LOS ANGELES — The wind chill on Thanksgiving Day morning in Minneapolis made it feel like 9 degrees outside when Donte DiVincenzo got into his car and drove into the Minnesota Timberwolves’ practice facility.
Not even two months had passed since DiVincenzo uprooted his family, including his wife and young son, and abruptly moved across the country from New York following the unexpected trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks. At the time, he was shooting 35 percent from the field, including 31.5 percent on 3-pointers, not the first impression he wanted to make with his new team and new town. He had just gone 1 of 6 from deep in a demoralizing home loss to the Sacramento Kings that dropped the Wolves to 8-10 on the season. His teeth were grinding on every shot, and Anthony Edwards could see it.
Edwards sent DiVincenzo a text message asking if he wanted to meet at the gym. Edwards had missed 15 of his 24 shots in that loss to the Kings, then criticized the team for being “soft,” saying that individual agendas were sabotaging the team-building effort. The Wolves had lost seven of their previous nine games, and something had to change. As he normally does, Edwards started the examination with himself.
The Timberwolves had played each of the two previous nights, and the players were given the day off to rest their bodies and be with their families for the holiday festivities, with coaches hoping it would clear some cloudy heads.
As disenchanted as he was in his own play, Edwards could sense that DiVincenzo was really struggling. So he extended the invite to see if they could help each other out of their funks. DiVincenzo quickly accepted, not just because he wanted to get some extra work in, but because of the message he wanted to send to the face of the franchise.
“From my aspect, being in there on Thanksgiving away from family, it shows to him that I’m motivated to win as much as he does,” DiVincenzo told The Athletic.
Edwards has made remarkable strides in his fifth season in the NBA, including averaging a career-high 27.6 points per game and leading the league in 3-pointers made. Nowhere has the evolution of his game been more evident, and perhaps more important, than in the way he leads these Timberwolves.
It has never been more apparent than in Game 1 of the Timberwolves’ first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Edwards played one of the most controlled, mature games of his career, and a fiery halftime speech helped push the Wolves to a dominant second half against LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the heavily favored Lakers in Saturday’s 117-95 win.
“How he’s been leading, as young as he is, it’s kind of crazy to me,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said. “You would think he’s 30. Like, seriously. Just how vocal he is, he wants to win. You can tell. He’s desperate. And he wants his teammates to do well as well.”
Edwards has had to grow into that role. He came into the league as the No. 1 pick in 2020 but was reluctant to be too vocal early in his career. The Wolves had veterans like Ricky Rubio, Patrick Beverley and Towns to lead the way. Edwards was content to watch and to learn, rarely making his voice heard in the locker room or in team huddles. Over the last few years, those veterans have all left or been traded.
Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert and DiVincenzo have all arrived to give Edwards a cadre of veterans to provide maturity and guidance. But Edwards has also gradually felt more comfortable asserting himself within the team. That has reached a crescendo since the Wolves clinched the No. 6 seed on the final day of the regular season, earning themselves a date with the Lakers and a chance at revenge against Dončić, who eliminated them from the Western Conference finals last season when he played for the Dallas Mavericks.
From the moment the matchup was set, Edwards was blowing up the team’s group chat, peppering them with text messages about locking in, putting the work in during practice and preparing for the ultimate test. He did not tell his teammates to jump on his back. Rather he said that this wasn’t going to be “The Ant Series.” He told them that everyone was going to have to contribute for the Wolves to climb the mountain in front of them.
Everyone around him has noticed.
“Ant knows how huge a part he is on our team and how he’s going to set the tone for all of us,” Gobert said. “Watching his focus, watching his approach, watching his growth over the years, it’s been amazing and I’m excited to see how he’s going to be handling that opportunity, that challenge that we are facing right now.”
Adding the leadership component to his on-court package isn’t just a bonus for the Timberwolves; it’s a necessity. He may only be 23 years old, but he already has three All-Star appearances, two playoff series victories and will soon have two All-NBA honors on his resume. He is in the first season of a five-year contract that could be worth $260 million. On top of all of that, he has the natural charisma and emotional intelligence that makes even the most prideful players gravitate to him.
