Anthony Edwards is all smiles after a position switch and a fun summer with his T-wolves teammates

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The burden the Minnesota Timberwolves placed on Anthony Edwards last season was palpable, with a hamstring injury early and trouble with both knees late that limited him to a career-low 61 games.

The Timberwolves advanced in the NBA playoffs for the third straight year, but everything about the team, including their superstar, was just a little off from start to finish.

Edwards has been determined ever since to lead the push to get back on track, and Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly took the first step during the summer by acquiring LaMelo Ball so coach Chris Finch could slide Edwards back to his natural shooting guard spot.

Finch blamed himself after last season for making Edwards the point guard before training camp in a hasty move that had negative ripple effects on the performance of several players.

“I never thought I could develop any point guard skills,” Edwards said with a smile on Monday at the team’s media session at Target Center. “Finchy harps on me passing the ball, but now we’ve got LaMelo so I’m happy.”

Obtaining Ball in a trade with Charlotte forced the Timberwolves to trade fan favorite Naz Reid, the only player on the roster who preceded Edwards and fellow 2020 draft class member Jaden McDaniels.

“I’m going to miss Naz, for sure. That’s my brother, but I’m super happy about the changes in the locker room,” Edwards said. “Just a bunch of different mentalities, personalities. I think it’s going to mesh well together.”

The team that identified its biggest weakness last season as persistent moodiness has been leaning into the joy of their sport and their chemistry, with a trip last month to France organized by native Rudy Gobert serving as an impactful get-to-know-you experience.

“Speed dating for all the new guys,” was how Connelly put it.

Edwards, who’s entering his seventh season, was the catalyst for this improved internal connection. The group text message chat, he said, has “been going crazy” in the lead-up to the beginning of training camp on Tuesday.

“In the past years we didn’t really spend time with each other in the summer. It was like everybody was going and doing their own thing. If we want to win, we’ve got to start early. We’ve got to actually get to know each other. We’ve got to like each other and we’ve got to want to help each other,” Edwards said.

McDaniels, who knows Edwards as well as anyone on the team, can see the progression in his leadership.

“He’s going to always keep it real with you, even if you’re having a bad night or even if he don’t want to hear it,” McDaniels said. “He’s going to let you know, so that’s something I respect about his leadership, and he always leads by example, too.”

With Edwards no longer vulnerable to so many traps and blitzes as the primary handler, the Timberwolves are eager to see a refreshed version of him who can more often use his strength of moving without the ball. That in turn ought to keep him more physically fit to be the lockdown perimeter defender they’ve long believed he can be on the other end of the court.

“Now I’ve got LaMelo,” Edwards said. “I’ve got a point guard, so I don’t got to really bring the ball up at all. I can go to the corner for three, four plays in a row and just guard the best player.”

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