Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley had little time to process their emotions before speaking to the media after the Oklahoma City Thunder stomped on them 124-94 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. The loss ended the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season on the same stage and in the same fashion as last year.
“It’s exciting,” Edwards said when a reporter asked him how much losing in back-to-back Conference Finals appearances hurts. “I don’t know why people would think it would hurt. It’s exciting for me, I am 23. I get to do it a whole bunch of times. I’m hurt more for Mike. I came up short for Mike. We tried last year, couldn’t get it. Tried again this year, and we’ll try again next year.
“But hurting is a terrible word to use. I’m good, yeah.”
Conley sat to Edwards’ right, wearing a Good Guys Finish First hat, and staring blankly into the audience of reporters. The loss hurt Conley, and it hurt the entire team that they fell short of getting their veteran his first championship ring. Edwards wasn’t hurt for his own sake – he is confident there will be many other chances at a championship in his career.
But just ask Conley, a good guy who has never finished first. He’s a 17-year vet who has made the playoffs 12 times and never once the Finals. Championship windows can be short, and Edwards and the Timberwolves must have a sense of urgency to jump through theirs.
To make the jump, they must focus on the details and how hard it is to be in this position.
“Yeah, I am going to work my butt off this summer,” Edwards said when a reporter asked him if Conley’s faliure to reach the Finals puts things into perspective. “Nobody is going to work harder than me this summer. I’ll tell you that much. I’ll try to make it happen again for Mike.”
Edwards logging more hours in the gym this summer than anyone else in the NBA wouldn’t be surprising. Players don’t clock into their practices and clock out when they are finished. The proof in their work shows itself in the following season.
During his exit interview last year, Edwards said he wanted to work on his “catch and shoot trey ball.” He followed that up by leading the NBA this season in three-pointers made (320) and attempted (811) on a career-high 39.5% from deep.
“This was a big year for him,” Chris Finch said during his exit interview. “It was kind of ‘his team,’ quote unquote. I thought he did a good job with his leadership. I thought he was pretty much a show up and play every night guy. He’s about the right things there. His habits, supporting his game, keep getting better and better. With his work, preparation, diet, all that stuff, is getting better. A lot to be encouraged by there.”
Edwards figured out how to play through double teams and a slew of blitzing defenses early in the year to turn this season into one where he averaged a career-high 27.6 points. It wasn’t a campaign that had him in a legitimate race for MVP – he finished eighth in voting. Still, for a 23-year-old, it was an encouraging season that set the foundation for him to consistently be in the MVP conversation for many years.
Ant is right; he is still young and has already been to the postseason in four of his first five NBA seasons. For as long as Edwards is in the league, the team he plays for will have championship aspirations. That’s the gravity he already brings. However, some aspects of a championship team are out of Ant’s control, no matter how many hours he spends working on drawing more fouls or adding to his end-of-game package.
There is a mindset, an emphasis on attention to detail, that the entire team needs.
“For individuals, it has to become even more important to them,” said Conley in his exit interview. “Maybe that means studying the game more. Maybe that means taking coaches to the side and getting some individual stuff there. Bringing me aside every now and then, even more often, and just using the minds around you to help you grasp certain concepts.”
That attention to detail manifests itself in many ways. Is the team limiting their careless turnovers? Are they rotating on defense? Is the team focused on their game plan even when shots aren’t falling or momentum is shifting to the other team?
For the Wolves to turn those question marks into statements that define their success, they must rise to a standard they didn’t meet against the Thunder.
“You’ve got to try to bring them up to a certain standard, or a certain level where the nonnegotiables are things you just do by habit,” Conley continued. “Not something that we have to ask or show on film a thousand times. It’ll be on us as a team to try to figure that out.”
OKC set that standard early in their 68-win season, which catapulted their relatively inexperienced roster to become favorites to win the NBA Finals. The Wolves still were their own worst enemy in the Conference Finals, averaging 17.4 turnovers and allowing big runs to sink their season.
“They did everything that they needed to do, accomplishing their game plans, and they just did everything more consistently than we were,” said Conley regarding OKC. “We had spurts, we had moments. But they seemed to never waver, staying at the same level of play regardless of shots making or not making, or whatever the situation was for that particular game.”
The gap between the Thunder and Wolves is significant. If Minnesota hopes to advance to the Finals in the next few years, it must get through OKC.
Maybe they won’t win it all in the next few years, but Edwards is confident he will get many chances at winning a championship in his career. The potential beaming off of him makes that hope seem probable, especially if he leads a team-wide charge focusing on attention to detail on the court. Still, inevitable roster decisions wait at every season’s end. Decisions that can change a team’s trajectory and shorten their postseason ceiling.
