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Anthony Edwards led the Wolves to the 2025 Western Conference Finals, where they fell to the eventual champion Thunder in 5 games.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a> Minneapolis (AP) \u2014 Anthony Edwards devoted much of his previous two\u00a0offseasons\u00a0to the U.S. national team for the\u00a0World Cup\u00a0and the\u00a0Olympics, coming off intense runs through the NBA playoffs with the\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n As valuable as those experiences were for his flourishing career, the time Edwards had for his own training this past summer was instrumental toward his desired development into a true MVP candidate on a\u00a0legitimate title contender.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I was able to actually work on my game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For all he\u2019s done on the court over his first five seasons in the league, Edwards is still a 24-year-old with plenty of room to improve. As Timberwolves player development coach Chris Hines has told him often, \u201cGreatness is boring,\u201d a maxim seemingly tailor-made for Edwards.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of boring days in the gym, just working on one-dribble pull-ups,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it benefits me.\u201d<\/p>\n In the annual preseason survey of NBA general managers, Edwards was the runaway winner in voting for the best shooting guard in the league with a 70% share. But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s the most complete player at that star-studded position.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he became really addicted to the film room this offseason. His work ethic has always been great, but this summer has been a whole other level,\u201d president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. \u201cI think he\u2019s really focused on how to be more effective late in games, not just for himself but for others. His body is in unbelievable shape. It\u2019s pretty impressive to see how quickly he has matured, not just as a player, but as a professional with his approach. He\u2019s going to have another great year.\u201d<\/p>\n The first part of his game the Wolves want advanced is on defense, where Jaden McDaniels typically plays the primary role of guarding the opponent\u2019s top scorer. Edwards, never lacking for confidence, believes he can give McDaniels a break here and there by doing the same.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the head of the snake, sometimes you\u2019ve just got to take those matchups, just to show people I can play defense too,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cWe can\u2019t make Jaden guard the best player every night. Some nights he\u2019s got to get the \u2018B\u2019 player, let me get the \u2018A\u2019 player. And like I said, it\u2019s going to get me in better shape, man. It\u2019s about trying to push myself so I can get in better shape around February and March, heading into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards looks leaner than he did last season, evidence of his summer conditioning in renewed pursuit of two-way stardom. He committed to getting more sleep, too, the key to physical recovery and refreshment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get back to the number one defense in the league, and I know it starts with me, especially my pressure on the ball. I can\u2019t guard one game and not guard the next game because we\u2019re playing, you know, somebody who\u2019s not up to par,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be ready every night, and I\u2019m going to take pride in that. I told my teammates to hold me accountable, coaches included.\u201d<\/p>\n At the team dinner the night before the first official practice, point guard Mike Conley led a discussion of what steps the Wolves must take on the floor and in their minds to get over the conference-final hump.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s our goal? Are we coming here to put on a show, perform? Or are we trying to win a championship? What are we doing? And the consensus is, we\u2019re trying to win a championship,\u201d Conley said. \u201cAnt, if you want to win a championship, we expect you to guard like you\u2019re a top-five perimeter defender in the league, which we believe you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Coach Chris Finch, asked on Tuesday for an assessment of Edwards\u2019 buy-in to the goal of even better defense than the Wolves displayed last season, said he has \u201cno doubt\u201d that his best player is serious about it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about consistency and the consistency of habit as one of the areas of improvement no matter what it pertains to. Ant has got to measure up here. We might do different things with matchups that put him in more high-leverage situations, which we know he can do and he enjoys,\u201d Finch said. \u201cIt\u2019s an NBA mantra that if you do so much on offense, you\u2019re allowed to not play defense. The best teams don\u2019t do that. They do what\u2019s necessary as much as they possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n There are plenty of finer points of playing offense that Edwards can elevate, too. He worked hard on ballhandling during the summer, a skill he acknowledged has often been skipped because of the discomfort certain drills can create on his lower back. That ought to help improve his performance in the clutch-time situations that frequently hampered the Wolves last season.<\/p>\n Another way he can more consistently beat double-teams is to not allow the opponents get to that point by pushing the pace and running in transition more often. Recognizing ways to keep the offense better spaced in the halfcourt, too, can only help. Sometimes, players as talented as Edwards also simply need to find new ways to stay motivated during the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cTry to get a career high in points,\u201d Edwards said without hesitation when asked at the team\u2019s media day how he can stay more engaged. \u201cI think that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n However he does, it doesn\u2019t matter much to the Wolves.<\/p>\n \u201cJust continue to be that every-night player at a high level that we know he can be, which is what you need to do if you want to be an MVP in this league,\u201d Finch said. \u201cI certainly think he\u2019s got the DNA for it, and he just has to really fully embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards led the Wolves to the 2025 Western Conference Finals, where they fell to the eventual champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[131799,64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-215231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-anthony-edwards-timberwolves","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2022\u00a0Amex 2025-26 Season Preview<\/a><\/p>\n