{"id":226618,"date":"2025-10-20T10:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T10:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226618\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T10:11:15","slug":"for-anthony-edwards-an-nba-title-is-just-one-step-away-inside-his-unstoppable-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226618\/","title":{"rendered":"For Anthony Edwards, an NBA title is just one step away. Inside his \u2018unstoppable\u2019 plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A voice whispered to Anthony Edwards all summer long.<\/p>\n

He heard it while he was running the stairs at an empty Target Field, the beautiful baseball park right next door to where he holds court for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He heard it while he was in the gym, putting up thousands of shots per week to hone his craft. He heard it as he watched film of the last two Western Conference finals, where both times his Wolves ran into superstars who had counters for every punch thrown at them.<\/p>\n

The voice told him the truth. It told him what Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Kyrie Irving were for the Dallas Mavericks in 2024. It told him what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was for Oklahoma City last May. It told him what he has not yet become.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnstoppable,\u201d Edwards told The Athletic. \u201cAs long as I can get to that point, I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he prepares to enter his sixth season in the league, Edwards has no interest in celebrating his All-Star appearances, his shoe deals or his movie roles. He has led the league in 3-pointers made, become one of the most vicious in-game dunkers of his era and has led what was a perpetually losing franchise to back-to-back Western Conference finals. He doesn\u2019t listen to the comparisons to Michael Jordan of which he wants no part.<\/p>\n

Instead, he listens to the voice that wants more. That\u2019s what he wants to hear.\u00a0When he is asked what he wants from this game, excluding the obvious answer of a championship, Edwards lights up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I want them to say is we couldn\u2019t guard him,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cWe. Could. Not. Guard. Shawty.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Edwards does not believe he has reached that level yet is notable in and of itself. He might be the most naturally confident player in this league, the great white shark in the NBA\u2019s ocean of ego.<\/p>\n

Edwards is the one who told Barack Obama, to his face, to \u201cstand down\u201d<\/a> as he stood in a room with the former president, LeBron James and Steph Curry and matter-of-factly proclaimed, \u201cI\u2019m the truth.\u201d He is the one who sat in the locker room after watching two-time MVP Nikola Joki\u0107 put up a 61-point triple-double against him<\/a> and said, \u201che might be the best basketball player I\u2019ve ever seen close up. \u2026 Besides myself.\u201d Edwards is the one who called himself \u201cBlack Jesus.\u201d In his second season in the league.<\/p>\n

There are enough hot coals in his stove of belief to warm all of Target Center in the dead of January, but that won\u2019t be enough to get the Wolves to make the final step.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gotten to the Western Conference finals twice, which is hard to do. But he\u2019s lost the same way,\u201d said Wolves assistant Chris Hines, one of Edwards\u2019 closest confidantes in the organization. \u201cAt some point, you have to take it a step forward. At some point, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, \u2018What do I need to do to get it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not a selfish pursuit. He looks at the landscape of the league, how super teams are giving way to smartly constructed rosters with a go-to guy in the middle and a stellar cast around them. He knows that a universe is only as viable as the strength of the star around which everything else orbits. The way Edwards sees it, he hasn\u2019t been good enough, on either end of the court, in the last two conference finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ain\u2019t going to get to the finals without going through Luka or Shai,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI just gotta keep getting better. That\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tacit acknowledgement that he\u2019s not there yet is another sign of growth. To him, becoming unstoppable gives him the best chance to help his team reach heights it has never reached. Deep down, he hasn\u2019t felt truly unstoppable since he used to put on pads and a helmet under the blazing Atlanta sun all those years ago.<\/p>\n

For someone who plays the game with as much joy and spirit as Edwards does, it is always surprising to see the sparkle in his eye when he talks about the one that got away.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows football was my first love,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

As a kid growing up in the rough-and-tumble Oakland City section of Southwest Atlanta<\/a>, Edwards was a star from the moment he set foot on the gridiron. His combination of size, speed and power, even as an 8- or 9-year-old made him too much to handle for other kids his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were like a one-man band and they thought that they could give Ant the ball and everybody can get out of the way,\u201d said Dana Watkins, one of Edwards\u2019 youth coaches. \u201cHe was enough to carry them.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Watkins\u2019 viewpoint, that was part of the problem. Football was too easy for Edwards. When he joined a higher level team, serendipitously called the Vikings, he hated the extra conditioning and practicing that the coaches demanded of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just really lazy because he was so used to just getting over just because he was so much more physical and so much bigger than most kids,\u201d Watkins said.<\/p>\n

