“They’re f****** terrible. All of them, besides the woman. But the other two dudes, terrible. Excuses as reasons they don’t call a foul, the reason they don’t call a foul. The s*** was terrible. They don’t wanna talk back to my coach, talk back to me. I said one thing to the ref and he gave me a tech.”
That’s only about half of Anthony Edwards’ rant after the Timberwolves fell to the Warriors on Saturday night. He knew the fine was coming, so he got his money’s worth, but the league did not hold back either, and he was fined $75,000 for “public criticism of the officiating and using inappropriate and profane language.”
Edwards’ frustration is not just with the officials. After losing to the Knicks — and former teammate Karl-Anthony Towns — last Thursday, a frustrated Edwards said, “We don’t have s*** on offense. We don’t have no identity. We know I’m gonna shoot a bunch of shots, we know [Julius Randle] gonna shoot a bunch of shots, and that’s all we know.” The Timberwolves’ offense is in the bottom 10 in the NBA, and part of it is the fit and lack of spacing between Edwards and Randle — Minnesota has run the sixth most isolation sets in the NBA this season but is scoring just 0.77 points per possession on those, which is fourth worst in the league.
That clunky offense — as well as the Timberwolves’ elite defense, which is keeping the team afloat — will be on display on Christmas Day when Minnesota travels to Dallas to take on the Mavericks in a rematch of the Western Conference Finals. It will be Edwards’ first Christmas Day game.
Let’s just hope he likes the officiating.
