Anthony Edwards’ Hidden Strength Is His Self-Awareness

Anthony Edwards believes he can beat anyone.

One-on-one. First to 15. Twos are worth one, and threes are worth two. Make it take it. Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Kevin Durant in their primes. It doesn’t matter; Edwards believes he can beat anyone. He’d probably bet on the final score being 15-0.

It’s from that unbridled confidence that Edwards has blazed his rapid rise to the top of the NBA. In his sixth season, he’s averaging 29.4 points on 49.5% from the floor, 40.9% from deep, and 55.4% from two-point range, all of which are career highs. At 24, Edwards is operating at a high level before players typically reach their “prime.” He was named a four-time All-Star on Sunday. He welcomes challenges, takes certain matchups personally, and will sling out as much trash talk as any other player in the league.

However, none of that has kept Edwards from remaining self-critical. He knows he is already a great player. He doesn’t think anyone in the NBA can guard him. But Edwards also knows exactly what he must do to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a championship and is openly aware of his faults.

Anthony Edwards knows what the key that unlocks the Timberwolves’ best form looks like. It’s a long, brass key with fancy designs and the word DEFENSE carved into its side. The type of key that wardens in old prison movies would use to lock up the inmates. Edwards believes that he is the warden carrying that key for his team, not Rudy Gobert, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, or Jaden McDaniels, an All-NBA-level defender.

The Wolves have the fourth-lowest defensive rating in the NBA this season (111.8), but they’ve struggled to be that defensive-oriented team every night. Minnesota is recently coming off a five-game losing streak, its longest since 2022. During that stretch, the Wolves had the eighth-worst defensive rating.

On Thursday at Target Center, the Wolves forced the Oklahoma City Thunder into 14 turnovers and held them to 35% from three-point range. Minnesota won 123-111, its third-straight victory following that losing streak.

The Wolves turned in one of their most energized defensive performances of the season against OKC, bringing relentless pressure at the point of attack, quickly rotating out to shooters, and converting turnovers into points on the other end.

Edwards locked down the Thunder, who shot 2 of 10 against him and committed three turnovers. He also scored a team-high 26 points on 9 of 17 shooting and 4 of 10 from deep. Ant has established that type of efficient production as his standard this year. However, his defensive intensity against OKC has not been, and Edwards knows that it must be for the Wolves to reach their goals.

On Amazon Prime’s postgame show on Thursday, Dwayne Wade asked Edwards how the Wolves can make their effort levels against OKC the norm going forward.

“I think it starts with me,” Ant said.

“Like, I pick and choose when I want to defend at a super high level. And I think my teammates follow. So I think tonight I came out and decided to defend at a high level. I just got to do that night in and night out. And we know how hard that is, but I’ve got to take the challenge and be willing to do it every night.”

Anthony Edwards and the Wolves typically have no issues competing at a high level against a team like OKC. But what about when they are on the road, in an enervated FedEx Forum in unusually cold Memphis, Tennessee, with the Memphis Grizzlies missing seven rotational players? How does the Wolves’ defense look, then?

That is the type of environment where they’ve struggled recently, and that remained true on Saturday. The Wolves beat the Grizzlies 131-114, and four players for Minnesota scored 20 or more points. Still, Chris Finch wasn’t pleased with the win.

“Nights like this, it’s super hard to find, not the why, but the energy to put behind it on every play,” Edwards said at his locker in Memphis.

“I feel like it’s a normal thing to think, as far as a group, like, ‘Oh yeah, we got these guys.’ Like coach said, ‘We just got to do enough to win.’ But [Finch] ain’t happy with that. He’s not satisfied with that, and we shouldn’t be either.”

Memphis outscored the Timberwolves 64-40 in the paint and converted 20 fastbreak points. A frustrated Finch had to call timeouts far more often than he would have liked after the Grizzlies broke down Minnesota’s defense.

“I thought we were soft on the ball, and it led to a lot of fouling,” said Finch. “We need to be like we were on [Thursday against the Thunder].”

Memphis shot 3 of 11 against Anthony Edwards, but most of that was due to the Grizzlies’ lack of shotmaking, not so much to Ant’s lockdown defense. After the game, it was clear that Minnesota’s defensive struggles were the only thing on Edwards’ mind.

FanDuel Sports North’s Cayleigh Griffin asked Ant about himself, Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and Jaden McDaniels combining for 100 points. “When we got that type of offensive efficiency, it’s more like, we’ve got to bring our defense,” Edwards responded.

Griffin then asked how the Wolves could repeat their performance against Memphis again on Monday. “Just bringing the defense,” Edwards responded. “Hopefully, our offense can stay hot. But we’ve got to hang our hat on the defensive side.”

At a certain point, words only mean so much. Maybe the Wolves, with this collection of players, will always struggle to consistently be the same defensive-oriented team. Perhaps they make a trade at the deadline that helps in that regard. Maybe the waxing and waning defense won’t matter, and the Wolves will go on another deep postseason run and make the Finals for the first time in franchise history.

But for now, combined with his unbridled confidence, Edwards’ growing self-awareness at a still young age bodes well for this team’s trajectory with him on the roster.

One-on-one, Ant knows he is already one of the most feared scorers in the league. He likes his chances against anyone. And when the Wolves are playing a team like Memphis, there isn’t a single player on the other side who can stop him.

Even OKC’s Cason Wallace and Lu Dort struggle to defend Ant. Most teams have to send multiple defenders to limit Edwards. And when they don’t, his offense is inevitable.

However, for Anthony Edwards and the Wolves to continue developing, they must lock down defensively every night and avoid the errors they committed against the Grizzlies. That’s easier said than done. Edwards knows that. He also knows that he has to be the one turning the key on defense for that goal to be realized.