Edwards\u2019 mother, Yvette, gave the hard-charging football coaches her blessing to ride Anthony in an effort to instill some sense of work ethic in him. If Anthony refused to do conditioning, his coaches made his teammates do the running for him. Sometimes the peer pressure worked, sometimes it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball came second-nature to me. I didn\u2019t have to work out for football,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cEven if I had to play in the NFL right now, I wouldn\u2019t have to do too much work on my game. It would be more just working on my body.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suffered an ankle injury in middle school that knocked him out for a bit and opened the door for him to focus more on basketball, to follow in his big brother\u2019s footsteps<\/a>. When Edwards turned to hoops, the size advantage disappeared with a quickness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn basketball, he wasn\u2019t head and shoulders taller than everybody else,\u201d Watkins said. \u201cHe was just an average-sized kid on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Anthony Edwards, second from left, with teammates. (Photo courtesy of Dana Watkins)<\/p>\n

Without the physical superiority, Edwards had to find another way to excel. He was behind several bigger, more skilled teammates, so he had to practice in a way that he never had to with football.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball, I really had to work to develop myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t shoot the ball well. I couldn\u2019t dribble that well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards did not take kindly to being average. The same kid who refused to do conditioning in football started working at all hours of the day on basketball. He would get up early in the morning for workouts before school, get shots up during the day when he had a free period from class and keep working well into the evening to try to make himself into more than just an athlete in sneakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a good defender and I was a good athlete. Everything else that I got, I really worked at it because I wasn\u2019t that good at it before,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why I\u2019m never content with where I\u2019m at. I know there\u2019s always something I can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underneath all of that bravado, the fear of not measuring up pushes Edwards forward. Every summer of his professional career has brought with it a significant advancement in his skill set. Whether it was on-ball defense, offensive efficiency or 3-point shooting, Edwards keeps adding to his game because he knows that there are still holes to fill and other players ahead of him on the pecking order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ain\u2019t really chasing them. I\u2019m competing against them,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to win against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It drove him all summer long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a true obsessiveness to detail. How to get to spots, why he\u2019s there, what to read,\u201d Hines said. \u201cHis intensity was insane just in terms of being relentless, wanting to be in the gym, wanting to learn more, wanting to study some guys. It was probably one of his best summers he\u2019s had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards and the Timberwolves had home-court advantage and the No. 1 defense in the league when they met the Mavericks in the conference finals in 2024. None of that mattered. Irving and Don\u010di\u0107 scored at all three levels \u2014 at the rim, in the midrange and behind the 3-point line \u2014 and rolled past the Wolves in five games.<\/p>\n

It was more of the same last season, when Minnesota stormed into the conference finals after needing just 10 total games to dismiss the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors in the first two rounds. Gilgeous-Alexander shot a paltry 31.8 percent from deep in the series, but his dizzying array of moves and tricks allowed him to get to his spots at will. Did he get a few favorable whistles? Maybe.\u00a0But the MVP\u2019s dominance was so complete that it rendered those complaints moot. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.4 points per game and the Thunder loaded up on Edwards, hounding his 3-ball (he shot 28 percent) and closing off his driving lanes to limit his impact.<\/p>\n

The Wolves tried the same approach against OKC. That didn\u2019t matter to Gilgeous-Alexander or Jalen Williams, both of whom treated the analytical No Man\u2019s Land outside the paint and beneath the 3-point line like it was their own personal playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose (guys) was cookin\u2019 us in the midrange,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

When the series was over, Edwards was not crestfallen. He was only 23, after all, and he had just gained even more clarity on what needed to be done.<\/p>\n

When they lost to the Mavericks in \u201924, the enduring image was Don\u010di\u0107 drilling a stepback over Rudy Gobert<\/a> in Game 2 and then burying the Wolves in Game 5 under an avalanche of deep 3s. So Edwards spent all summer working on his 3-point shot and turned himself into one of the best long-range shooters in the league.<\/p>\n

His reaction to the OKC loss confused some observers who were used to seeing star players seethe and sulk under a defeat so complete. Edwards gave the Thunder their props, but also stepped into the offseason as if he just received the answers to the test.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got our ass kicked all around the board,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to be pretty good this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Anthony Edwards shoots over Lu Dort and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander during Game 5 of the 2025 Western Conference finals. (David Sherman \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After SGA and Williams strafed the Wolves from the midrange and post, Edwards went back into the lab again, focusing on his intermediate game as a way to make it more difficult to take him out of a game the way the Thunder did.<\/p>\n

