Just 10 days ago, all certainly seemed lost for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They had lost their fourth consecutive game and dropped to an 8-10 record overall. But the worst part was that it was no longer possible to hide just how bad their issues actually were.
This was proven when Anthony Edwards spoke with reporters following the November 27 loss to the Sacramento Kings and left nothing unsaid. Airing out all of his team's issues, Ant told it like it was and let everyone know how he truly felt, calling the team's identity "soft" and saying it felt like playing with "a bunch of little kids" at the moment, with immaturity and personal agendas everywhere.
Some felt that these comments would be disastrous for the team's chemistry. But in fact, that moment ultimately produced quite the opposite result. Chris Finch went on the radio this week and backed up his star player's actions by reassuring everyone that Edwards has built up the kind of credit and rapport with his teammates necessary to pull off such a gutsy move.
They knew that Ant's words came from a place of constructive criticism, and of pushing them to ultimately be better. As a result, the rest of the locker room chose not to tune out Edwards, but to rally around him and his harsh but true words instead. The result has been by far the best stretch of basketball the Timberwolves have played all season to this point.
Minnesota has done nothing but win since Edwards' comments
Since that tense moment in the locker room on November 27, Minnesota has won each of the four games on their schedule and taken down multiple quality opponents in the process. They have looked much more like the Western Conference juggernaut the fanbase knows they can be, and there are finally some very obvious reasons for optimism concerning this team.
The Wolves broke their losing streak with a slim victory over the LA Clippers at home. Since then, they have defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers a second time, and now the Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors on the road. It is now clear that Edwards' choice words for his teammates were just what this team needed all along.
Sometimes, all it takes is an adult in the room to say the quiet part out loud and be unafraid of the backlash that will come with that. Think about how much easier it would have been for Ant to shrug things off, give non-answers, be passive-aggressive and keep going about things as usual. Instead, he manned up and did the difficult but productive thing to get his team out of the mud mentally.
Now, it is looking like Minnesota is playing with the same type of confidence and aura they had while dominating the league a season ago. This whole development is a massive credit to Edwards and his growth as a leader, and the Timberwolves' resurgence should have the rest of the Western Conference trembling in their boots.