Anthony Edwards faces new pressure from inside Timberwolves locker room

Anthony Edwards has laid out his goal for earning All-Defense honors this season, saying he's taking a "more serious" approach to that part of his game. It appears there will be added pressure on him coming from inside his own locker room. Timberwolves coaches and teammates have publicly stated their challenges to the superstar guard to play consistent, elite-level defense.

"First of all, we've seen the type and level of defender Ant can be. We've talked a lot about consistency and the consistency of habit as one of the areas of improvement, no matter what it pertains to. Ant's got to measure up here," Wolves head coach Chris Finch said Thursday.

Veteran guard Mike Conley added that at a team dinner before the open of training camp, the squad stated their desire to win a championship this season. It was then that Conley laid out the challenge to Ant to take his defense to another level.

"The consensus is that we're trying to win a championship. Ant, if you want to win a championship, we expect you to guard like you're a top-five perimeter defender in the league, which we believe you are. Jaden, myself, whoever's out on the court, we have a job to do and we got to be consistent every single day and Ant's at the front of that, especially on the defensive end," Conley said this week.

Minnesota has made two straight trips to the Western Conference finals but fell flat, losing both series four games to one. The Wolves led the league in defense during the 2023-24 season, allowing a league-low 106.5 points per game, while posting a 109.0 defensive rating.

That fell off a bit during the 2024-25 campaign to 109.3 and 111.5, respectively. Edwards' individual defensive analytics dropped too, with his Defensive Win Shares falling from 4.7 in 2023-24 to 3.8 in 2024-25.

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Wolves coaches and players know they'll need Edwards to perform at an elite level in all aspects of the game if they're going to finally break through and take the next step as a team.

"With him competing the way he can compete, we're a completely a different team. He knows it and it's going to require a lot more. It's going to kind of get him uncomfortable a little bit, a little bit more tired, a little bit more in shape," continued Conley. "But, those are things we're trying to round out to try to knock down that door."

"We might do different things with matchups that put him in more high-leverage situations, which we know that he can do and enjoys," said Finch.

"It's an NBA mantra that if you do so much on offense that you're allowed to not play defense. The best teams don't do that. They do what's necessary as much as they possibly have to do it."

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