MINNEAPOLIS – In his four-plus seasons in the NBA, Anthony Edwards has never been afraid to speak his mind.
But the Minnesota Timberwolves star was particularly candid in a profanity-laced explanation of his team’s recent struggles following a 115-104 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
“I think we’re very soft as a team, internally,” Edwards said. “Not with the other team, but internally we are soft. We can’t talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. It’s like we’re playing with a group of little kids. Everyone, the whole team. We just can’t talk to each other. And we have to solve it, because we cannot continue this path.”
Minnesota reached the 2024 Western Conference finals. But the Timberwolves have lost four in a row and seven of nine after starting 6-3 this season. A lineup that underwent a major shakeup at the end of the offseason with the Karl-Anthony Towns Trade It still seems disjointed at times.
That includes blowing a 12-point fourth-quarter lead against Sacramento a day after losing 117-111 in overtime to Houston at home.
“We sure look like favorites tonight,” Edwards said Wednesday. “We were depressed, nobody wanted to say anything. We got up and everyone was clapping and excited. We go down again and no one says anything. That’s the definition of a favorite. “We, as a team, including myself, were all trailblazers tonight.”
“Right now everyone has different agendas,” he added. “I think that’s one of the main culprits of why we’re losing.”
Edwards, who led the Timberwolves with 29 points on 9-of-24 shooting, didn’t just admonish his teammates after the game. More than once he could be seen demonstratively communicating in the group with Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert and others.
Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo were the leading candidates in the October trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York three weeks before the start of the season. Both have experienced ups and downs in their tenures in the Twin Cities.
Towns, for his part, has settled comfortably with the Knicks.
However, Edwards said this isn’t just about the newbies.
“I’m talking about the whole team,” Edwards said. “No matter how many of us there are, all 15 of us, we go into our own shell and we’re just distancing ourselves from each other. It’s obvious. We can see it. “I can see it, the team can see it, the coaches can see it.”
So can the fans, who expressed their collective discontent more than once on Wednesday night.
“The fans are booing us,” said Edwards, whose team is 8-10 heading into Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “That (stuff) is crazy, man. They boo us in our stadium. “That’s so (damn) disrespectful it’s crazy.”