The Minnesota Timberwolves’ latest embarrassing loss has Anthony Edwards sounding like Denzel Washington in “Training Day.”
The Wolves lost an ugly game on Monday to a New Orleans Pelicans team still missing Zion Williamson. After the defeat, Edwards had some fiery comments about the team and their selfish play on offense.
“Wake-up call for sure,” said Edwards, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “Lock in. Lock the f–k in. Everybody coming in here thinking that it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. Whooped our a–. Now our back’s on the wall again. We got to wake up.”
The ex-No. 1 overall pick then called out himself and co-stars Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell for not getting their teammates more involved.
“We think we the only ones on the team,” Edwards continued. “We gotta be willing to pass the ball. There’s no ‘I’ in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people. We gotta be willing to play with our teammates. We gotta do a better job of getting them involved, making them feel wanted in the offense, not just on defense … Us three — me, KAT and D-Lo — do a bad job of getting y’all the ball, because we’re gonna get our shots. In order for them to keep fighting for us, we gotta get them the ball. We’ve gotta make them feel involved. We just gotta trust them, man. … If we’re not giving them the ball, then what are we doing?”
So far this season, Minnesota is getting a combined 56.4 shot attempts per game from Towns (29.0 points a game), Edwards (25.3), and Russell (14.3). The three are each tremendously talented offensive players, but that shot distribution simply has not left much for the rest of the team.
The 20-year-old Edwards can be entertaining when things are going well. But it is good to see him taking on a vocal leadership role and challenging the team when things are not going so well.
Photo: Mar 31, 2021; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Edwards (1) dribbles the ball at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
