The Minnesota Timberwolves got thumped by the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night in a rather dismal performance at home, dropping them to 2-2 on the season despite opening the year as heavy favorites in all four games — their two wins have been against the Thunder and the other loss was to the Jazz.
It has not been the start Minnesota was hoping for coming off the Rudy Gobert trade that was supposed to vault them further into the contender class out West. While it still might do that, the early returns indicate there’s a lot more work to do to get everyone on the same page this season, with defensive issues standing out in particular. Anthony Edwards took responsibility for looking flat in the second game of a back-to-back after the loss, as he had just nine points against the Spurs, and Karl-Anthony Towns was asked what he can do as a leader to help get Edwards at the level he needs to be.
Towns had an interesting response, calling out Edwards’ eating habits and wanting the young star to take more care of his body so he can be more consistent game-to-game with his energy.
Karl-Anthony Towns wants Anthony Edwards to take better care of his body
“I know y’all think it’s funny when he’s up here talking about Popeyes and all that shi. That doesn’t make me happy to hear.”
(h/t @AhnFireDigital )
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) October 25, 2022
The last two years, Edwards has made clear his love of Popeyes and McDonald’s in postgame pressers, as KAT references, but these comments are particularly interesting considering Edwards made a declaration prior to camp that he had cut out his beloved fried foods this season.
Anthony Edwards said he didn’t eat any fried foods Monday-Thursday this offseason — and said he’s not going to have any fried foods during the season.
I asked about Popeyes. He said not even Popeyes — and definitely won’t be ordering McDonalds at press conferences anymore.
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) September 29, 2022
Either that’s not been the case and Edwards has been still on the Uber Eats grind to start the year, or Towns hasn’t realized his young co-star has made those changes already to try and be in better shape this season. Neither option is great, but the latter might be worse because for Towns to call out something like this publicly when that change has already been made feels like adding unnecessary stress to the locker room.
All of this falls away if the Wolves can piece together a winning streak, but it’s certainly not been an ideal start to the season in Minnesota where there is apparent work to do on the court and off to bring everyone onto the same page.