The Timberwolves want to be led by him, and he knows it.
This summer, in addition to working on his catch-and-shoot 3s, Edwards became more determined to make his voice heard throughout the organization. His connection with his teammates is pure, and he has learned to tailor his message so it resonates with each of the different personalities.
“It’s 15 grown men in the locker room and everybody got emotions, knowing how to talk to everybody,” Edwards said. “You can’t deliver a message the same way to one through 15. Some guys I got to talk to, pull them to the side. Some guys I can cuss at them. Just different ways, man.”
On that Thanksgiving morning, Edwards sensed that DiVincenzo needed a show of support. So when they got to the gym and started to get some shots up, it was Edwards — the one with a giant mural in his honor in his hometown of Atlanta, the one who starred in an Adam Sandler movie, the one who has one of the most popular signature sneakers on the market — who offered to rebound for DiVincenzo.
The two stayed in the gym for a few hours, working up a sweat and pushing each other to break out of their funks.
“It was more so just have an understanding for him to see that I’m in there on Thanksgiving and he’s in there on Thanksgiving and we have the same drive and motivation,” DiVincenzo said.
The very next night, the Timberwolves hosted the Los Angeles Clippers. Edwards went 4 of 9 from deep and DiVincenzo hit 3 of 5 from long range. From that moment through the end of the regular season, DiVincenzo hit 43 percent of his 3s. Chances are, DiVincenzo would have broken out of his slump eventually either way. He is too good of a shooter to struggle like he had been. But the gesture from Edwards may have expedited the process.
“As the superstar, to be in there rebounding and stuff, it shows his character,” DiVincenzo said.
Edwards’ leadership style is built on the trust he earns all season long. He does it in two primary ways. First, he always takes accountability for his own shortcomings when things are going wrong. Even after Saturday’s victory, he was lamenting to Julius Randle about how many layups he missed in a 1-of-7 night in the paint.
Secondly, there is no bigger cheerleader for his teammates’ successes than Edwards. He is a one-man propaganda machine, extolling the virtues of all of his teammates in every interview he can, deflecting attention from his accomplishments toward those of his brothers in the locker room. They all believe that he has their best interests at heart, and it helps him to be able to hold them to a high standard when need be.
“Not being afraid of doing that, I think that’s the main thing,” Edwards said. “I step into that role, and my teammates trust me and they listen. So it’s a privilege to have guys like that.”
He had their attention at halftime of Game 1. The Wolves played a sloppy first quarter, trailing by eight, getting shredded by Dončić and running stagnant offense. Edwards had a wild turnover that he threw into the crowd on one possession and a 38-20 second quarter that gave the Wolves an 11-point lead at halftime did not stop him from challenging his teammates in the locker room.
“Going into the second half, I was telling my teammates how we could space the floor to hurt them,” Edwards said. “We did that in the third, coming right out, and that’s how we got that big lead, spacing the floor the right way because they tilt the floor heavy on me and Julius.”
Most importantly, Edwards backed it up in the second half. He refused to get baited into going shot-for-shot with Dončić, who scored 37 points. Instead, Edwards stayed within himself and adhered to the game plan, spraying the ball all around the court to a variety of wide-open shooters on the perimeter. He finished with 22 points on 22 shots, but also had eight rebounds, nine assists and went his final 34 minutes and 10 seconds on the court without a turnover.
The Timberwolves opened the third quarter with an 11-0 run, and the Lakers never got closer than 12 the rest of the way.
“He had that look in his eyes like he gets, and he was really good,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.
The Wolves are going to need more of it as this series goes on. They will go into Game 2 on Tuesday night fully expecting the Lakers to respond with force, knowing there is still such a long way to go. If things start to wobble and the Wolves aren’t sure of themselves, they will look to their leader and feed off the energy he gives them.
“His confidence, his voice, talking trash, getting into it with each other and being passionate about the game with that confidence,” DiVincenzo said. “It wears on everybody else and it bleeds into everybody and everybody goes out there thinking they’re the best player on the court.”
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(Top photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
