Anthony Edwards embracing potential downs with LaMelo Ball is a good thing

Anthony Edwards has long been a fan of LaMelo Ball and wanted the Minnesota Timberwolves to trade for the All-Star guard. Now that Ball will be playing alongside Edwards following a blockbuster deal one month ago, the two of them are excited for what is to come.

Still, Edwards knows not everything will run smoothly early on. He has too much experience integrating a star alongside him to believe that.

“It’s definitely going to be ups and downs,” Edwards told Taylor Rooks at Fanatics Fan Fest. “First year together, maybe a lot of downs. But we are just going to celebrate both of them. Celebrate the ups, celebrate the downs, and just go with it.”

Many are expecting Edwards and Ball to be one of the best offensive backcourts in the NBA. And the Timberwolves expect their combined talents will help this franchise compete for a championship for a long time. At the same time, Edwards is fair in calling out the bumpy moments they will go through during their first season together.

The fact that he is already preparing for those potholes is a good thing.

Anthony Edwards laying a great foundation for Timberwolves after LaMelo Ball trade

Edwards has experienced remarkable success for a first overall pick. He has made the playoffs in five of his first six NBA seasons, leading his team to two Western Conference appearances in that time. 

Through all of that winning, though, Edwards has experienced constant turnover at the top of Minnesota’s roster.

Three months after Edwards made the playoffs for the first time in 2022, Tim Connelly traded for Rudy Gobert. Edwards and the rest of Minnesota’s roster struggled to extract Gobert’s rim-running talents and produce an efficient, balanced offense around him. 

At that season’s trade deadline, the Wolves swapped D’Angelo Russell, their starting point guard, for Mike Conley. Initially, Conley struggled with the Wolves as he assumed a more score-first role than he previously had with the Utah Jazz. Conley eventually settled into his role with the Wolves, unlocked Gobert’s offense with smart passing, and helped lead Minnesota to a Conference Finals appearance in 2024.

Three months after that postseason run, the Timberwolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Once again, Edwards — who was fully blossoming as a top-end talent in the NBA at that time — had to adapt to another star player.

Randle and Edwards never truly extracted each other's best skill sets. Randle is not a 3-point shooter, and he is an isolation-heavy player. His game overlapped too much with Edwards’ downhill abilities. 

Still, the two traversed through the challenging terrain of an imperfect fit and led the Wolves on another conference finals run in Randle’s first season. Randle, who Edwards constantly vocally empowered, was instrumental in Minnesota’s 17-4 finish to that regular season before the Wolves dispatched the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, thanks in part to rock-solid defense from Randle against LeBron James.

Edwards knows as well as anyone the difficulty of adopting a new All-Star-caliber player into a team’s offensive system. He also knows that those issues can be worked through with the right mentality.

“Celebrating” the bumps this season doesn’t mean that Edwards and the Wolves will be content with shortcomings. Instead, they should understand that those obstacles in the road are a necessary part of a journey that will one day lead to a freshly paved route to postseason success. Edwards has driven on roads like that before alongside new star talent. However, this time, the path should be less bumpy.

The fit between Edwards and Ball should be more natural than Gobert and Randle’s fit was alongside Minnesota’s superstar. Ball is a floor spacer and has experience in extracting the best out of those around him with quick passes. Edwards, meanwhile, needs as much three-point shooting around him as possible and has always performed at his best with a natural point guard setting up his offense.

At the same time, both Ball and Edwards are on-ball heavy players. Neither of them has played with a backcourt mate with as much gravity as they both have. And around them sits a talented roster, but not a perfect one.

The Wolves lack depth at power forward, which could hurt them defensively. Players will most likely be asked to fill roles they typically don’t. The Wolves also lost their vocal leaders in Conley, Kyle Anderson, and Joe Ingles, who all, in their own ways, held players accountable during tough stretches.

There will be growing pains. There will be times where Ball and Edwards have off shooting nights, the turnovers are high, and their connection seems disheveled in the midst of a blowout loss.

Edwards knowing that those types of games will come intermixed with the euphoric clutch-time wins shows his maturation and leadership growth.

This summer, Chris Finch has seen that growth from Edwards.

“He’s engaged in a way like I’ve not seen,” Finch told the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Chris Hine during the Las Vegas Summer League. “I think it’s a combination of factors. Obviously, excitement of playing alongside LaMelo … I think it’s also a maturation and recognizing what the team needs [and] where the team is at. He’s far more engaged in the overall sport.”

Edwards understanding that there will be potholes on this journey with Ball, knowing how to swerve around them, and bracing for the ones they can’t miss will help him lead the Wolves to avoid letting those holes damage their frame and lead to prolonged stretches of moodiness, disconnectivity, and immaturity—all of which the Wolves struggled with last season.

Deflating performances are inevitable in the early stages of a new partnership. But they don’t have to define a season. Edwards knows both of those things. He is excited to play alongside Ball, but he also isn’t naive to what they will go through this season, and that is a good sign.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/timberwolves/onsi as Anthony Edwards Embracing Potential 'Downs' With LaMelo Ball Is a Good Thing.