RandBall: The Timberwolves’ biggest problem right now is Anthony Edwards

Less than a minute into his postgame media session Thursday, after scoring 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting in a three-point loss to the Celtics, Anthony Edwards responded to a question about the Wolves tending to have one poor offensive quarter every game by launching again into his favorite recent pet subject: how teams are guarding him.

“I can score the ball, but it’s hard because I’m getting double-teamed all over the floor,” Edwards said. “I don’t have an answer.”

The hopeless nature of his responses continued after a follow-up question.

“Y’all watch the game and I don’t know what’s going on,” Edwards said. “They just trapping me, man. I don’t know what to do. I’m not gonna lie.”

His exasperation would suggest he is the first superstar to ever be double-teamed. That is false, of course. Better players than Edwards have experienced tougher coverage and more attention.

Coach Chris Finch and teammate Julius Randle suggested Ant is largely making the right plays when double-teamed. But that just leads to another side of the frustration.

“That was a good brand of basketball, but it’s not how I want to play, of course,” Edwards said, talking about the Wolves’ 34-point third quarter Thursday in which he took just one shot but had five assists. “I’m only 23. I don’t want to be just passing the ball all night, you feel me? … But the way that they’re guarding me, I think I have to.”

If we dare unpack this further, we arrive at an uncomfortable conclusion: Edwards is the Wolves’ biggest problem right now.

He’s either not crafty enough to find his own offense, even with more defensive attention, or his ego makes him unwilling to play unselfishly, even if it leads to team success.

Maybe both, as I talked about on Friday’s “Daily Delivery” podcast.

Earlier this season, Edwards’ shooting was masking the problem. He made three-pointers at a sizzling 43.8% clip through his first 16 games this year, shooting them at both a higher volume and with far more accuracy than he had his first four seasons.

Though Edwards is an improved shooter, there was an inevitable regression: In his last 17 games, he is shooting 37.3% from deep (much closer to his 36% career average).

Defenses correctly look at a starting lineup that includes two very limited offensive players (Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels), an aging point guard whose skills have visibly diminished (Mike Conley Jr.) and a new power forward taking time to get acclimated and who is not the same floor spacer as predecessor Karl-Anthony Towns (Randle) and try to keep Edwards from hurting them.

But it’s too easy to deflect blame.

Want to bemoan the KAT trade? Sure, but realize this: Edwards averaged 26.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 18 games toward the end of last year when Towns was injured, helping the Wolves go 12-6. He repeatedly attacked the basket ahead of extra defensive help, putting up those numbers despite shooting just 31.3% from deep in that span.

You don’t make the KAT trade unless you think Edwards can ascend to the level of a true superstar, one of the five best players in the league. Too often this season, particularly since that hot-shooting start from three-point range predictably regressed to the mean, Edwards hasn’t been close to the top 15.

Want to blame an offense with Gobert in the middle, something Finch still hasn’t unlocked in Year 3? Did you know the Jazz had the NBA’s top-rated offense in 2021-22, the season before Gobert was traded to Minnesota?

This much is true: Finch would do well to work more with Edwards on ways to unlock his offense even with all the attention. Run him off a bunch of screens. Get Ant moving in space better so that after he gives the ball up out of a double-team, he can get it back and attack quickly.

This much is also true: The Wolves’ current roster construction, particularly the starting lineup, is at least one shooter short. I’d be curious to see what the Wolves might unlock in Edwards if they made starting lineup changes and/or a trade deadline deal.

When you let Ant team up with Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte DiVincenzo and/or Naz Reid, good things tend to happen. They just haven’t happened enough because the Wolves’ starting five have played 406 minutes together, and no other five-man group has played more than 113 together.

The Wolves can help Ant. But he can also help himself. He needs to evolve and fight through this with the right mix of unselfishness and determination, much the same way the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson battled through a stretch this season where teams were blanketing him with coverage. Other players stepped up, the Vikings kept winning and now everyone (Jefferson included) is thriving.

Otherwise, we’re going to keep hearing the same thing from Edwards after games. And fewer people are going to be listening.