“You look at it from the side of teammates, guys who are under contract, and who are not,” said Conley. “This team may never be the same complete team that we had yesterday. That’s frustrating. You are losing guys that you went to battle with. It’s just a lot to wrap your mind around. It just takes time to realize how quickly things can change, and how you have to seize every opportunity you can get.”
Julius Randle and Naz Reid have player options this summer. If they opt out, they will become free agents, seeking expensive, long-term deals. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is already an unrestricted free agent. While it isn’t likely the Wolves will have the cap space to bring back all three players, Tim Connelly probably believes re-signing two is probable.
The core around Edwards will likely be just as good next season, and the brass pulling the strings (coaches, front office, and ownership) are willing to do what it takes to win now. Ant is primed to have many chances at hoisting the Championship trophy in his career. Still, the opportunities to do so can sometimes be more elusive than expected. Conley knows that well.
The Wolves have been knocking on the door for the last two years, and they have a championship window propped open with winners from top to bottom in the organization. They must have the urgency to explode through it, regardless of how bright the future may be. To do so, Edwards and his squadmates must realize how difficult it is to be in this position and pay greater attention to detail.
We don’t live in a reasonable time.
To my knowledge, we don’t have a real-life Ethan Hunt rooting around in blown-up submarines and jumping between planes to keep the world order as we know it from disintegrating. Unfortunately, without the IMF, we’re stuck in the Entity’s reality, chock-full of pod bros, ex-NBA journeymen, and Twitter trolls roaming the internet looking for a hot take that will save them from their mom’s basement and thrust them into the luxurious life of internet fame and fortune.
After the Oklahoma City Thunder unceremoniously bounced the Minnesota Timberwolves out of the Western Conference Finals in a Game 5 shellacking for the second straight year, Anthony Edwards found himself in the crosshairs of anyone with an IP address.
One playoff series won’t define Ant
Edwards had the worst playoff series of his young career. He scored 16 points on 13 shots in Game 4 and 19 points on 7-18 shooting in a do-or-die Game 5 that the Timberwolves lost by 30 points. In binary terms, league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bested Edwards. Ant has come up short in two straight semifinals and hasn’t won a championship yet.
Ant-Man became Cant-Man. Baby MJ now needs a paternity test. Cancel Ant’s attempt to become the face of the league. And, bizarrely, Ant can’t win because the 23-year-old isn’t a family man.
The rings culture incels are on Ant’s doorstep armed with 80 years of NBA history to try to tell us why we’ll never be able to speak Ant’s name in the same breath as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and the all-time greats.
People are comparing Edwards to the entire legacy of NBA legends
The problem with these reactionary, clickbait arguments is that they’re comparing the first five years of what will likely be a 15- to 20-year career for Edwards to the entire legacy of these legends. Ant can’t be MJ because we saw Jordan win five MVPs and six championships. He can’t be the face of the league because Kobe won five titles and is considered the GOAT by those who believe the NBA was established in the year 2000. Ant can’t be Larry Bird or Shaquille O’Neal because they had families (to varying degrees).
Unfortunately for the bots, some of us can still read and understand history, not just the Google Gemini recap. Despite the loss, Anthony Edwards is on pace to join the greats someday. At 23 years old, he’s already a three-time All-Star. He’s been named second-team All-NBA in consecutive seasons. Edwards has led his team to the playoffs in four out of five seasons and back-to-back Western Conference Finals. And he is consistently towards the top of any age-based scoring list.
We are not here to take anything away from these NBA legends. They obviously all carved out one-of-a-kind careers and will be remembered forever as some of the best basketball players ever. Still, let’s remember their careers accurately and stop mythologizing them for a second.
Michael Jordan battled to get to the top
For those who remember, Michael Jordan was a rocketship the second he touched an NBA court at the age of 21 in 1984. He won rookie of the year and was named second team All-NBA in his rookie season.
Still, his airness didn’t exactly lead his team to glory immediately.
Jordan didn’t get out of the first round until his fourth season in the NBA in 1988. His Chicago Bulls were a combined 1-9 through his first three playoff appearances. Jordan scored 63 points in a double-overtime loss in 1986 to the eventual champion Boston Celtics, and his best teammate early in his career was Orlando Woolridge.
Michael Jordan won his first playoff series in his fourth season in the NBA, the same year he won his first of five MVP awards. The Bulls immediately lost in the East semifinals 4-1 against the Bad Boy Pistons. Jordan lost in the East Finals in consecutive seasons in 1989 and 1990 to the Detroit Pistons.
He finally broke through, made it to his first finals, and won his first of six championships in 1991. He was 28 and in his seventh year in the league.
Ant doesn’t hold a candle to Michael Jordan’s full career. Still, things get much closer if you compare Ant’s first five years to Jordan’s pre-double threepeat run.
