Over the years, teams change. Their cores erode, through departure, age, or any number of other things. Their players develop and grow together or apart. Ultimately, nothing stays the same and the NBA tends towards chaos instead of order. No team has been more chaotic than the Minnesota Timberwolves.
And they are now desperately trying to put a stop to it.
The Wolves have seen their core shift and change basically nonstop for the past ten years. First, it was Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony
Towns. Then, LaVine was shipped out for Jimmy Butler. Upon Butler’s infamous exit, the team was bad enough to consider Josh Okogie a core piece (I love you Josh!).
From D’Angelo Russell to Jaylen Nowell to Joan Beringer, the names in that “core” have been replaced or renewed constantly. With that constant instability came doubt. That doubt took the form of – and I’m sorry for being informal here – dreadful, miserable, no good, very bad vibes.
That sounds a bit ridiculous, but it remains true.
From 2019 to 2024, when Towns was on the roster, no matter how good or bad the team was, they were together. Part of what was lost in the conversation around his skills was an acknowledgement of just how good a person and communicator he was. Leadership is not always loud. It is not always showy. But it is always present. It is a wordless hand on the shoulder. And Karl was great at that.
That’s not to say that Anthony Edwards has been a bad leader. He just does it differently. He incites tension proudly, bringing the best out of others by holding himself to a high standard on the court. His fearlessness inspires fearlessness. His drive inspires that of others and so on until the team can go into Denver and make a two-time Most Valuable Player look foolish.
Off the court is a different story entirely, but we’ll get back to that.
However, what Edwards inspired that Towns did not was a sense of togetherness. Of oneness. With the arrival of new acquisition LaMelo Ball, the team is too dissimilar to that of last year to hope continuity can carry them back to being one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
No, after such a long introduction, they need what you readers need less of.
They need to spend time together.
For that reason, the new star of the franchise and its best player since Kevin Garnett have decided to practice at the home of their whole big man rotation. The Timberwolves have gone to Paris. What started as a trip to build rapport rapidly turned into a teamwide excursion.
Only two Wolves players, Donte DiVincenzo and Bones Hyland, did not make the trip to France.
(Editor’s Note: DiVincenzo likely cannot travel due to his Achilles surgery rehabilitation. Hyland was most recently spotted spending vacation time with his family.)
That means 14 players made their way across the Atlantic Ocean for what amounts to a company retreat. Amazingly, Edwards and McDaniels are the longest-tenured players on the Wolves’ roster. They are the internal promotees. They are the coworkers who have systems their new hires need to learn. They are the veterans. They are the ones who have remained.
At this point in their careers, they are the program. Edwards especially.
The “continuity” buzzword got old last year. After making a second straight conference finals, the Wolves spent the season being a miserably inconsistent team instead of building on what had gotten them there. While they had a continued throughline within the roster, they did not have much else.
The had continuity, but not connection.
This gets us back to Edwards’ off-court leadership style. Ant was never soft-spoken, but he was unserious for the first few years of his career. His boisterous nature would lead to viral clips, but he would also not be responsible for anyone outside of himself.
That may have worked in the past, but it does not work when you’re the best player on the team, aiming for the franchise’s first ring.
When Rudy Gobert took a video of the Eiffel Tower, Anthony Edwards can be heard in the background yelling, “That’s Walt Disney, Rudy.” As the camera pans, the grin on Ant’s face widens to reveal a playful grin. Gobert chuckles, turning back to the image of Paris.
14 players made the trip out to France to grow together. Edwards was the one who brought them there to begin with. He’ll be responsible for keeping them together during the season as well. As a leader, as a player, and as a roster incorporating many new faces.
It’s a new era in Minnesota, and somehow it’s starting on the bank of the river Seine, not any of the hundreds of lakes back home.
