With a new point guard taking the ball out of his hands, Anthony Edwards believes he can finally put more into his defense.
For most of his career, shooting guard Anthony Edwards has been judged by how many points he scores for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and that makes sense for a player who averaged 28.8 points per game last season.
This season, though, Edwards wants people to start paying attention to the other end of the floor.
At media day on Monday, Edwards said the last couple of years wore him down because he was bringing the ball up at times and had to score all the time, which left him super tired and kept him from defending the way he wanted.
The arrival of point guard LaMelo Ball, who came over in a June trade with the Charlotte Hornets, changes that.
Edwards Wants a New Standard
With Ball running the offense, Edwards said he can spend a few trips in a row in the corner and save his energy to guard the other team's best player.
"So I feel like this year I'm going to be grading my game a lot different," Edwards said at media day.
It is the right goal.
Edwards is a four-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA pick, but he has never made an All-Defensive team, and his defensive box plus-minus slipped from 0.5 in 2023-24 to minus-0.1 last season.
Nobody questions his strength or speed, so this has always come down to whether he had anything left after carrying the offense.
Head coach Chris Finch has talked about how Ball will make life easier for Edwards, saying the move gets Edwards back to a more natural role off the ball.
Fewer trips with the ball in his hands should mean fresher legs when the Wolves need a stop late in games.
The Front Office Is Asking for More
President of basketball operations Tim Connelly said at media day that the best chance for Edwards to become the best player in the world is to become the best two-way player in the world, according to KSTP, and he stressed that the next step for Edwards has to come on defense.
Minnesota already has a strong defensive base around him.
Center Rudy Gobert is a four-time Defensive Player of the Year who made the All-Defensive First Team last season, forward Jaden McDaniels made an All-Defensive team in 2023-24, and Gobert has already shared his excitement about playing with Ball.
Put a locked-in Edwards next to those two and the Wolves could have one of the toughest defenses in the league.
Minnesota went 49-33 last season, finished eighth in defensive rating and beat the Denver Nuggets in the first round before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in six games in the second round.
Getting past that point will take more than scoring, which is why the expectations for Edwards keep climbing.
What Comes Next
The Wolves open the preseason on Monday, Oct. 5, at Milwaukee, which will give Edwards his first chance to show what this new approach looks like.
The regular season begins Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Miami, and the home opener is Sunday, Oct. 25, against the Toronto Raptors.
If Edwards actually grades himself on defense this year, nobody in the West will want to see Minnesota in a series.