Kobe Bryant is a better comparison
Kobe is probably a cleaner comparison to Edwards.
Ant entered the NBA as a one-and-done 19-year-old, and Kobe came straight from high school and was barely 18 when he debuted in the NBA. Kobe started seven games across his first two NBA seasons and was the Los Angeles Lakers’ sixth man in two playoff runs that ended in a 4-1 loss in the West semis in his rookie year. The Utah Jazz swept LA 4-0 in the 1997 West finals.
Kobe broke the starting lineup in his strike-shortened third season and played well in a 4-0 West semifinals sweep at the hands of the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs. Kobe became a bona fide super superstar in Year 4 and was off and running, winning three straight championships with Shaq and the gang and two more with Pau Gasol while becoming the face of the league over the next decade plus and one of the most iconic players in sports history.
Shaq joined Kobe
Speaking of Shaq, he put up Wilt Chamberlain numbers from his first game in the NBA, but missed the playoffs in his first season. The Magic got swept in the first round in Shaq’s second year. He made the finals, and the Houston Rockets swept Orlando in Year 3, his age-22 season.
The Magic got swept in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals. Shaq had an up-and-down playoff record in his first three seasons with the Lakers before breaking through in his eighth season in the NBA. He won three straight Finals MVP awards from age 28 to 30.
Edwards is ahead of most contemporary legends
Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs in each of his first three seasons before the NBA’s most recent dynasty kicked off in his sixth season, three months after his 27th birthday.
Larry Bird was nearly the same age Anthony Edwards is today after completing his fifth season when he made his NBA debut in 1979 and won a championship at 24 in his second year. Magic Johnson won his first of five titles as a rookie alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a bygone era in which two superteams ran the NBA for a decade.
Even LeBron James missed the playoffs in his first two seasons, led a shoddy Cleveland Cavaliers team to a finals appearance (and got swept) in Year 4, and didn’t raise the Larry O’Brien trophy until his ninth season.
Hell, if the Thunder are four wins away from their first championship and the start of a legendary run for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Still, even he missed the playoffs in three straight seasons and will turn 27 a month after the NBA Finals.
Edwards is still establishing his legacy
All of these legends eventually found a way to get over the hump and enjoy iconic careers. Still, even the GOATs of the sport had to go through years of growing pains before finally summiting the mountain.
There’s no guarantee that Anthony Edwards will one day join them on basketball’s Mount Olympus. Plenty of talented players’ promising careers fizzled out before they could etch their names in the history books. But to cross Ant’s name off the next-up list because he fell to a 68-win buzzsaw in Oklahoma City is just the latest and dumbest chapter in today’s basketball discourse. Anthony Edwards is right on track.
We all want to remember Michael Jordan shrugging after making six threes in a half in the 1992 NBA Finals. Kids everywhere recreate his game-winning shot over Byron Scott in 1998 to win his sixth and final championship. But who wants to remember that he fouled out of the third and final game of a first-round sweep at the hands of the Celtics? Which kids are recreating him shooting 9-30 in Game 3 against the same Celtics in 1987, as the Bulls got swept in the first round for the second straight season?
If Anthony Edwards eventually wins an NBA championship, every struggle before the banner goes up will be lost to history, just like Jordan’s Game 4 and 5 performances in the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals, in which Jordan and the Bulls lost three straight games and the Detroit Pistons eliminated them. I’ll let you look those up on your own, and maybe you’ll see more Anthony Edwards in a young Michael Jordan than your TikTok algorithm wants you to see.
Anthony Edwards was defiant following the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 124-94 season-ending loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5.
“I’m going to work my butt off this summer.” Edwards said, “Nobody’s going to work harder than me this summer. I’ll tell you that much.”
Anthony Edwards: "I don't know why people would think it would hurt, it's exciting for me. I'm 23. I get to do it a whole bunch of times…hurt is a terrible word to use. I'm good."
"Nobody is going to work harder than me this summer."pic.twitter.com/Kzxwbe0XZL
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 29, 2025
Ant always adds to his game
Edwards has come back every season after adding new facets to his game. This offseason will be the first summer since before the 2022-23 season that Edwards will have the summer off to focus on his game.
He participated in FIBA two years ago and the Olympics last offseason. Without additional offseason basketball commitments, Edwards will have plenty of time to hone his craft, allowing for ample growth potential.
“I think areas of improvement for him are just going to be along the think-the-game route, really,” said Chris Finch. “I think he’s got to also kind of figure out a bit of a closing package. We have to help him there. What shots and places on the floor can he repeatedly get to?”
Finch also believes Edwards can do more to get a better whistle.
