Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards staying grounded so far this season

In his two-plus seasons with the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards has provided some poster-worthy dunks, even to the point of the Wolves organization posting some of them on billboards downtown.

But entering Tuesday night, Edwards had yet to dunk a ball in a game this season, according to Basketball Reference. There might be a reason for that.

Last week, Edwards said he wasn't jumping as high as he normally does and he was conditioning to try and get his "legs back."

"I feel like I lost some of my powers," Edwards said.

Coach Chris Finch attributed the goose egg in dunks to the team's inefficient performance in transition, coupled with the fact that despite Edwards' highlights, he's not a high-volume dunker.

"Just in general, I don't think we've finished in transition very well this year," Finch said. "That's certainly going to be part of it."

There was a moment in a win over the Spurs last week when Edwards said his legs "gave out" when he was attempting to go for a dunk.

After that game, Edwards ran up and down the stairs of Target Center as part of his routine to rejuvenate the strength in his legs. Otherwise, he said he felt like he was in "great" physical shape.

He said he recently lost some of the weight he put on in muscle over the offseason and is back to around 230 pounds.

"I'm just waiting for my legs to get under me 100 percent and I'll be all right," Edwards said.

The team listed Edwards' weight at 239 pounds. Does he want them to change it back?

"Nah, I don't mind it," Edwards said. "I would like people to think I'm heavy so they would think my first step is not as quick and it's probably a little quicker."

One area that center Rudy Gobert has done a good job of limiting on the defensive end in his career has been opponent three-point attempts.

His ability to cover the paint allows players to stay at home more often and not have to help as much off shooters along the perimeter. Players are less likely to take threes when they have a defender in their face and not open after the ball swings around.

At least that was the way it worked when Gobert was in Utah.

Two and three seasons ago, Utah allowed the third-fewest three-point attempts in each of those seasons.

Entering Tuesday, the Wolves were tied for allowing the second-most three-point attempts with 38. Opponents were shooting 33.3% on those attempts. An example of the Wolves' inability to guard the line came in Sunday's game against San Antonio, when Doug McDermott fired 14 three-pointers, hitting seven of them.

"We were just helping off way too much at times," Finch said. Losing him, helping off of him in situations where we didn't really need to, particularly when we had Rudy behind us."

"We love Josh, as a person, a player and professional. He was very mature. He was the voice of our locker room and oftentimes the voice of our organization through some pretty tumultuous times in Minnesota. We were really proud of him through all that. He always had his teammates' back. Supported them, whether he was playing or not playing. He was the same every day."

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.