Anthony Edwards' silence after embarrassing loss speaks volumes

On Saturday afternoon, the Minnesota Timberwolves fell short 119-92 against the Orlando Magic. The Wolves' mental mistakes and lack of scoring outside of Anthony Edwards hurt them. After the game, Ant held back his thoughts when asked what happened in the second quarter.

"I don't know. I don't know, man, I wish I had an answer for you. I do got an answer, but I don't wanna say it. So I don't know," Edwards said. 

During the second quarter in question, the Wolves were outscored 33-20, including a seven-minute stretch where they scored just two points, and the game slipped away after that. It's clear that Ant was unhappy with something beyond the result of the game. In all likelihood, Edwards was displeased with his teammates' performance or the officiating. With the former being the most likely in my eyes.

Anthony Edwards was (likely) talking about his teammates' poor play

Ant had a splendid offensive game, scoring 34 points on 8-for-18 shooting. While he has some frustrating dropped passes, Rudy Gobert played well, scoring 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting. Outside of these two, the rest of Minnesota's top eight was 15-for-55 from the field. Notably, Jaden McDaniels and Donte DiVincenzo didn't connect on a field goal attempt. 

Given how well Edwards played and how poorly most of the rest of the team played, it's not far-fetched to suggest that his silence was not to call his teammates out. Furthermore, in the second quarter, Ant only had three field goal attempts, with three of his teammates shooting more than him. This came after a 17-point first quarter. 

As such, perhaps Edwards' comments were more about not getting enough touches than simply his teammates not hitting shots. 

In some ways, this is an example of leadership for Ant as he didn't throw his teammates under the bus. However, he could have easily said "we didn't make shots" or "we didn't execute." And now people will rightfully wonder what Edwards was really talking about. 

Perhaps Ant wasn't talking about his teammates, but the officials? Would he really blame this poor of a quarter on the refs, though? Another possibility is that this was about the coaching staff, but there was nothing I saw from a schematic perspective that would have upset Ant.

To each their own, but I think it's more likely that this was in some way centered around his teammates. 

The Timberwolves' scoring outside of Ant is a concern come playoff time

If Ant was indeed talking about his teammates, the concern about consistent secondary creation and scoring is a reasonable one. Julius Randle should be the Wolves' trusted secondary option, but he is in the midst of a slump and is generally inconsistent. 

McDaniels is having a career-best offensive season, but he remains volatile as a scorer. Role players such as DiVincenzo and Naz Reid are inherently erratic as well. When they're all on, it's great, and the Wolves look like one of the best teams in the league. However, when these players are off, things look really ugly for the Wolves, as we saw on Saturday. 

It was one bad game, so I don't want to overreact, but come playoff time, the Wolves can't afford this level of inconsistency from their complementary players.