 12-point fourth-quarter lead. But even Conley knows the time for talking is just about over.
“I talk all the time telling guys what to do or not to do, my experiences and how we’re gonna get out of this thing,” he said. “But talking is talking at the end of the day. We gotta go out there and we have to put something on that court that’s kind of compared to what we’re talking about in the locker room.”
(Photo of Anthony Edwards: Jordan Johnson / NBAE via Getty Images)