“Foul drawing. You see right now in the league, you see what gets rewarded, and we need to kind of lean into that a little bit, even though it’s not necessarily how [Edwards] likes to play, but it seems to be effective.”
Chris Finch on Anthony Edwards and what he needs to work on over the summer
“I think he’s in a really good place in his developmental arc… he’s done a pretty good amount of winning, a lot of winning actually… areas of improvement for him are going to be around the think the… pic.twitter.com/ndNjJliAAa
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) May 29, 2025
Edwards needs a closing package
The first part of Finch’s statement rings the most true about Edwards. He occasionally struggled with his closing package. Statistically, it bore out: He averaged 7.5 minutes per fourth quarter during the regular season, 6.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.9 assists.
Edwards’ shooting percentages dropped in the final frame. His shot percentage from inside five feet dropped from 61.9% to 53.4%. So did his shots from five to nine feet, going from 42.2% to 34.6%. Edwards’ mid-range plummeted from 37.6% to 33.3%.
His 3-point shooting marginally improved from 39.5% to 39.6%, but his true shooting dropped from 59.5% to 58.0%.
It starts with having a go-to move
The drop is likely due to exactly what Finch described. Edwards didn’t consistently have spots where he could score easy baskets. He relied on either the pull-up 3 in transition or attacking the basket seemingly without much of a plan after the initial drive. The lack of a go-to offense allowed defenses to stack up against him.
In a way, the unpredictability can be a positive. For example, everyone expects LeBron James to shoot when he dribbles in place. Down by two in the fourth quarter, he’ll quickly side-step to the right or left and rise from there. People have seen that move a million times by now, and defenses can prepare for that option.
LeSIDESTEP THREE 🤯🤯🤯
OUR KING IS FEELING HIMSELF pic.twitter.com/9zCC3fv348
— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) April 26, 2025
However, people have seen it a million times because it’s effective. It’s something James has practiced, and his team can anticipate. The forwards can expect the shot and have a better chance of an offensive rebound, and the wings and shooters can prepare for a transition play.
Ant can help his teammates by being more predictable
Edwards doesn’t have a signature move that is a staple of his late-game execution. That unpredictability can throw off players waiting for a pass that will never come. It can affect Minnesota’s offensive rebounding because post players can’t slide in as easily before the shot goes up. It also makes Finch’s game planning more difficult. He must pick the spot for Edwards and determine how to get him there.
Teams exposed Edwards’ lack of a finishing move more in the playoffs. Edwards shot brilliantly for most of the playoffs, even in the fourth quarter. Still, he struggled in crucial moments. Edwards had 11 out of his 39 turnovers in the fourth quarter and shot 47.7% from the field and just 34.3% from 3. In Minnesota’s six playoff losses, Edwards shot 18.2% from 3 in the closing quarter and committed 7 of his 11 turnovers.
For Edwards to take the next step forward in the playoffs, he must develop a go-to fourth-quarter spot that he can get to frequently. It will be key to further unlocking Edwards, like James’ 3, Michael Jordan’s fadeaway, or Tim Duncan’s bank shot.
Edwards also must draw more fouls
Finch’s second point about drawing fouls is valid, although maybe not as necessary. Edwards only averaged 6.3 free-throw attempts per game during the regular season, good for 16th in the NBA. Edwards also averaged the sixth-most shot attempts per game. He was sixth in isolation plays and 12th in usage rate.
On its surface, it’s easy to think Edward should be closer to the 8th-ranked James Harden at 7.3 attempts per game. However, Edwards ranked 19th in drives this past year, and drives at the basket are typically the most efficient way to get to the line.
Given the current roster construction with Rudy Gobert, Edwards would need to drive to the rim more times per game to increase his free-throw rate without flopping on 3-point shots. That may be due to the number of bodies in the paint on any play.
Edwards is going to outwork everybody
“You learn that dude is an animal in how hard he works,” Donte DiVincenzo said in his exit interview. “He said last year (he) focused going into the season on (Edwards’) 3-ball, and then he goes and leads the NBA in 3s. So, when he says last night no one is going to work harder than him, I can bet my money no one is going to work harder.”
Donte DiVincenzo on what he learned about Anthony Edwards this year
“He’s a great dude, what is he like 23? Dudes 23 years old(laughs) I’m not saying it like I’m 50… he’s just so charismatic, he cares about his teammates, he just wants to have fun and when your around that… pic.twitter.com/tmUaCEp15u
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) May 29, 2025
Edwards will go into his first full offseason in three years with a to-do list from the Wolves. He exits the season having fallen short in the Western Conference Finals for two years in a row.
His next step is winning a championship. Edwards will have to put in much work this offseason to ascend to higher levels. As the offseason has officially started for the Wolves, people will hold Edwards to his standard of working harder than anyone this offseason.