The difference Hines saw in Edwards this summer was how his focus shifted, ever so slightly. Long hours in the gym were nothing new to him. Adding to his game is something to expect, not celebrate. But he saw another layer of motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s looking at the Shais, the Lukas and these guys having success. (Jayson) Tatum,\u201d Hines said. \u201cHe wants to be there, too. He wants his name in the same room as those guys, and beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolves coach Chris Finch has been in Minnesota for all but the first four months of Edwards\u2019 career. He sees two types of confidence in the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnt\u2019s (confidence) is rooted in the security of knowing who you are and that I\u2019m going to figure it out,\u201d Finch said. \u201cI may not know it yet, but I\u2019m going to figure this whole thing out. Versus the one that\u2019s rooted in insecurity where you just say things hoping to speak them into existence while you\u2019re covering up self-doubt. That\u2019s not him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the question becomes how will he apply what he has worked on this summer. The modern game almost demands that a high-level scorer emphasizes 3-point shooting and rim attacks. Edwards does not figure to reinvent his game after averaging 27.6 points and shooting 39.5 percent on 10 3s per game. Last season, he shot a ghastly 36 percent on 2-pointers outside of the paint, so he has a long way to go to become proficient enough in the midrange to merit a noticeable increase in percentage of his shot diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will definitely be a part of what we want to do this year, as an accent, not the main thing of course,\u201d Finch said. \u201cBut we feel like it\u2019s a good way to take advantage of him, and he\u2019s done a good job of adding that to his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said he spoke to Michael Jordan about leaning back with his shoulders to put pressure on the defense in the post versus pushing with his backside, something that would allow him a better base with which to get to his fall-away jumper. He searched for repeatable moves to go to late in games after the Wolves struggled mightily in the clutch during the regular season last year, often falling on a missed stepback 3 from Edwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to play chess and not play checkers,\u201d Hines said. \u201cThat\u2019s how you become unstoppable. I told him, \u2018I\u2019ll sharpen every tool in your toolbox. You have to pick the right ones to utilize at the right time.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenges are coming from within as well.<\/p>\n

The night before the Timberwolves opened training camp last month, the team gathered for a dinner at 6Smith, a trendy restaurant that sits on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. Mike Conley, the veteran point guard and chief message deliverer, looked Edwards right in the eyes.<\/p>\n

There have been too many times in the past when he loses his focus on defense. Conley wants that to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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 Conley told him.<\/p>\n

Wolves owner Alex Rodriguez, who knows something about being the No. 1 pick and carrying the burdens of stardom, will text with Edwards about what it takes to win a title.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has his own vision. He wants to be one of the greatest of all time, but he doesn\u2019t want to be a social media star,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cHe wants to be Jordan-esque, Larry Bird-esque, Magic Johnson-esque. And he knows the responsibility he has on his shoulders to put people around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Anthony Edwards walks alongside Rudy Gobert during Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. (Jesse Johnson \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Gobert is pushing him to take better care of his body after watching Edwards wear down some in the last two playoff runs. The Wolves are asking him to be great on both ends of the floor, and Gobert is taking heart in the leaner, more toned version of Edwards he has seen this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on his ass for a few years, but it\u2019s fun to see that,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cThat, to me, is clear maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards has been challenging his teammates, too. He pressed them to spend as much time in Minnesota as possible this summer, sweating through workouts in the practice facility to strengthen the bond they will need to survive in the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ready to win. I think that\u2019s the most important,\u201d said Naz Reid, who has been teammates with Edwards for all five of his seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, his stats are one thing, and individual accolades are one thing. But I think he\u2019s been more about team, and that\u2019s one of the biggest growth areas for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards turned 24 in August. Jordan won his first MVP in his age-24 season. Kobe Bryant was First Team All-NBA at 24. Don\u010di\u0107 was in the finals that season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that s\u2014 would be so fun for Minnesota. I already know,\u201d he says, pondering what a championship would mean to the state that has become his second home. \u201cThat\u2019s why I be trying to do it. \u2026 Don\u2019t worry about it. I\u2019m going to make it happen. I\u2019m going to get fly as hell to where they can\u2019t stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confidence Ant built in football could only take him so far. It derived from God-given physical prowess. The confidence he has in basketball, to him, feels stronger because he has had to work for it. He had to earn it.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s time to see how far that belief can take him and the Timberwolves, to see how unstoppable he can become. Now that voice needs to do more than whisper. Now it needs to howl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A voice whispered to Anthony Edwards all summer long. He heard it while he was running the stairs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,14102,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-226618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}