Anthony Edwards demanding defensive recognition this season

The Minnesota Timberwolves are talking quite a bit about playing elite NBA defense right now. That’s quite a leap of faith, considering this team was one of the best NBA offenses during the 2021-22 season, but not so hot at playing NBA defense a season ago. Still, defense is clearly the direction that the Timberwolves are aiming for this year, and they have put their money where their mouth is by strengthening the roster significantly with defensive-minded and accomplished players.

So it’s fall in line, or fall behind this season. Perhaps no commitment to the defensive side of the basketball court is more surprising than that of Minnesota Timberwolves’ young star shooting guard Anthony Edwards. Just as Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels has already voiced his intentions to make the NBA first-team All-Defense, so too has Edwards claimed his intention to be given strong consideration for that prestigious honor.

The difference is, I’m not sure that Edwards will have the bandwidth for that honor.

NBA teams play both offense and defense and take a lot of energy over the course of the game simply by running from one end of the basketball court to the other. That often leads to NBA teams directing players who are excellent scorers to focus on scoring and players who struggle at putting points on the scoreboard to focus on defense.

Then, it’s simply up to the head coach to set the rotations in such a way that enough offense and defense are on the court at the same time.

Edwards is a scorer. With the Timberwolves focused on the defense in this year’s roster, that will place more pressure on Edwards to put points on the board. With the team relying upon Edwards to lead the charge on offense, will he have enough left in his tank to pop elite defense on his opponent as well?

Perhaps. But don’t count on it.