AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2026 10:41 am
Is it realistic for us to expect Edwards to improve defensively... as he gets more accolades for doing things the way he's done them, ages and possibly deals with more injuries, continues to add offensive usage, et al?
How many players get better defensively (via effort) after 6 years in the league while not giving up any of the offensive responsibility?
I could argue that human nature will lead to Edwards remaining an incredibly spotty defender... or even a worse one.
Of course we don't know, but although I argue often that Ant has the potential to be a plus defender, I don't think it is realistic to expect that. The fact that most analysts think his defense got worse last season (even before the injuries) is not promising. His issues on defense go beyond effort, and defensive issues that were mentioned in his draft profiles have not gotten better in the pros...specifically poor help defense and a tendency to allow back door cuts. KAT is an example of a player who I think has improved his defense in the pros, but unlike Ant, he was considered a good defender in college.
But as long as Rudy is back there to mop up, I think the Wolves can be successful even if Ant doesn't get any better on defense, although I'm not as optimistic about our defense if Ju is also out there with Ant. But while I don't think we can count on Ant's defense improving, I'm confident he will continue to improve on the offensive end...especially if he isn't asked to run the point.
Edwards as a freshman in college was also a guy that carried a huge offensive load on a roster that looks pretty devoid of talent other than Toumani Camara who was also a freshman at the time. So the lens of his defense in college should at least be viewed through that context.
Edwards doesn't have a wildly high defensive BBIQ but it's also plenty good for him to be a good defensive player with his physical gifts and some pretty good one on one instincts. If he can't improve his defense and get back to being at least the defender he was I'll be pretty disappointed in him to be honest.
Let's go back to Toumani Camara again for a minute. He is a guy picked late in the 2nd round 1 pick ahead of Jaylen Clark and is currently either a solid starter or pretty good rotation player. It didn't take long for him to show he might be a worthwhile NBA player even his rookie season. Connelly needs to find another worthwhile player that didn't take much in terms of assets to acquire.
I listened to a couple of Jon K recent podcasts. One of the things I thought was interesting was his take on how whatever team is gonna be the team to beat and then for what er reason it wasn't. It made me look at the Wolves roster again.
Just for fun let's compare the Knicks championship team to Wolves players that sort of align in terms of value or impact.
Brunson Edwards (played hurt)
Towns Randle
OG McDaniels
Hart Donte
Here is where I'm not exactly sure how to compare these players.
Rudy
Ayo
bridges
Robinson
Shamet TSJ
Looking at these rosters and comparing them here are a couple of things I take from it.
Imagine the Knicks being without Hart. That would have been a huge loss especially since some of their bench players weren't as good in the finals. Losing Donte was a huge deal especially since he kinda compliments Randle.
OG and Bridges were not particularly good at times in the previous playoffs. That might give us some hope for guys that weren't as good against the Spurs. Can McDaniels take a step and be as impactful as OG? That's definitely not an insane ask. What if Ayo becomes as impactful as Bridges? Again maybe not an out of this world expectation. What if TSJ finally steps up and becomes a legit really or even pretty good player? Even a big-time bench player that's a problem for other team's defenses would be a big deal. Gobert is often really good but he can be matchup dependent. It wasn't that long ago that Towns wasn't considered a championship level player...like literally only weeks ago. There are probably more parallels to Randle and Towns than differences. Both a good guys very talented but have their flaws on the court including having some issues with making the right plays and then have aspects of what they do as people that combine to bring on plenty of strays about them. I'm not saying neither are undeserving and Randle absolutely deserves criticism but I'm not sure he is some horrific locker room cancer or something either. I think it's more he gets in his own head more than anything else. I would saw the same thing about Towns but in a different way. He is much more eof a social dude and Randle is less so.
The bottom line is that teams that win the finals have talented players and those players play both well together and individually. There is some legit room for the Wolves players that were on the roster last year to take some sort of reasonably meaningful step forward and that would make this team even better. That could help Edwards and even Randle if he is here and maybe even Gobert. This team does need another addition one way or another and I believe Connelly will do so while resigning Ayo. Imagine if they can add another pretty good player to what they already have and Donte came back even just as a solid playoff rotation guy? That's a lot of ifs but the Knicks who had plenty of questions about them after last season's playoffs put everything together and won a championship. I'm not getting my hopes up wildly after this post but IF the Wolves take the kind of steps from young players we would like to see regardless of what other moves were or weren't made a couple years ago etc then this team could be pretty good with or in spite of Randle etc.
Having said all that I'm cool with moving Randle in a trade if it brings back something better. I still will be more surprised if he is here than if he stays. The point above about having enough good players and having them play well and together still stands.
