Anthony Edwards isn’t trying to sell a storybook rollout with LaMelo Ball. He’s telling it straight: the connection is already there.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ summer addition of Ball has changed the way the team looks on paper, and Edwards believes the fit is natural from the jump. He described their relationship as something that doesn’t need much on-court rehearsal to feel right.
“We don’t even really need to play with each other to have chemistry, cause we already cool,” said Edwards. “Super close, like brothers.
We get on the court, ain’t no egos involved. We just want to win, however it goes.”
That kind of comfort matters for a team trying to push past where it has stopped before. Neither Edwards nor Ball has made it beyond the Conference Finals, but together they give Minnesota two of the league’s most dangerous scorers and a pairing that should keep defenses guessing every possession.
Ball arrives with numbers that back up the hype. Last season, he averaged 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game while shooting 40.7% from the field. For the Wolves, the hope is that his transition will be smooth enough to let the offense hit the ground running.
Edwards, meanwhile, is talking less like a rising scorer and more like a player locked in on the bigger picture. He said his mindset has changed over the years, moving away from chasing personal numbers and toward whatever helps the team win.
“My first couple years, it’s just I’m trying to figure out how I can score more points, be more effective on the offensive end. Now, it’s just like, like I said earlier, just whatever it takes to win, because I know how it goes.
Some games they going to trap me. Some games they may trap him, and I may be the decoy,” Edwards said.
“However it goes, we just going to figure out different ways to win. We got a lot of talent in the locker room.
Finchy got his hands full with the talent, but long as we listen to him and be ready, be prepared every night, come be ready to play, we’ll be right. It’s like a pick-your-poison kind of thing, too.
If they’re trapping and trying to take the ball out of your hands, you got this man right here, and vice versa. It’s a problem for defenses, and then the speed that’s on this team.”
Minnesota’s upside isn’t just on one end of the floor. Edwards also pointed to the group’s defensive ability, saying the Wolves have enough versatility and depth to make life difficult for opponents.
“I feel like we can score a lot of points, and also I feel like we got defensive depth, so we can stop people. Us having me, Rudy, Jaden, and Kaminga defensively, and then he’s super good off the ball,” Edwards added.
“Offensively, he already knows what we got. We got a bunch of dudes that can go out there and put the ball in the hoop, but defensively, if we lock in, we’ll be really good.”
The Timberwolves still have work to do before opening night, and Edwards knows that chemistry has to keep growing in the locker room as well as on the court. But with Ball in the mix and a core that includes Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota has reason to believe it can stand with anybody. Edwards, for his part, sounds ready for the challenge.
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