Timberwolves All-Star swingman **Anthony Edwards**‘ ability to stay patient in handling his offense has finally started to pay off for Minnesota, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
“I’m young, I still want to get my (shot) off,” Edwards said. “It’s frustrating sometimes, but I got to understand the bigger picture.”
The 6’4″ guard is trying to be more egalitarian with his approach as he faces even more defensive coverage with Karl-Anthony Towns gone. Minnesota is currently on a four-game win streak, and has improved to a 12-10 record on the year.
“We gotta do a little bit better job of providing clean spacing around some of that time that he is getting doubled,” head coach Chris Finch said. “But I thought he did a great job of getting off of it, embracing it. Getting downhill, mixing it all up.”
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
Still just 23, Anthony Edwards is beginning to establish a confident leadership approach with the Timberwolves, notes Chris Hine The Minnesota Star Tribune. The All-NBA superstar may be intense, but he also is an enthusiastic supporter of his comrades. *“As much as he gets on you, he’s 10 times more on your side when you’re doing the right things or something positive happens,*” point guard Mike Conley said. “There’ll be games where I’ll make three threes in a row, and he’ll be like, ‘Mike, you might be the best shooter in the world. I’ve never seen anybody shoot like that. I’ve never seen that.’”
With Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon sitting, Nuggets MVP center Nikola Jokic took on more of a scoring burden than ever before, notching a career-best 56 points, on a career-most 38 field goal tries, against the Wizards. But it still wasn’t enough to prevent Washington from snapping a 16-game losing skid, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
Following the Wizards loss, Nuggets leaders Nikola Jokic and head coach Michael Malone supplied some eye-opening quotes about the state of the team, writes David Aldridge of The Athletic. The team has fallen to 11-10 on the year, good for just the No. 9 seed in the West. “We have to realize that we all have to start participating in our own recovery,” Malone said. “That’s where I take blame for us to be 11-10, because obviously I’ve a done a poor job as a head coach in preparing this team, not only to win, but to go out there and execute.” For his part, Jokic pulled few punches in criticizing the club’s slippage this year. He also refuted the notion that the decline was simply the fault of Malone. “Today, and the last couple of games, were really bad for us,” Jokic said. “We’re really going in the wrong direction. I think it’s everybody’s fault. It’s not just Coach’s fault. It’s not his fault that we cannot make shots. It’s not his fault that we don’t communicate.” Over the past two offseasons, Denver has seen three of the top seven players from its 2023 title team depart in free agency, without convincingly replacing any of them. The Nuggets are paying the price for those exits.