Northwest Notes: Edwards, Hartenstein, Clingan, Jokic

With Karl-Anthony Towns no longer in Minnesota, rising Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards is going through some growing pains this year, expressing frustration about receiving so much attention from opposing defenses, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

Edwards admitted that he’s sometimes not sure how to handle traps and double-teams and admitted that it’s “not fun” to have his scoring opportunities limited and the ball taken out of his hands. As Krawczynski details, Edwards’ “trademark spirit” seems to be lacking as of late, and it didn’t help matters that fellow stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jayson Tatum has big games in wins over Minnesota this week.

“He’s doing a really good job. It’s tough,” teammate Julius Randle said. “I know it’s frustrating. But that’s just the player that he is. He’s that special that nobody is going to guard him straight up. We gotta continue to try to help him out.”

As Krawczynski points out, players like Gilgeous-Alexander and Tatum are a few years ahead of Edwards on the developmental curve, so there’s plenty of optimism that the Timberwolves guard will eventually figure out how best to attack defenses by balancing his scoring and play-making.

“I think everybody has been playing good on my team besides me,” Edwards said. “I got to figure it out, figure out ways to help them. They have been hitting shots lately. I got to figure out a way to get myself involved in the offense by not letting the double-team take me out. I’ll figure it out.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

• The Knicks tried their best to retain Isaiah Hartenstein over the summer, but the veteran center believes the outcome of his free agency – he signed with the Thunder, while New York replaced him by trading for Towns – has been “perfect” for both sides, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. “I’m in a situation here (in OKC) where it’s going really good. They got a great center, one of the best centers in the league,” Hartenstein said before facing his old team on Friday. “So I think for both parties it was perfect. Knowing (Knicks president of basketball operations) Leon Rose, he’ll always find something. He’s been doing a great job, so he made the right adjustment.”
• Besides helping to anchor the defense, Hartenstein has added a new dynamic to the Thunder‘s offense with his passing, as Rylan Stiles of SI.com outlines.
• Speaking to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Trail Blazers rookie center Donovan Clingan admitted that he’s still adjusting to the speed of the NBA game and that he may have hit the rookie wall “a little bit” during the first few months of his professional career. Head coach Chauncey Billups said he’s got to “do a better job” of putting Clingan in the best possible position to succeed, but noted that the team anticipated it would take the big man some time to get comfortable going up against the best players in the world. “He’s playing against players that are better than players he’s ever seen every single night, to be honest with you,” Billups said. “So the mobility of some of these guys and the versatility of some of these guys have been tough for him.”
• Entering the 2024/25 season, Nikola Jokic was a 35.0% three-point shooter across nine years in the NBA. This season, the Nuggets center is making a league-leading 47.9% of his triples. Tony Jones of The Athletic takes a closer look at how Jokic’s work in the offseason and preseason helped the three-time MVP become an even more dangerous offensive player.