MINNEAPOLIS — In his four-plus NBA seasons, Anthony Edwards has never been afraid to speak his mind.
But the Minnesota Timberwolves star was particularly candid in a profanity-laced explanation of his team’s recent struggles following a 115-104 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
“Our identity right now is, I think it’s we soft as hell as a team, internally,” Edwards said. “Not to the other team, but internally, we soft. We can’t talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. Just like we playing with a bunch of little kids. Everybody, the whole team. We just can’t talk to each other. And we’ve got to figure it out, because we can’t go down this road.”
Minnesota reached the 2024 Western Conference finals. But the Timberwolves have lost four in a row and seven of nine after starting 6-3 this season. A lineup that experienced a significant shake-up late in the offseason with the Karl-Anthony Towns trade still looks disjointed at times.
That includes blowing a 12-point fourth-quarter lead against Sacramento a day after losing 117-111 in overtime to Houston at home.
“We look like front-runners for sure tonight,” Edwards said Wednesday. “We was down, nobody wanted to say nothing. We got up and everybody [was] cheering and [hyped up]. We get down again and don’t nobody say nothing. That’s the definition of a front-runner. We as a team, including myself, we all was front-runners tonight.”
Edwards added: “Everybody right now is on different agendas. I think that’s one of the main culprits of why we’re losing.”
Edwards, who led the Timberwolves with 29 points on 9-of-24 shooting, didn’t admonish his teammates only after the game. More than once, he could be seen communicating demonstratively in the huddle with Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert and others.
Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo were the top gets in the October trade that sent Towns to New York three weeks before the start of the season. Both have experienced up-and-down starts to their Twin Cities tenures.
Towns, meanwhile, has settled in comfortably with the Knicks.
Edwards said this isn’t just about the new guys, though.
“I’m talking about the whole team,” Edwards said. “However many of us it is, all 15, we go into our own shell and we’re just growing away from each other. It’s obvious. We can see it. I can see it, the team can see it, the coaches can see it.”
So can the fans, who voiced their collective displeasure more than once Wednesday night.
“The fans f—ing booing us,” said Edwards, whose team is 8-10 heading into Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “That s— is crazy, man. We’re getting booed in our home arena. That’s so f—ing disrespectful, it’s crazy.”